In the early hours of 31 July 1916 the submarine Giacinto Pullino stumbled on the rock of Galiola (at the entrance to the Gulf of Kvarner, a stretch of sea that tightens between the Istrian mainland and the archipelago of Assirtidi - Cres and Losinj - and communicating with Gulf of Fiume through the channel of Faresina) during a mission against Fiume.
The crew, having ascertained the impossibility of resuming the sea, before leaving the boat set it up for self-sinking and destroyed its on-board ciphers and equipment. Among the members of the crew captured by the Austrians there is the irredentist ship lieutenant Nazario Sauro who, after a brief and summary trial, was condemned to the death penalty for high treason, by hanging that was performed at 19: 45 of the 10 August 1916 in the military prisons of Pula.
The body of Nazario Sauro was secretly buried at night by the Austrians in a desecrated area near the military cemetery. Only at the end of the war, the Italian navy succeeded in knowing the place where it had been buried and provided the 10 January 1919 to resurrect the body and the solemn burial, which took place on January 26 in the cemetery of Marina di San Policarpo in Pula.
On that occasion, the chief of staff of the navy Grand Admiral Duke of the Sea Paolo Thaon di Revel issued the following agenda:
"The desecrating Austria had buried the sacred body of Nazario Sauro in a forgotten corner of irredent and bleeding Pola. Today in the cemetery of our Pula, we, the Italian navy, have dissolved the promise made to the memory of our greatest hero of the sea, giving it worthy burial. A simple and pure boulder of granite, like your soul, as strong as your faith, covers your remains and shows us the greatness of the country over the centuries ".
Always the 26 January 1919, Vittorio Emanuele III gave to the mother of Nazario Sauro the gold medal for military valor to memory, with the following motivation: «Declared the war to Austria, she immediately came to volunteer under our banner to give the contribution of his enthusiasm, of his audacity and ability to conquer the land on which he was born and who yearned to rejoin Italy. Regardless of the risk to which he exposed himself, he took part in numerous, daring and difficult naval war missions, whose success he effectively contributed with the practical knowledge of the places and always showing courage, fearless spirit and contempt of danger. Taken prisoner, aware of the fate that now awaited her, she kept, until the end, wonderfully serene behavior, and with a loud cry repeated several times before the executioner of "Long live Italy!" Exhaled the noble soul, giving incomparable example of the purest love of Motherland. »Alto Adriatico, 23 May 1915 - 10 August 1916.
Source: Military Navy
