The Ferruccio is positioned so as to preclude the escape of the Turkish units while the Garibaldi moves a short distance from the entrance of the port to order the surrender. At the end of the ultimatum, Ferruccio crosses slowly at the head of the outer dock and the Garibaldi penetrated inside the port to recognize the targets, opens fire and after a few minutes sinks the battleship Avnillah also with the use of two torpedoes and the Angora torpedo boat. Once the action is completed, the units head to perform the day after the reconnaissance of the Mersin harbor (southern coast of Turkey) that they will find empty of war units.
[The previous day (Friday 23) the Navy minister ordered the Commander in Chief of the United Naval Forces to capture or destroy the two Ottoman units in the port of Beirut, the armored gunboat AvniIllah and the Angora torpedo boat which constituted a latent threat to Italian traffic in the eastern Mediterranean. Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel is in charge of the action with the use of the armored cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi (commander, captain of the vessel Mattia Giavotto), his flag ship, and Francesco Ferruccio (captain, captain of vessel Michelangelo Leonardi) specially detached from the 2a Naval Division (2a Squadra), on a block cruise along the coasts of Anatolia and Syria and the auxiliary cruiser Duca di Genova (commander, captain of frigate Luigi Arcangeli) on a surveillance cruise off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt]
Source: Military Navy
(photo: MM / web)
