Battle of Fr. Liss. Image from the "Military Encyclopedia" of the partnership of I. D. Sytin. St. Petersburg); 1911-1915
There were also contradictions between the northern and southern states of North America. And they turned out to be much more serious, because they led to a fierce internecine war. And in war, as you know, all means are good, and this is how the southerners got the battleship "Virginia", also in many ways the first of its kind, but the northerners simply had no choice but to respond to its appearance by building their own "Monitor" ". And when they clashed among themselves on the Hampton roadstead, it was the first ever battle of armored ships. But did this battle have any serious impact on the tactics of war at sea?
"Battle of Lissa". Illustrated edition 1883. (US Library of Congress)
No, it didn’t, although all countries began to build monitors together. It was obvious that these were very specific ships, sailing on the open sea on which it was very dangerous, no matter how perfect they were.
That is, everything returned to where it began: the fleets needed armored ships with an ocean cruising range that would not capsize in a storm and at the same time would have many guns and … reliable armor protection from the effects of their shells.
"Battle of Lissa". Painting by Ludwig Rubelli von Sturmfest.
And it was here that the battle of Lisse, a small island in the Adriatic Sea, which today is called the island of Vis and lies off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, played a very important role in the history of wars at sea. In 1811, a battle between the British fleet and the combined fleets of France and Venice had already taken place near this island, which ended in the defeat of the allies. Now, on July 20, 1866, the Italian fleet, commanded by Admiral Carlo di Persano, and the Austrian fleet, commanded by Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegethoff, met near this island. And it was this battle that became the first battle of entire armored squadrons in the history of wars at sea. And it was this that most seriously influenced both the tactics of naval combat and the design of new warships!
"Battle of Lissa". 226 pages of the album "The War of 1866" (British Museum, London)
The funny thing - if there can be anything funny about the war at all, was that the navies of both Italy and Austria were not ready for military action at sea. For the Austrians, for example, two battleships were not completed. Moreover, the concept of "unfinished" included one hundred percent absence of artillery on them, ordered in Prussia, which opposed Austria in alliance with Italy. True, Rear Admiral Tegethoff, although he was appointed commander of the fleet literally on the eve of the war, managed to at least somehow bring him into combat readiness. New battleships received a temporary spar, and instead of new ones … old smooth-bore guns, which were removed from other, outdated sail-screw battleships. The very same "old ships", wooden and armless, but at least somehow still fit for battle, began to sheathe thick boards and "armored" their sides, using railroad rails and even anchor chains for this. Well, a lot was written then about the armor made of the rails with which the Virginia was booked. But the chains … today they are "armored" by Israeli tanks "Merkava", hanging them behind the tower. Obviously, they were also vertically fastened along the sides on Austrian wooden ships. The main thing here was to secure them firmly so that they could thus resist the enemy's cores. Well, the admiral also conducted daily exercises, and the tactics of the upcoming battle were discussed with the officers of the fleet. And as soon as war was declared, Tegethoff with his ships immediately went to sea and started looking for the enemy.
Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegethoff. Lithograph 1866
The Italian fleet at this time was superior to the Austrian fleet. But Admiral Persano, who commanded them, refused to go to sea, arguing that neither the ships nor the crews were ready for battle. But at the same time, he did not take any measures to correct all these sad circumstances, as if expecting that everything would be corrected somehow by itself. Meanwhile, the Italian government needed victories, because what kind of war without victories is this? So it won't take long to lose all the popularity among the people! Therefore, it demanded active action from him. There was nothing to be done, and on July 17, Admiral Persano ordered the fleet to go to sea from its base in Ancona and head for the Dolmatian coast. Already in the morning of July 18, he approached the island of Lissa, where at that time there was an Austrian naval fortress. The telegraph cable, laid under water from the island to the mainland, was cut, but Tegethoff from the fortress managed to send a message asking for help and even get an answer from him. The admiral managed to telegraph: "Hold on until the fleet comes to you!", After which the connection was cut off. Well, the fortress held out both on July 18 and 19, and the Italian ships were engaged in firing at it, and she, in turn, answered them and fired an intense return fire at them. And it was more accurate than the shooting of the Italians, since some of their ships were damaged, and the battleship Formidabil was completely disabled. And on the Italian ships they burned a lot of coal and used up quite a lot of shells without much success. And they did not yet know that on July 19 the Austrian fleet left its main base in Polye and went to sea, heading for the island of Lissa.
Admiral Carlo Pellion di Persano.
On the morning of July 20, the sea was rough. The Austrian patrol boat spotted the enemy already at 6.40 am, but then the storm started even harder, heavy rain fell, hiding the enemy ships from sight. Many officers generally doubted that with such a strong excitement, a battle was possible. But soon, as if anticipating the importance of the moment, the sea suddenly calmed down, visibility cleared up, and Tegethoff immediately gave the order for the squadron to close the formation and go at full speed to the enemy. And then the Austrian ships, built by three detachments, launched an attack, developing a speed of 8 to 10 knots. Meanwhile, Persano's squadron at this time was preparing to land troops on the island. Therefore, the Italian ships occupied a position around the island besieged by them and were least of all ready to repel an attack from the sea. It was 9 o'clock in the morning when the signalmen on the Italian ships finally saw the black silhouettes of the Austrian ships marching towards them from the northwest.
"Battle of Lissa". Painting by Konstantin Volanakis.
Painting by K. Volanakis in the hall dedicated to the Battle of Liss in the Naval Museum in Vienna.
Here it is time to start being considered ships and cannons, and in the end it turns out that the Italians had 12 armored ships, including the large 5700-ton Re d'Italia (on which Admiral Persano held his flag) and Don Luigi Re di Portogallo (better known as Re di Portogallo), the 4,300-ton battleships Maria Pia, Castelfidardo, San Martino and Ancona, the slightly smaller 4,000-ton Principe di Carignano and Affondatore (representing a tower monitor), 2700-ton "Terribil" and "Formidabil", and "Palestro" and "Varese" with a displacement of 2000 tons. "Re d'Italia" and "Re di Portogallo" were built in the USA (laid down in 1861, arrived in Italy in 1864), and "Affondator" in England. Moreover, the Italians themselves considered it almost an exemplary ship for their fleet, since it was built taking into account the experience of the Civil War in the United States, had a rather high side and two of the most modern gun turrets designed by engineer Kolz at that time. Regina Maria Pia, Castelfidardo, San Martino and Ancona were ordered from France and received by the Navy in 1864. Finally, the armored corvette Principe di Carignano was the first Italian-built battleship, that is, the Italians developed their own military shipbuilding and were quite successful. We can say that Admiral Persano, as Minister of the Navy, showed himself from the best side, providing his fleet with the newest and sufficiently similar ships, and besides, battleships, which, in principle, possessed seaworthiness, speed and maneuverability, which, in principle, were satisfactory for the Mediterranean Sea. … As for armament, most of the Italian battleships had from 16 (Terribl) to 30 (Re d'Italia) medium-caliber rifled guns of British production. "Re d'Italia", "Re di Portogallo" and "Affondatore" also had two heavy guns each, and the last monitor had them as his only guns in general. Armored gunboats also had two heavy guns. But in addition to armored ships, the Italians had 11 more old wooden ships, including six steam propeller frigates with six rifled and 30 smooth-bore guns, four wheeled corvettes, as well as transport and messenger ships. All Italian ships were light gray, ball-colored.
"Battle of Lissa". Painting by Karl Friedrich Sørensen.
The Austrian squadron consisted of 7 armored ships: "Archduke Ferdinand Max" (flagship of Admiral Tegethoff) with a displacement of 5100 tons and "Habsburg", "Kaiser Maximilian", "Prince Eugen" and "Don Juan" (3600 tons); Drahe and Salamander (3000 tons). The battleships (except for the first two) were armed with 16-18 rifled guns, and in addition, they also had 10-16 smooth-bore guns. "Ferdinand Max" and "Habsburg" had only 18 smoothbore guns. Among the unarmored ships, the wooden two-deck propeller-driven battleship Kaiser, with a displacement of 5200 tons, had 90 large-caliber smooth-bore guns on its two decks. Five propeller-driven frigates, each with 3-4 rifled cannons and 20-40 smooth-bore guns, one propeller-driven sail corvette, as well as seven gunboats and, in addition, unarmed patrol ships, were also with the squadron. All ships were built in Austrian shipyards and painted aggressive black.
Battleship "Archduke Ferdinand Max".
Theoretically, the Italians had a complete advantage over the Austrians. After all, they had 34 ships, on board which were 695 guns, while the Austrian squadron consisted of only 27 ships and had 525 guns. The total weight of the salvo of all Austrian ships was 23.5 thousand pounds, while the weight of the Italian salvo was more than twice that - 53.2 thousand. The ships of the Italians themselves were larger in size and had a higher speed. It should also be noted such an important circumstance as the presence of a larger number of rifled guns, which could only penetrate armor. There were 276 of them on Italian ships, while on Austrian ships there were only 121 guns. The caliber of the Italian rifled guns was also larger. That is, their superiority was overwhelming in all respects. The enemy fleet surpassed them in only one thing - the best combat training and the coordination of all forces. In addition, the tactics of the Austrians were more thoughtful and responded to the place and time of the battle.
Battleship "Re d'Italia"
The Austrian admiral built his squadron in three detachments, in the form of blunt wedges, following one after the other. At the head of the first "wedge", consisting of battleships, was the "Ferdinand Max" under the flag of Admiral Tegethoff. They were tasked with cutting through the enemy formation and, if possible, ramming enemy ships. Following the battleships was a second wedge, the ships of which did not have armor, but possessed numerous artillery; their task was to finish off the damaged ships of the enemy. The last to move were gunboats, which, if necessary, had to support the main forces with the fire of their artillery. This order of battle made it possible to nullify the superiority of the Italians in ships and artillery and to inflict a strong blow on them with the most powerful ships.
Armored battering ram "Affondatore". A very strange ship: two towers, two cannons, two pipes, two masts and one ram!
And then the most interesting thing began. As soon as Admiral Persano received a message about the enemy, he immediately began to command and send so many signals to his ships that they simply did not have time to disassemble them on other ships. As a result, Vice Admiral Giovanni Albini, who commanded a detachment consisting of unarmored ships - frigates and corvettes, contrary to Persano's order, withdrew with them and therefore did not participate in the battle! Two battleships "Terribile" and "Varese" did not have time to approach the squadron, and "Formidable" raised the signal that it was not capable of fighting, and therefore began to withdraw. All the other ships slowly but surely began to go out to meet the enemy in a bearing formation. The vanguard, commanded by Rear Admiral Giovanni Vacca, consisted of the armored ships Principe di Carignano, Castelfidardo and Ancona; it was followed by the Re d'Italia (flagship of Admiral Persano), followed by the San Martino and Palestro; the rearguard, consisting of the battleships Re di Portogallo and Maria Pia, was commanded by Captain Augusto Ribotti. At the same time, the newest armored turret ram "Affondatore" was not included in any of these detachments, but was located outside the line.
Battleship "Palestro".
However, then a difficult-to-explain event took place, which most disastrously influenced the outcome of the battle. Waiting until the formation of the squadron was completed, Admiral Persano suddenly raised the signal: "Line up in the wake formation." It is clear that built in a wake column, the Italian ships could use their artillery more effectively. But rebuilding, the Italian ships reduced speed, which allowed the Austrians, who descended on them at full speed from the north, to strike first. In addition, Admiral Persano for some reason decided to transfer his flag from the battleship Re d'Italia on the Affondator. There could be only one motivation: he was out of line and, in theory, could be seen by all ships already stretching as much as 13 miles north of the island of Lissa! But it turned out that the center and rearguard slowed down at the same time so that Re d'Italia could lower the boat into the water and deliver the admiral to another ship. At the same time, they did not see the signal on the ships of the vanguard, and they still moved forward, more and more breaking away from the squadron. On top of all the misfortunes, Admiral Persano for some reason did not signal his transfer on the Affondator. It is possible that he thought that the admiral's flag raised on it would be enough. And, yes, it probably should have been. However, it turned out that the change of flag on other ships was simply not noticed and … so they continued to consider the Re d'Italia as the flagship and wait for orders from this ship, and by no means from the Affondatore. Thus, the rash actions of the Italian admiral (although he, most likely, considered them completely justified!), The Italian squadron, just before the battle, actually completely lost control of its flagship!
The naval flag of the Kingdom of Italy.
Meanwhile, observing the enemy, Admiral Tegethoff saw a gap in the line of Italian ships and decided that he had every chance of repeating Admiral Nelson's maneuver at Trafalgar. He ordered to increase the stroke to full and rushed into the resulting gap. The Italian ships met his vanguard detachment with fierce fire, but already at 11 o'clock in the morning he cut through the Italian squadron just between its vanguard and the center. The first clash ended in vain for both sides. The fire of the Italian ships was inaccurate, and if their shells hit the Austrian ships, then they did not penetrate the armor at a distance. But the Austrians also failed to ram any of the Italian battleships.
Scheme of the battle at the island of Lissa.
Here Rear Admiral Vacca, who commanded the vanguard, decided to take the initiative, picked up speed and tried to bypass the Austrian battleships from the east in order to strike at the enemy armored wooden ships behind them. But the Austrian gunboats managed to evade this attack and began to withdraw, as a result of which the three battleships of Vacca, who rushed after them in pursuit, were essentially withdrawn from the battle.
Meanwhile Tegethoff and his seven battleships had already attacked three battleships in the center of the Italian squadron. And it so happened that, despite the superiority in ships among the Italians, in the most decisive place of the battle, more than a two-fold superiority in ships turned out to be on the side of the Austrians. Moreover, the battle almost immediately turned into a dump for ships, in which they kept losing sight of each other due to the thick powder smoke from the shots. The hardest hit was the battleship Re d'Italia, which was attacked by several Austrian ships at once. "Palestro" came to his aid, but was immediately set on fire from the Austrian "Drahe". However, "Drahe" also suffered, having lost its commander and mainmast, a fire started on it and a steam engine was damaged. All this did not allow him to pursue the burning "Palestro", which managed to retreat under the cover of the battleships of Admiral Vacca that had returned to the battlefield.
Flags of Austria-Hungary.
Meanwhile, Admiral Tegethoff, very determined, rammed the Re d'Italia twice in his Ferdinand Max, but both times unsuccessfully, since the blows he delivered turned out to be sliding and did not pierce the ship's skin. But the hour of the Italian flagship had already struck and nothing could save him. Now he was rammed by the battleship "Kaiser Maximilian", which broke the steering wheel of the former flagship. Realizing that it was no longer possible to control the single-rotor ship, the commander of the Re d'Italia Faa di Bruno tried to withdraw his ship from the battle and headed towards the battleship Ancona of Admiral Vacca, counting on help. An Austrian battleship cut his way. And it was here that di Bruni, instead of taking the opportunity and ramming the enemy ship, for some reason gave the order to reverse. And this was his fatal mistake, because to his left in the smoke was moving "Ferdinand Max".
Admiral Tegethoff at the Battle of Lisse. Illustration from the book "Battles of the 19th Century", Kassel and K, 1901 (University of California Library)
When the Austrian admiral discerned a huge gray mass of the Italian battleship in the clouds of smoke, he did not hesitate for a minute, but immediately gave the command: "Full speed ahead!" The distance allowed, so "Archduke Ferdinand Max" managed to accelerate and hit the battleship "Re d'Italia" right in the middle of its hull. The blow was of such a terrible force (and even directed strictly perpendicularly!) That it pierced both the armor and the wooden sheathing of the side, and made a hole of 16 square meters. Water immediately rushed into it in a wide stream, as soon as the Austrian battleship, having pulled the ram out of the hole, moved away from its enemy. The mortally wounded battleship first tilted to the right, then to the left, after which it began to quickly plunge into the water, nose forward. Captain di Bruno shot himself, but the other Italians on the deck continued to shoot at the Austrians until the very end. Exactly at 11:20 am the battleship Re d'Italia sank. The team of "Ferdinand Max" began to rescue the Italians floating in the water, but then the battleship "San Martino" attacked him and he was forced to withdraw and engage in battle with him.
Meanwhile, events developed as follows: the Austrian unarmored ships under the command of Anton von Pez unexpectedly collided with the Italian battleships, which were rushing to help the dying Re d'Italia, and the fast armored ram Affondator, although according to the plan he was to fight the unarmored ships … However, von Pez, who was holding his flag on the battleship "Kaiser", was not taken aback and tried … to ram the "Affondatore", and when he retreated (!), Rushed to the aid of two Austrian frigates, which were in a difficult situation, having met with the Italian battleships. At the same time, the wooden "Kaiser", although it was forced to fight with four opponents at once, fired at them with strong fire from its 90 cannons, and then again went to ram the Italian battleship "Re di Portogallo"!
The battleship "Kaiser" after the "Re di Portogallo" ramming!
From a strong blow, the Italian battleship shook its entire hull, people fell from their feet, but the wooden stem of the Austrian ship could not penetrate the metal sheathing, so it was not possible to sink the Re di Portogallo, although it lost part of the side armor plating. True, the "Kaiser" suffered very badly: the pipe and masts were shot down from it by fire from Italian ships. Despite this, he was able, however, to head towards Lissa. It was here that the Affondatore tried to ram him, which developed a full speed. And of course, the old, and besides, the heavily damaged ship, would not have been able to evade its blow if Admiral Persano at the very last moment, for some unknown reason, had either abandoned the ramming, or … missed, but As a result, the "Kaiser" was able to go to the harbor under the protection of the fortress cannons.
The battleship "Archduke Ferdinand Max" in 1868.
Meanwhile, the battle of the battleships continued. Moreover, Admiral Persano tried to ram the battleship Prince Eugen on the Affondator, but this time too, he failed. Tegethoff also failed to ram another Italian ship. But San Martino collided with Maria Pia and got a strong leak. Moreover, all this time, the ships were conducting intense artillery fire, and the Italians fired more shots than the Austrians (4 thousand versus 1.5 thousand). A strong fire broke out at the Maria Pia, which only miraculously did not lead to the explosion of the cruise camera. The battleship Ancona also caught fire, and a bomb exploded on its battery deck, which got inside through the gun port open for firing. It is believed that the severe fires on the Italian ships were caused by incendiary shells and explosive bombs used by the Austrians. Moreover, just at this time, explosive shells with the simplest percussion fuses, representing a tube and with a massive spring-loaded striker and a primer, began to take place in the fleet, between which … gunpowder was poured as a fuse. When fired from a gun, hot gases set it on fire, it burned out and … released the firing pin, which, when the projectile hit something solid, by inertia, went forward and pricked the primer. Such fuses were rather unreliable and even dangerous, but they made it possible to detonate high-explosive and incendiary projectiles at the moment of impact, which led to severe destruction on ships.
At 12 o'clock, both squadrons changed places and were able to move away from each other. Now Tegethoff's ships were at Lissa, and Persano's squadron was north of the island. Now Tegethoff had built his armored ships in a wake column to cover their wooden ships. Although the Italian fleet was still stronger than the Austrian, the morale of its sailors was, if not broken, then without a doubt, underwent a very difficult test.after all, before their very eyes, their flagship battleship perished in a matter of minutes from a ramming strike … Therefore, the Italians were not eager to attack such a cruel enemy, and the Austrians also waited, hoping that the Italians might still retreat. And their expectation was rewarded with fate.
Battle of Liss. The explosion of the battleship "Palestro". 227 pages of the album "The War of 1866" (British Museum, London)
All this time "Palestro" burned and the fire on it could not be extinguished. However, at 14.30 the fire finally reached the ammunition laid out near its deck guns … As a result, the ship exploded in front of both fleets. The Italians' nerves could not stand it, and they began to retreat indiscriminately. Tegethoff immediately gave the order: "Start chasing the enemy!" The Austrian ships quickly rebuilt and began pursuit in three columns. But their battleships, less fast than the Italian ones, could not catch up with them. Seeing the aimlessness of the pursuit, Tegethoff canceled his order towards evening. After that, at 10 o'clock in the morning, Admiral Persano set out with his ships to Ancona, and Tegethoff led his squadron to the base in Pola.
Monument to Admiral Tegethoff in Vienna.
And so it happened that the Austrians under Liss achieved a complete victory over the Italians. Moreover, they, fighting in the minority and on the worst ships, were able not only to help their island fortress, but also to inflict much more damage on the enemy than their own. The Italian fleet lost two battleships at once, and more than 600 people died with them, while the Austrians did not lose a single ship, and their human losses amounted to only 38 people. Although this victory had no effect on the outcome of the war, since Austria was defeated on land.
But the main thing was done. The Battle of Liss was included in all textbooks on naval tactics, in all manuals for naval commanders and textbooks for midshipmen, in instructions for artillerymen and shipbuilders. Now any conversation of naval officers both began and ended with references to this battle: "Do you know that under Liss …" The battle became a kind of "sacred cow" of naval battles, the experience of which could now only be encroached upon by the abnormal. Any trifle, any detail was noted and subjected to careful consideration and evaluation … Here Tegethoff controlled ships, standing on the bridge of his ship, not paying attention to shells and fragments - "this is courage and an example for sailors", "and Persano never left the armor the control room of the Affondatore "and …" that's why he didn't have the courage to go to the ram."
Monument to Admiral Tegethoff in Graz.
It should be noted here that the Italian admiral Persano, who was holding his flag on the Affondator armored turret ram, was twice given the opportunity to ram the wooden two-deck battleship Kaiser and was guaranteed to send it to the bottom, but every time at the most critical moment, apparently, he was nervous changed. There were several more ramming attempts, but the target ships were able to dodge their opponents. Thus, under Liss, there was only one single successful ram, but human rumor and a passion for exaggeration gave it a truly epochal significance. The fact that the other rams failed was attributed by the naval experts to confusion and confusion, which arose due to poor visibility due to the smoke of cannon shots.
Performance characteristics of ships participating in the battle.
For almost all three decades that followed this battle, right up to the Sino-Japanese War, it was Lissa that was regarded as an exemplary example of a successful naval battle. Moreover, it became the reason for the absolutization of armor protection and underestimation of artillery fire. It was the battering ram that began to be considered as the main weapon of battle, which gave rise to a very specific type of ramming tower battleship. The tactics of naval combat began to be considered the main ram attack, which turned the battle into a "dump for dogs" of individual ships. The design of the ship also began to obey its main combat mission - a ram strike!
P. S. So don't believe your premonitions after that. Admiral Persano seemed to know how it would all end. He lost the battle, but survived!
