//Ed. Note: The report below was submitted by Capt. Lütfü
Talat after he was freed from 8 years in Greek prison camps
between 1915 and 1923. In other words, the Demirhisar's
crew was captured at the start of World War I and released
at the end of the Turkish War of Independence.
TNT has transcribed/translated a number of these reports
and will be presenting them in the near future.//
Sultanhisar Torpidobot, sister ship of the Demirhisar.
When the Ottoman Navy’s
‘Demirhisar’ torpido boat was on duty
harassing Allied shipping in the north
Aegean Sea during the early
months of World War I in 1915, it played cat and
mouse with the
more powerful British Navy ships for a time but was finally
cornered
off the coast off Greece’s Chios (Sakız) Island, near the Turkish
mainland city of Çeşme, on 16 April 1915.
After a failed torpedo attack
on the British troop transport ‘SS
Manitou’, two British warships
pursued and destroyed the ‘Demirhisar’, as its
crew sought refuge in
the supposedly neutral port of Kalamoti on Chios. Instead, they were
taken prisoner by the Greeks.
Herewith, Capt. Lütfü's report submitted to Turkish authorities in May
1923, upon his return from captivity:
“At the beginning of the Great War, the Demirhisar Torpedo warship was
raiding the enemy fleet in the Aegean Sea.
During the last of these raids
our ship was blown up by superior enemy
forces in Kalamoti Gulf off
Sakız (Chios) Island and our crew of 7 officers and 20 sailors requested
asylum from
Greece at the aforementioned location on Sakız Island.
From that time until the date of our return
we were transported to Şira
(Sira, Siros) Island, Tripolis city, İtaki (İthaca) and again to Şira. In
those
times there were no prison camps in the places where we stayed,
so on Şira
Island, the last place we lived, there
were no Turkish
prisoners besides us.
Since I was not in contact with anyone other than the Demirhisar
Torpedo’s crew and its officers, in particular, I have not been able to
obtain
any information about anyone other than our ship’s crew.
Four sailors and one officer from our ship’s crew passed away and
their
names are given below:
1 – Hüseyinoğlu Celal of Ordu
2 – Ahmedoğlu Ahmed of Samsun,
on İtaki (Ithaca) Island from the
Spanish flu.
3 – İsmailoğlu Halil of Biga
4 – Mehmedoğlu Ahmed of Bolaman
5 – I do not know the cause of death of the aforementioned individual
because he was in Athens at the time.
However, based on my subsequent
investigation, I learned that he was
brutally beaten by Greek soldiers,
was unable to recover and died.
6 – Deck Captain Hüseyin Adli bin Süleyman:
he died from appendicitis
on Şira Island and a funeral ceremony for him was
arranged by the local
government. No one from our ship’s crew was condemned:
since we were
separate, I do not know anything about any other naval prisoners.
Up until the declaration of war, relations between Greece and our
government were good; but with the declaration of war (Turkish-Greek
War of 1919-1923, known in Turkey as the War
of Independence) and the
coming to power
of Venizelos, for no reason we were removed fromTripolis
city and stuffed into
Averof Prison in Athens. Thanks to the
intervention
of the Dutch Ambassador, after three weeks we were transported to
Ithaca
Island. Our most important
problem was lack of money. The salary we
received was most insufficient for our needs and our men were left half-
hungry
and half-clothed.
Once on Ithaca Island and once on Şira Island we were attacked by the
local population because of the Turkish Army’s Anatolian victory. Both
times, Greek Gendarmerie officers
intervened and saved us. At the end,
we
were held in isolation for about 50 days without being allowed any
contact with
anyone else. In short, the Greeks’ treatment
of prisoners is
rather low.
Anadoluhisarı (Istanbul) – 28 May 1923
Captain Lütfü Talat,
former commander of the Demirhisar Torpedo”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coincidentally, the ‘Demirhisar’’s attack on the
‘SS Manitou’ was
chronicled by British seaman Harry Biles on 16 April 1915, and
it
tracks remarkably well with Ottoman Captain Lütfü’s account,
although Biles
thought the ‘Demirhisar’’s captain might have been a
German:
diary.
"About 11.00 am a wireless call, SOS (help) was
received.
We immediately turned the ship about and steamed hard to
the spot
where the message was sent from. It appears that
the transport Manitou on
passage from Alexandria to
Lemnos with the RFA (6) and several other army
units,
together with the 29th Division Ammunition Column was
intercepted
between Lemnos and Skyros by a torpedo boat
or gunboat which called alongside
the Manitou and hailed
her to stop, at the same time running up the Turkish flag.
The officer in charge of the Turkish ship was reported to
have been a German.
After hailing the Manitou to stop, he
shouted out to the captain that he would
give him ten
minutes to clear out of the ship as he intended sinking her.
He
then hauled away from the Manitou and fired three
torpedoes at her, each one
missing the ship.
The captain of the Manitou on receiving the
order to leave
the ship immediately started lowering the boats. Several
were
launched and the soldiers crowded in, putting their
gunwales under causing
several of the men to get washed
out. One boat on being lowered, was thrown
into the water
through the davits snapping under the heavy load of a full
boat.
Two or three men thus received fatal injuries and
immediately sank beneath the waves.
Others were killed
by rafts of all descriptions being thrown from the ship and
striking them as they swam. The Turk after firing her third
torpedo ran away at
full speed, and could be seen by us,
although we were not then in possession of
the facts and
had no idea of her nationality."
The ‘Demirhisar’’s crew was held on Siros Island
(just above the word
‘Cyclades’) twice, on Ithaca
island (far left) and in the city of Tripolis (in
the
center of the Mora peninsula, south of Patra), as well
as 3 weeks in
Athens.
