Saturday - At dawn the armored cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi (commander, captain of vessel Mattia Giavotto - photo opening) with the sign of the commander of the 2a Division (2a Squadra) and Francesco Ferruccio (commander, captain of a vessel, Michelangelo Leonardi) they are brought before Beirut while the auxiliary cruiser Duke of Genoa (commander, frigate captain Luigi Arcangeli) operates in such a way as to interrupt the telegraph line to the north of the city.

Il Ferruccio is positioned so as to preclude the escape of the Turkish units while the Garibaldi it takes a short distance from the entrance to the port to call for surrender. At the end of the ultimatum, the Ferruccio crosses slowly at the head of the pier and the Garibaldi penetrated inside the port to recognize the objectives, open the fire and after a few minutes sinks the battleship Avnillah also with the use of two torpedoes and the torpedo boat Angora. Once the action is completed, the units direct to execute the day after the reconnaissance of the Mersin roadstead (southern coast of Turkey) that they will find empty of war units.

[The day before (Friday 23) the minister of the Navy orders the commander in chief of the Naval Forces gathered to capture or destroy the two Ottoman units in port in Beirut, the armored gunship AvniIllah and the torpedo boat Angora which constituted a latent threat to Italian traffic in the eastern Mediterranean. Rear admiral Paolo Thaon of Revel is responsible for the action with the use of armored cruisers Giuseppe Garibaldi (commander, captain of vessel Mattia Giavotto), his flag ship, and Francesco Ferruccio (commander, captain of vessel Michelangelo Leonardi) specially separated from the 2a Naval Division (2a Squadra), on a lock cruise along the coasts of Anatolia and Syria and the auxiliary cruiser Duke of Genoa (commander, frigate captain Luigi Arcangeli) on a vigilance cruise off Alexandria of Egypt]

Source: Military Navy

(photo: MM / web)