An Italian Navy torpedo boat of the time.
At 2330 hours, we separated from the Pisani warship at the
point
mentioned above and I headed toward the Çanakkale Strait at 12 MPH
with
the torpedo boat fleet. In order to
reduce the chances of our
being seen, I ordered the Spica, Perseo, Astore,
Climéne and Centauro
torpedo boats to follow one another in a straight line
fashion. Soon
after detecting a 2 mph
counter-current, I increased our speed to 15
MPH.
Since the Kumkale searchlight beam was in a fixed position,
we
passed there without being seen.
Conversely, the searchlight beams
at Helles point (Seddilbahir) were
moveable so we had to slip
between the beams, although a beam spotted the
Astore, which was
third in our line, and tracked it for a few minutes. At the time we
were sailing east.
At 0040 hours, a cannon and flare firing alarm was issued at
Helles
point, along with other light flare firings that were repeated all along
the Strait. Cannon shots came fast and
furious, one after the other,
falling into the waters close to where the
torpedo boat fleet was
sailing. Knowing
that the (Ottoman) defense installations were weak,
I decided to press on with
the reconnoiter mission, moving up into the
Strait and proceeding based on the
evolving situation. I increased our
speed to 20 mph and hugged the European shore in order to avoid the
mined
areas.
At this time, more searchlights
were activated at Samandra Bay, Teke,
Kilitbahir, Çanak and at the Mecidiye
battery between Çanakkale and
Nara. In
addition, two other searchlights northeast of Kilitbahir
belonged to ships of
the Turkish fleet but we did not realize
this until
we reached closer to Çanakkale.
This map, from the famous 1915 failed British-French
effort to breach Çanakkale, shows the portion of the
Strait where the Italian torpedo boats were operating,
up until Kilidbahir, upper right. Nara is about 2
miles north of Çanakkale, on the Anatolian side.
At this point, the enemy cannon fire stopped but, based on
the light
signals on the range of hills, it was clear that other batteries
would
open fire as we came into their range.
As we proceeded along the European shore at high speed, all
of a
sudden we saw the Samandra searchlight itself, whereas up to now
we had only seen its beam. We were quite close to the searchlight
but we passed by undetected because its beam
was at a dead angle.
Continuing, we came
towards a flood stream valley, at which point we
entered into the beam’s
light. I saw the arm of a soldier who
was
wearing a cuffed shirt and working the beam. I heard him shout
something resembling an
alert to the battery in the valley and the one
above it. Quickly thereafter, the Spica torpedo boat
was hit by small
caliber gunfire and its stack was pierced by many shells.
The Samandra searchlight incident gave me the chance to
witness the
torpedo boat fleet continuing on in an orderly fashion and the
boats
following each other closely, despite the enemy fire raining down
around each boat. My commanders guided their boats in an
orderly
and courageous manner.
Following this firing incident, we were subjected to rifle
fire and firing
from other batteries,
whose locations I could not identify.
Wherever we
went, the multiple searchlights focused their beams on the
Spica, at the
head of our line, proceeding along the shore at 23 mph. At this time, I
saw that the searchlights of
the enemy ships at Nara began to be
activated.
There were seven of them.
//END of PART TWO//
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