What is Zara? Torpedo ship zara

Issue: 04 What should a destroyer ship look like?

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22 Destroyer "Batum", Russia, 1880
23 Destroyer ship "Zieten", Germany, 1876
24 Torpedo boat number 1, France, 1876
25 Destroyer "Jager", Germany, 1883
26 Torpedo ship "Zara", Austria-Hungary, 1881
27 Mine-carrying vessel "Explosion", Russia, 1877

Built in England by Yarrow.

Full displacement 48.4 tons.

Overall length 30.5 m, width 3.8 m, draft 1.9 m.

The power of a single-shaft steam power plant is about 500 hp, the speed on tests is 22 knots (in fact, with a full displacement of 15.5 knots).

Armament:

two torpedo tubes.

In 1895 it was renamed to No. 251.

Excluded from the lists of the fleet in 1908

Built in England, founded in 1875

Full displacement 1152 tons.

Overall length 79.4 m, width 8.56 m, draft 4.63 m.

The power of the two-hall steam-power plant is 2000 hp, the speed is 16 knots.

Armament: two underwater torpedo tubes.

In 1899 she was transferred to the fish protection, during the First World War - a coastal patrol vessel.

Excluded from the lists of the fleet in 1921

Built by the company "Claparede", founded in September 1875

Displacement normal 95 tons, full 103 tons.

Maximum length 38.67 m, width 4.19 m, draft 2.59 m.

The power of the twin-shaft steam-power plant is 800 hp, the speed is 14.37 knots.

Armament:

two underwater torpedo tubes.

In 1883 it was renamed into "Izar" and reclassified into an advice note (messenger ship) of the 3rd class.

Excluded from the lists of the fleet in 1889

Built in Germany by the Weser firm.

Full displacement 138 tons.

Overall length 34.8 m, width 5.58 m, draft 2.6 m.

The power of the single-shaft steam power plant is 550 hp, the speed is 15 knots.

Armament:

two torpedo tubes, one 37-mm Hotchkiss cannon.

Excluded from the fleet in 1889, scrapped in 1900

Built at the Naval Arsenal in Pole.

Displacement normal 852 tons, full 930 tons.

Overall length 67.2 m, width 8.2 m, draft 4.1 m.

The power of the twin-shaft steam power plant is about 1000 hp, the actual speed is 11.1 knots.

Armament:

four 90-mm and one bb-mm cannons, two 25-mm cannons, three torpedo tubes.

In total, two units were built:

"Zara" and "Spalato".

Both ships were scrapped in 1920.

Built at the Byrd plant in St. Petersburg.

Displacement is normal 134 tons.

Maximum length 39.62 m, width 4.87 m, draft 3.05 m.

The power of the single-shaft steam power plant is 800 hp, the speed is 13.3 knots

Armament:

underwater torpedo tube.

Excluded from the lists of the fleet in 1907

The massive construction of torpedo boats in the late 70s of the 19th century did not at all indicate that there was unanimity in the views of the admirals of all the leading maritime powers. The new class of warships had many critics who believed that the fascination with "frivolous ships" was tantamount to throwing money down the drain. Indeed, the early destroyers had obvious shortcomings; the main ones are negligible seaworthiness and cruising range. Even a small wave had to roam, and the flotillas of carriers of self-propelled mines were unable to go to sea. Therefore, the shipbuilders did not stop trying, in parallel with the construction of the torpedo boats, to create a more solid and seaworthy combat unit of a similar purpose.

The first ship in the world specially built to carry Whitehead's mines was the English Vesuvius, which entered service in 1874. It was a relatively large vessel with a displacement of 245 tons, armed with one bow torpedo tube. It had a very low silhouette without chimneys - the smoke was thrown into the atmosphere by fans through the holes on the sides of the case. It was believed that in this way, "Vesuvius" could, in fog or twilight, imperceptibly approach the enemy at the distance of a torpedo shot. However, this looked problematic, since the 350-horsepower compound steam engine allowed the "destroyer" to reach a speed of only 9.7 knots. After extensive testing, "Vesuvius" was converted into an experimental vessel, in which it served until 1924.

The British built a more perfect ship for Germany. In 1875, the Germans ordered the high-speed messenger ship Ziten to the Thames Iron Works. In July of the following year, it became part of the Kaiser's fleet. The elegant yacht silhouette of this super destroyer concealed its impressive size. Two steam engines with a total capacity of 2000 hp. provided him with an excellent course of 16 knots for that time. The armament consisted of two underwater 380-mm torpedo tubes installed in the stems and capable of firing strictly along the ship's center plane in the bow and stern. The possibility of reloading torpedoes was envisaged - there were five of them for each device. At first there was no artillery at all; later six 50-mm guns appeared. On the whole, the Ziten turned out to be a very good vessel - high-speed and seaworthy, but the admirals considered its size, close to the then cruisers, excessive, and the cost very high. As the successor to the German so-called "mine steamers" and the prototype of the torpedo gunboats and mine cruisers that soon appeared, the Ziten remained in a single copy. But the attempt by the Germans to create a cheaper version of the seagoing destroyer failed. Built in 1883, the 138-ton "Yager", although it showed more or less acceptable speed (15 knots), but its maneuverability and seaworthiness did not stand up to criticism. After six years of testing, the ship was excluded from the fleet.

Direct relatives of "Ziten" appeared only in one country - Austria-Hungary. There, in 1878, two very similar vessels were laid down - the Zara and Spalato, which were officially called "torpedo ships". They were also twin-rotor and superficially yacht-like, but their steam engines were unable to reach their design power, which meant that the expected 14-knot speed was never achieved. The armament of each of them consisted of four 90-mm, one 66-mm cannon, two 25-mm buckshot, and three torpedo tubes; one bow and two airborne. In 1887, all the old guns were replaced with five rapid-firing 47-mm, and instead of three torpedo tubes, two bow surface ones were installed. Both ships, after repeated upgrades, participated in the First World War, served as patrol ships in the system of guarding naval bases, and in June 1917 the Zara even withstood a mine explosion. In 1920 they were sold for scrap to Italy.

In 1882-1883, the Austrians built two more very similar, slightly enlarged (with a displacement of 890/1000 tons) ships - "Sebeniko" and "Lussin". The fate of the latter is very curious. In 1911-1914 it was converted into a yacht, and its steam engines were replaced by two MAN diesels with 900 hp each. each. From 1916, Lussin was used as a floating barracks for the crews of German submarines based in Pole. After the end of the First World War, he went to Italy and served for some time under the name "Sorrento".

If the Austrian "Lussin" is already in a very mature age turned into a luxury yacht, then the first seagoing destroyer of the Russian fleet underwent a reverse metamorphosis, and right on the slipway. Back in December 1876, the Russian Naval Ministry issued an order to the St. Petersburg plant of Byrd for the construction of the explosive destroyer vessel, which in theory resembled German mine steamers. Initially, it was assumed that its armament would consist of a pole mine mounted on a retractable tubular pole, but then settled on a more promising weapon - an underwater nose vehicle for Whitehead mines. To speed up the work (or perhaps just find a use for the existing unfinished hull), the contractor decided to use the already tested project of a pleasure yacht. This is how an unusual destroyer appeared, resembling the Tsiten and Zara in silhouette, but with more graceful contours, and even had copper sheathing of the underwater part of the hull. But spectacular appearance "Explosion", alas, became his only merit. An attempt to cram mechanisms of twice the power into the existing project was not crowned with success: in tests, the ship, instead of the contract 17-knot speed, was able to develop only 13.3 knots. In addition, the stability of the vessel was clearly insufficient, which forced the ship to be limited to very modest weapons. The latter, by the way, turned out to be ineffective: due to the increased yaw rate, it was extremely difficult to direct the fixed bow torpedo tube to the target. In 1885, four 37-mm Hotchkiss cannons and two devices for throwing mines were installed on the "Explosion", for which it was necessary to dismantle the conning tower, the wooden deck flooring and the hydraulic rudder drive, first used in our fleet. In essence, "Explosion" was an experimental vessel and until 1907 served for various experiments, and then was scrapped.

At first, the attempt to build a seaworthy destroyer did not work for the French either. They laid down their 100-ton ship, designated No. 1, back in 1875. Its design was distinguished by many original solutions. So, the armament consisted of two torpedo tubes located in the center plane in the bow and in the stern, and Whitehead's mines were thrown not by gunpowder or compressed air, but by steam pressure. In general, the ship had "every creature - a pair": two torpedo tubes, two boilers, two steam engines, two chimneys, two two-blade propellers ... As an advantage of the destroyer, one can consider the presence of two separate cellars with a solid stock of torpedoes. But on the whole, the ship turned out to be clearly unsuccessful: instead of the design 17 nodes, it developed only a little more than 14, and the absolutely inoperable torpedo tubes after tests had to be dismantled and replaced ... with one pole mine, since there was no other reliable weapon then. As a result, destroyer No. 1 was reclassified as the messenger ship "Izar", and in 1889 it was scrapped.

So, the attempts of shipbuilders from different countries to create a large destroyer for operations on the high seas failed: the first representatives of a new class of ships turned out to be either too large and expensive, or generally useless for anything. There was an opinion that it would not be possible to achieve acceptable speed and seaworthiness at the same time, and one of these qualities would have to be sacrificed. Strange, but the most obvious solution - just to increase the minoship to the size of a more or less seaworthy ship - did not come immediately. And what is even more surprising - it did not appear among British, French or German designers, who were considered the undisputed leaders in the development of carriers of torpedo weapons, but by no means the most technologically advanced Russia.

However, there were good reasons for this. The head of the Russian Naval Ministry, Admiral IA Shestakov, stated with bitterness that a hundred torpedo boats built in 1877-1878, which cost the treasury 4 million rubles, "turned out to be completely unjustified for operations in the waters of the Gulf of Finland, which was intended." Therefore, at the end of 1879, it was decided to order a larger torpedo boat (at that time it was still called a minon ship). The domestic industry could not yet ensure a quick and high-quality execution of the order, and the Naval Ministry chose the English firm "Yarrow". In memory of the first successful torpedo attack by Russian boats, the new ship was named Batum. The well-known English shipbuilder E. Reed became the developer of the detailed project.

The layout of the Batum almost exactly repeated the layout of the serial destroyers of the Yarrow company. The hull was divided by watertight bulkheads into eight compartments; the thickness of the steel sheathing did not exceed 3.5 mm. The boiler room housed a cylindrical steam boiler of the locomotive type "with a capacity of 240 buckets", there were two chimneys. The two-cylinder compound machine was located in the sixth (from the nose) compartment; during the tests, she provided the extremely lightweight (without weapons and supplies) destroyer with a record speed of 22.16 knots! Due to the presence of two rudders - aft and a retractable bow - the circulation diameter at full speed was only 5.1 hull length, which was considered a good result for a narrow cigar-shaped vessel. To ensure a longer cruising range, the Batum was equipped with sailing equipment - three folding masts were installed on the deck, on which, if necessary, oblique sails with a total area of \u200b\u200b500 square meters were raised. feet. The drainage system consisted of six ejectors capable of pumping about 75 buckets of water per minute. Looking ahead, we note that the design of the Russian destroyer has become a classic for the next decade.

On May 31, 1880, the Batum was launched, and on July 17, it was received by a Russian crew headed by Lieutenant IM Zatsarenny. Then the destroyer set off on its own - neither more nor less - to the Black Sea! The British were shocked: more recently, their newspapers expressed delight that the minoships built for France were able to overcome the English Channel. And then - a hike around Europe, through the stormy Bay of Biscay and five seas. It seemed incredible. Nevertheless, the risky venture ended successfully. On the way, "Batum" entered Fiume, where torpedo tubes were installed on it and the chimneys were slightly lengthened, since at the initial height (1.5 m) they were often flooded with water. On September 21, the destroyer arrived in Nikolaev.

This voyage made naval specialists take a fresh look at the nascent strength of the fleet. It became clear to them that the destroyers were capable of not only protecting the approaches to their bases, but also much more serious tasks.

In the second decade of the 20th century, a depressing situation developed in the fleets of most of the leading maritime powers. Dreadnought fever took over the minds of the admirals, rapidly devastating the budgets of the naval departments. Undoubtedly, battleships remained the main class of warships, the backbone of the fleet, but behind all this the truth was somehow forgotten that the fleet must be balanced. This affected the cruisers in the most negative way. Perhaps, by the end of the First World War, only Great Britain and Germany possessed cruising forces, more or less corresponding to their tasks; in other countries, the number of modern cruisers at best was in units, but most often they were absent altogether.

Italy was one of those outsiders. Economic crisis and the cuts in funding significantly hampered even the maintenance of the ships in service, and the inaction of the Italian dreadnoughts during the war led to the emergence of opponents of the construction of battleships in the postwar years. The adherents of new naval theories believed that submarines and aviation would play the main role in the future war. As a result, Italy did not try to use the right granted to it following the Washington Conference (Treaty of the Five Powers) to build new battleships with a total displacement of 70 thousand tons.

On the whole, the results of the conference can be called very successful for Italy. Firstly, it legitimized its fifth place in the world hierarchy of navies, equaling the total tonnage with France, which until recently was the second naval power. Taking into account the fact that France had to divide its forces between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and also take care of numerous overseas colonies, the Italian fleet became the most numerous in the Mediterranean. Secondly, the moratorium on the construction of new battleships imposed by the treaty gave a powerful impetus to the development of the cruiser class.

The first Italian "Washington" cruisers of the Trento class were built according to the 1923-1924 program. Their concept was based on the idea of \u200b\u200bdelivering a powerful fire strike at the highest possible range and high speed.

The disadvantages of ships of the Trento class were so obvious that the designers directed their efforts to create a "balanced" cruiser, harmoniously combining speed, protection and weapons. The design assignment included the following characteristics: thickness of the side belt - 200 mm, travel speed - 32 knots, armament - eight 203-mm guns. It was not possible to keep within the "contractual" 10,000 tons.

Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Romeo Bernotti - by the way, one of the leading Italian naval theorists - generally proposed increasing the displacement to 15,000 tons. According to the admiral, three such ships would easily have dealt with six conventional "Washington" cruisers. However, the Italian government could not agree to such a clear violation of international agreements, so the project began to be "squeezed".

The work was carried out in the Committee for the projects of warships (Comitato progetti navi) under the leadership of Lieutenant General Fabio Mibelli. Taking the Trento type as a basis, the designers abandoned the high-sided smooth-deck hull in favor of a lower one with a relatively short forecastle. This negatively affected seaworthiness, which was not considered critical for the Mediterranean Sea, but saved several hundred tons. The composition of the artillery weapons remained unchanged, but the torpedo tubes included in the initial project were abandoned. The thickness of the belt along the waterline was reduced to 150 mm. Significant savings in weight were provided by the transition to a new lightweight power plant, previously developed for the Condottieri scouts of the first and second series. Unlike its predecessors, the number of shafts was reduced to two.

The above measures made it possible to significantly reduce the displacement, but still it continued to exceed the contractual values \u200b\u200bby almost 1,500 tons. Then the Italians decided to go for outright falsification: without advertising the design overload, they officially announced the 10,000-ton standard displacement of the cruisers. The fraud was revealed in a completely unexpected way when, during the Spanish Civil War, one of the cruisers was towed to Gibraltar for repairs at the dock. It was then that it became obvious that the ship's real displacement was at least a thousand tons higher than the officially declared one.

The shipbuilding program in 1928. the construction of two Zara-class cruisers was authorized. The third ship was built according to the 1929 program; the fourth - according to the 1930-1931 program.

Oddly enough, initially the Zara-class ships were light cruisers (Incrociatori Leggeri) - such are the features of the Italian national classification of that time (cruisers with 120-mm and 152-mm artillery - "scouts"). The absurdity of such an assignment was so obvious that even in the process of construction they were transferred to the category of armored cruisers (Incrociatori Corazzato), in order to distinguish them from comparable, but much more lightly armored, Trento-class cruisers. Only in 1930, when Italy signed the London Conference (1930), which established a unified classification of cruisers by artillery caliber, both Trento and Zara were assigned to the heavy subclass (Incrociatori Pesanti).

During the Second World War, the Italian heavy cruisers did not achieve noticeable success, but they constantly caused great concern to the British. The commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Cunningham, considered the Zara-class ships the optimal type of cruiser for the Mediterranean and asked the Admiralty to include in its forces tactical and technical characteristics cruisers of the "York" class. When, during the night battle at Cape Matapan, three Italian heavy cruisers were destroyed at once, the British commander could breathe a sigh of relief. "Although Vittorio Veneto escaped," he writes in his memoirs, "we sank Zara, Fiume and Paul ... These three heavy cruisers were well protected against six-inch rounds and were a constant threat to our lighter and weaker armored ships ".

Zara 1931 /1941 Fiume 1931 /1941 Gorizia 1931 /1945

Since the 1st division, which had perished at Cape Matapan, was officially disbanded, its only surviving ship was included in the 3rd division. Having completed the repair on May 7, 1941, the Gorizia, which survived the death of the sister ships, arrived in Messina the next day with a new commander. Ahead, the cruiser had two years of war, numerous campaigns, collisions with the enemy and combat damage.

9-11 September British bombers carried out several raids on Messina, where the 3rd cruiser division was based. Together with other ships "Gorizia" carried out Air defense Anti-air defense base and received no damage.

On the night of November 21, Messina was raided by British bombers, the Gorizia was damaged - more than 200 shrapnel holes were counted in the cruiser hull and superstructures. Despite this, on the same day she went to sea under the flag of Rear Admiral Paron to cover the next convoy.

On December 13, the main forces of the Italian fleet went out to sea to cover the M.41 convoy, and then the M.42 convoy that left on December 16. On December 17, Rear Admiral Vayen's squadron, inferior in strength, was discovered in Sirte Bay, but the battle with it began already at dusk, lasted only 11 minutes and did not give a decisive result. According to the Italians, the Gorizia managed to hit a British destroyer with its main caliber, which is not confirmed by British sources.

On March 22-23, the Italian fleet carried out an operation against the British convoy MW-10. The squadron intercepted the convoy in Sirte Gulf, but, although it was opposed by only 5 light cruisers and 17 destroyers of Rear Admiral Vayene, the Italians fought hesitantly and, without success, withdrew. "Gorizia" used up 226 203-mm and 67 100-mm shells in this battle, without achieving hits.

On the night of May 26, during an air raid on Messina, "Gorizia" received minor damage to superstructures from shrapnel, and the next day she moved to Taranto.

On April 10, 1943, Maddalena was raided by 84 American B-24 Liberator bombers. The cruiser "Trento" and the torpedo boats MAS-501, MAS-503 sank in the harbor. Gorizia got three direct hits. One bomb pierced the roof of tower # 3 and exploded inside, ripping out the aft armor plate. Two other bombs detonated ahead of the main deck on the port side, causing serious damage to the superstructures. Several close gaps damaged the side skin, which led to the flooding of a number of compartments, but thanks to a competent fight for survivability, the ship retained its stability and seaworthiness.

On April 12-13, Gorizia moved for repairs to La Spezia, where on April 19 it received additional damage from fragments of bombs that exploded on the concrete pier where it was moored.

On September 9, when the new Italian government signed a truce with the Western Allies, the Gorizia was still in the dry dock of La Spezia. The next day, German troops entered the city, carrying out Operation Akhze (Axis) - the seizure of the warships of the former ally along the axis. To prevent this, the last commander of the ship, Captain 2nd Rank Carlo Dessi, ordered the kingstones and dock gates to be opened, but the small number of crew on board did not allow this to be fully implemented. Nevertheless, the Germans got the cruiser in such a deplorable state that the question of including it in the fleet was not even raised. The cruiser was taken out of the dock and anchored in the harbor. At the end of June 1944, units of Italian naval saboteurs fighting on the side of the Allies carried out several successful operations. On June 21, scuba divers on a guided torpedo delivered by the MS-74 torpedo boat, under the cover of the destroyer Grekale, entered the harbor in La Spezia and installed explosive charges on the bottom of the cruiser Bolzano. As a result of the explosion, he sank. On June 26, a similar action was carried out against the Gorizia, although this time it was less successful - the ship was badly damaged, but remained afloat and was subsequently used by the Germans as a block ship.

Text: Sergey Balakin

To the question - what is Zara? - everyone will surely answer in their own way. Someone will immediately think of a brand of fashionable clothes, someone - the stage name of the singer, and a lover of naval history - the name of an Italian heavy cruiser, one of the most powerful and most beautiful in its class.

But few will remember that Zara is the Italian name for the Croatian city of Zadar. By the way, the mentioned cruiser is named after him. At first glance, this fact causes bewilderment: why would it be? I believe that the Italian history of Dalmatian cities (by the way, not so old, but little-known) will be of interest to many, especially to the participants of the upcoming Ocean Medi Cup-2015 sailing regatta. Since they are going to visit the Croatian Zadar - the former Italian Zara - and imagine themselves in the center of the events of a century ago ...

History of Italian Croatia

Historically, many Italians lived on the eastern coast of the Adriatic - after all, these lands for many centuries belonged first to the Roman Empire, then to the Venetian Republic. After the unification of Italy, which ended in the second half of the nineteenth century, Rome began to consider the territories inhabited by compatriots as a zone of its interests. But the Dalmatian coast was part of Austria-Hungary, and this fact became the main problem in relations between the two European monarchies. Although both countries entered into the Triple Alliance in 1882, led by Germany, the contradictions between Rome and Vienna continued to persist and eventually became the cause of the split.

In World War I, Italy initially remained neutral, but on April 26, 1915, she signed the London Pact - a secret agreement according to which the kingdom left the Triple Alliance, joined the Entente and declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. In return, Italy was promised former Austro-Hungarian territories, including Tyrol, Trieste, Istria, northern Dalmatia, as well as a number of islands in the Adriatic Sea. The content of the London Pact was kept in strict secrecy and was made public only by the Bolsheviks, and immediately after the revolution. For the first time the full text of the agreement appeared in Soviet Russia on the pages of the Izvestia newspaper in November 1918.

And a little earlier, in October of the same 1918, a deep economic and political crisis led to the collapse of Austria-Hungary, which was not accidentally called the "patchwork monarchy". The huge power suddenly disintegrated into "rags", and on November 6, Kaiser Charles I abdicated the throne. Italy tried not to miss its chance. Already on November 4, the invasion of Italian troops into Dalmatia, Istria, Croatian Primorye began. Meeting no resistance, they captured the naval base Pola (now Pula), the ports of Trieste, Fiume (Rijeka), Zara (Zadar), Sebeniko (Šibenik), Spalato (Split), Cattaro (Kotor) and approached the main city of Slovenia Ljubljana ... The majority of the population of the coastal cities were ethnic Italians, so the occupiers were greeted as liberators. 5 December Italy proclaimed the creation of a new province of Dalmatia; Admiral Enrico Millo was appointed its governor.

However, England and France were not interested in strengthening Italy. The governments of these two countries believed that the Italians' contribution to the common victory over the enemy was too small to satisfy their exorbitant demands. In addition, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the future Yugoslavia) formed on the ruins of Austria-Hungary was categorically opposed to the alienation in favor of Italy of lands that were considered "originally Croatian." The Entente decided to send its troops to the disputed territories in order to prevent the Italians from clashing with the local Slavic population.

Over the next few years, the city of Fiume - today's Rijeka - was at the center of events. Already on November 4, 1918, the Italian battleship "Emanuele Filiberto" entered the port harbor, and the Italian National Council took power into its own hands at the barrel of its guns. In London and Paris, such arbitrariness was met with irritation, and on November 17 French, British and American troops landed in Fiume. The Union ruling committee becomes the official authority in the city. Rome, in response, decides to "flex its muscles." Soon an impressive Italian squadron is assembled in Fiume harbor, including the dreadnought Dante Alighieri, the battleships Ammirallo di Saint-Bon and Emanuele Filiberto, armored cruiser San Marco and other ships. The confrontation between the former allies in the Entente is growing.

At the Paris Peace Conference, which began in February 1919, serious political battles flared up over the territorial claims of Italy. The Italian delegation in an ultimatum tone demanded the annexation of the lands promised by the 1915 London Pact. The Yugoslavs strongly objected, while England and France were clearly on their side. US President Woodrow Wilson took on the role of mediator in the dispute. During a personal meeting with Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando, he called for a compromise and, in particular, abandoning claims to Fiume. The Italians did not agree and on April 26, in protest, they left Paris. True, after 10 days Orlando returned and again sat down at the negotiating table. However, in the final document, the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, Rome's claims were only partially satisfied. Italy received the western part of Istria with Trieste, Polu, Gorizia, Zara, the islands of Cres, Losinj and Lastovo. But Fiume and a significant part of Dalmatia retreated Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes... The Italians found the Treaty of Versailles offensive. They felt, in the words of a contemporary, “defeated in the camp of victors”.

"Gabriel the Evangelist"

And then Gabriele d'Annunzio appears on the stage, who should be told in more detail.

Gabriele's real surname is Rapanetta, but he remained in history under his literary pseudonym Gabriele d'Annunzio, which means Gabriel the Evangelist. But such a humble nickname does not fit well with the character of this bright and extremely contradictory personality. In "Evangelist" a talented poet, writer, Don Juan and life-burner, politician, brave warrior, adventurer, nationalist, godfather of Italian fascism, teacher and mentor of Mussolini surprisingly coexisted ... He shocked the audience by drinking wine from the skull of a virgin and wearing shoes made of human skin, for his writings was excommunicated by the Vatican from the church, kept a whole harem of mistresses and arranged sadomasochistic orgies in his estate. At the same time, Nikolai Gumilyov dedicates an enthusiastic poem to him, Ida Rubinstein dances for him personally and Enrico Caruso sings ... During World War I, a poet and writer known throughout Europe, who has already passed over 50, voluntarily puts on a military uniform. On February 10, 1918, as a member of the crew of a torpedo boat, he participated in a daring (albeit essentially ineffectual) attack on Austrian transports in Bukkari Bay. Then he becomes a fighter pilot, in August of the same year, as part of a group of seven planes, he makes a record flight to Vienna and scatters thousands of propaganda leaflets over the capital of Austria-Hungary. After injury and loss of an eye during an emergency landing, Gabriele d'Annunzio fights on the ground front, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Perhaps it is difficult to find another example, when a person in the course of one military campaign manages to distinguish himself in battles of all types of troops - on land, in the sky and at sea ...

So, on September 12, 1919, Gabriele d'Annunzio enters Fiume in an executive Fiat decorated with bouquets of roses. He is followed by a line of cars with about two thousand of his supporters driving. The backbone of the squad is made up of veterans of the assault detachments "arditi" (arditi - daredevils). After a short confrontation, they are joined by the Italian garrison of the city, led by General Pittaluga, as well as sailors and some of the local residents. Allied troops stationed in the city do not offer resistance and allow themselves to be blocked in the barracks. On October 26, D'Annunzio announces the annexation of the city to Italy and thus presents the government with a fait accompli. But in Rome, this news is greeted without enthusiasm. Premier Nitti orders a land and sea blockade of Fiume.

In isolation, D'Annunzio claims the title of "Comandante" and becomes the dictator of the self-proclaimed city-state. His fiefdom repeatedly changes its names: the Republic of Fiume, the Italian Regency of Carnaro, the Free State of Fiume ... In fact, it was the first fascist state in history, with all its attributes: mass processions in black shirts, warlike slogans, ancient Roman greetings with a raised hand, emotional speeches of the leader before crowd. D'Annunzio extols the greatness of the national spirit and sees the salvation of Italy from the socialists as the ultimate goal of his actions.

The impostor-commander has many supporters, volunteers and deserters from the Italian army flock to him in Fiume - some fly to him on combat aircraft. Now Gabriele d'Annunzio has a full-fledged well-armed army of 11 thousand people. At his disposal are ships and military aircraft. And in October 1919 he received a truly royal gift - the transport "Persia", in the holds of which there were 20 batteries of mountain guns, two heavy howitzers, 30 thousand rifles and 10 million cartridges. All these weapons were intended for the "supreme ruler" of Russia Kolchak, but the crew of the steamer en route from Genoa to Vladivostok rebelled and unauthorizedly headed for Fiume. The sailors considered it necessary to support the "fighter for national interests»Italy, and not to carry a valuable cargo to distant Russia to some incomprehensible white movement ...

Commander d'Annunzio, inspired by the successes and support of numerous supporters, is making attempts to expand the territory of the independent republic. In November, he leads an expedition to the city of Zara (Zadar). A landing of a thousand fighters under his leadership arrives from Fiume on four destroyers and disembarks. The local Italian commander, Vice Admiral Nillo, after negotiations goes over to the side of d'Annunzio. Upon his return back, the head of the Republic of Fiume announces his long-term plans - the capture of Spalato (Split) and Montenegro. It was not possible to implement these plans (even Zara soon found itself under the control of the Italian government), but the nearest territories, including the large island of Velha (Krk), were annexed and incorporated into the "free state".

It should be noted that economically the Republic of Fiume was in a very difficult situation. Unemployment reigned in the city, during the blockade there were big problems with food. The introduced grocery cards did not help. And the only way to get a livelihood was banal piracy. Like the Somali pirates of our time, the Fiume Arditi in motor boats went to sea, overtook the cargo steamers, most often at night, and landed on deck. Threatening with weapons, they forced the captain to head for Fiume. There the ship was properly gutted and then released. Since there was no money in the self-proclaimed republic, the booty was divided and distributed to soldiers and local residents for free. Here is such a "pirate communism"!

As for Gabriele d'Annunzio himself, he does not live in poverty at all - he lives in luxury, arranges noisy feasts, and in his free time from government, he invents his own liqueurs and stimulates himself with cocaine. Gradually, the attitude towards him changes for the worse, and not only among the townspeople, but also in his troops. It comes to armed skirmishes. The opposition openly calls the commandant a despot, a tyrant and a madman.

Official Rome got tired of all this, and when, finally, an agreement was reached with Yugoslavia (the agreement in Rapallo), according to which Fiume was proclaimed a free city under Italian patronage, the impostor d'Annunzio was presented with an ultimatum: lay down arms and leave the city. In response, the expansive commander on December 3, 1920 declares war on Italy.

On December 24, the cannons started talking: the battleship Andrea Doria opened fire on the city from 152-mm guns. One of the shells hit the palace where the Fiium government sat. Gabriele d'Annunzio himself was slightly wounded. Then the Italian troops led by General Enrico Coigli stormed the city. The separatists resisted for several more days, but ultimately capitulated. Their commander announced his resignation. 203 defenders laid down their heads in battles with compatriots. Moreover, as it soon became clear, it was completely in vain.

12 curious facts and quotes

1. According to the adopted constitution, the Republic of Fiume was a corporate state in which all citizens belonged to one of ten corporations based on class characteristics: workers, managers, sailors, financial employees, etc. Curiously, the last 10th corporation represented the "mysterious forces of progress and adventure"! It seems that writing this part of the constitution, its authors - D'Annunzio and anarcho-syndicalist Alchesté de Ambris - overdosed on cocaine ...

2. According to the constitution, citizens were guaranteed free elementary education, wages that ensure a decent life; civil rights in full, regardless of gender, race and religion, a living wage for the unemployed. D'Annunzio put forward the slogan: "work without fatigue", which meant that work should not crowd out the joys of life.

3. Music was declared a fundamental principle of the organization of the state, therefore concerts, choral singing, carnival processions were considered the most important and integral part of the life of the republic. Each settlement should have its own orchestra and choir. In addition, universal compulsory music education was introduced.

4. The role of the state under the constitution was reduced to a minimum - in fact, national-anarchism was proclaimed. But in the event of a military threat, the head of state - the commandant - received unlimited power.

5. According to his contemporaries, of all the known rulers, D'Annunzio was the most merciful. He generously distributed awards, and judged the guilty according to his own "instinct of justice." Expulsion from the city was considered the most severe punishment.

6. The poet and adventurer d'Annunzio has shaped the government of the Republic of Fiume to match himself. Belgian internationalist and poet Leon Kochnitsky became Foreign Minister, Colonel Mario Sani, also a poet, became Chief of Staff. General Sante Cekkerin, the silver medalist of the 1908 Olympic Games in fencing, was appointed deputy commander-in-chief (that is, d'Annunzio himself). And the naval forces of the republic were led by the hero of the First World War, Captain Luigi Rizzo. On June 10, 1918, Rizzo, being in the rank of lieutenant and commanding the MAS-15 torpedo boat, sank the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought St. Istvan. This was the largest victory in the history of the Italian navy.

7. Gabriele d'Annunzio's secretary and de facto deputy was his longtime friend, the military pilot Guido Keller, nicknamed La Disperata. When Fiume became poor with food, he flew on an airplane around the neighborhood, landed and simply stole everything that came to hand. Keller once stole big pig, pushed her into the plane, but the frightened animal tore the skin and got stuck under the fuselage. When landing, Keller had to use a poor pig instead of a landing gear.

8. On November 14, 1920, at the height of the Cold War with Rome, Guido Keller made a risky long-distance flight in an airplane and carried out a symbolic bombing of the Italian capital - he scattered red roses over the Vatican and the royal palace, and dropped a chamber pot filled with turnips on the parliament building. Returning back, he lost his course and made an emergency landing in San Marino, and not very successful: the plane crashed into a tree, but Keller himself escaped with scratches and bruises.

9. The national flag of the Fiume Republic, invented by Gabriele d'Annunzio, is the constellation Ursa Major, ringed with the symbol of eternity - the snake Ouroboros, biting its own tail. The inscription on the flag - "Quis contra nos" - is the second part of the saying "If God is with us, who is against us."

State flag of the Republic of Fiume - Regency of Carnaro

Mussolini, who came to power, spoke about the history of the independent city-state as follows: "Fiume is the uprising of the great proletarian against the new sacred union of the world plutocracy." By "great proletarian" Duce meant Italy.
Lenin at first also perceived the events in Dalmatia as a struggle of the proletariat against imperialism, and Soviet Russia became the only state to recognize the Republic of Fiume. However, it soon became clear that the ideology d 'Annunzio is hostile to the Bolsheviks, and de facto diplomatic relations have never been established.
Vladimir Mayakovsky in the poem "Soviet Alphabet" presented the letter F:

The pheasant is handsome, not an ounce of intelligence.

D'Annunzio took Fiume drunk.

Finita la Fiume / Zara / Paula

With the coming to power of Mussolini, the existence of Fiume as an independent territorial entity ceased to suit the Italian government. In September 1923, a rebellion broke out in Fiume, provoked by local fascists, and an Italian assault force landed in the city under the pretext of protecting the civilian population. And on January 27, 1924, the Yugoslav delegation in Rome finally signs an agreement, according to which Fiume officially goes to Italy, and insignificant surrounding territories are transferred to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as compensation (rather, consolation). The League of Nations recognized the partition as legal. And until the end of World War II, the Istrian peninsula and part of the Croatian coast, including the "commune Zara", were officially considered Italy.

In 1945, the former Italian territories came under the control of the Yugoslav partisans led by Josip Broz Tito. In 1947 they were annexed to the SFRY. The former Italian cities of Pola, Fiume and Zara are now called Pula, Rijeka and Zadar. The Italian population, which constituted the majority in some regions, began to leave for their historical homeland in droves. A special situation developed in the city of Trieste, where in May 1945 it almost came to a military clash between Yugoslav and Anglo-American troops, but this is a completely different story ...

In 1929-1932, 4 heavy cruisers were built in Italy, which can be considered one of the best in their class. They were named after the acquired cities: "Zara", "Fiume", "Pola" and "Gorizia". And they all died during the Second World War. Moreover, the first three - in one battle at Cape Matapan on March 28-29, 1941 ...

Strange as it may seem, but D'Annunzio, who fought with the Italian government, did not receive any punishment after the surrender. On the contrary, he was enthusiastically received at home and treated kindly in every possible way - especially after Benito Mussolini came to power, with whom the "hero-poet" had been friends since 1919. The former ruler of Fiume was showered with awards, and in 1924 he was awarded the princely title. Gabriele d'Annunzio received as a gift a luxurious villa with the pretentious name "Il Vittoriale degli Italiani" ("Victories of the Italians"), located on the shores of Lake Garda in Lombardy. This villa once belonged to a German aristocrat, but after the outbreak of World War it was confiscated by the Italian authorities. D'Annunzio overhauled it and lived here until his death in 1938.

The Gabriele d'Annunzio estate has survived and is now a museum of its owner. In addition to the chic buildings filled with art objects, one exhibit invariably attracts attention there, which I would like to tell in more detail.

The armored cruiser "Puglia" was built in 1901. He went to South America, the Far East, participated in the Italo-Turkish and First World Wars. And after the fall of Austria-Hungary, the cruiser provided the occupation of Dalmatian cities. Gabriele d'Annunzio also went out to sea on it. And on July 11, 1920, during the riots in Spalato (Split), the Italian sailors disembarked were attacked by Croatian rebels. The Puglia's commander and one sailor were killed.

In March 1923, the old cruiser was expelled from the fleet, and Mussolini presented it to d'Annunzio, his teacher, mentor, and somewhat competitor. The Puglia hull, along with the bow superstructure, masts and deck guns, was transported to the grounds of the Villa Il Vittoriale degli Italiani and installed on a hillside above Lake Garda. This unusual object has survived to this day and is one of the naval attractions of Italy.

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