The Otranto Barrage

An article by Russell Phillips

The Otranto Barrage was a naval blockade of the Otranto Straits between Brindisi and Corfu,
intended to prevent the Austro-Hungarian navy gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea. Although
it did keep Austro-Hungarian surface ships in the Adriatic, it had little effect on submarines, which
routinely passed through the Barrage to conduct anti-shipping operations in the Mediterranean. The
idea of the Barrage was first brought up by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill at the
May 1915 conference in Paris, on the eve of Italy’s entry into the war. Churchill offered to supply
50 fishing trawlers and 50 miles of submarine indicator nets, in return for the Italians providing
crews and armament. The Italians declined, realising that manning and arming the craft would be a
significant challenge. During the Dardanelles campaign, British trawlers proved very useful, and as
the submarine war in the Mediterranean intensified, the Italians realised that they did not have
enough small vessels for anti-submarine duties.

British drifters

On the 30th August 1915, the British Admiralty issued orders for 60 drifters to be prepared to leave
for the Adriatic as soon as possible. These were crewed primarily by fishermen, with divisional
officers from the Royal Naval Reserve. Not used to military discipline, the naval officers initially
despaired of their charges, though they improved rapidly. Lieutenant M.E. Cochrane, the second in
command, commented that “the human material was of the best … it needed only a period of
polishing before it would shine with exceptional lustre.”

The first drifters arrived at Taranto on the 22nd September, evidently without warning. Rear
Admiral Cecil Thursby complained, “You can imagine my surprise when suddenly 60 drifters were
dumped on me with no organisation, provisions, stores or anything else.” The drifters were
organised into three divisions of 20. At any one time, two divisions would be deployed with their
nets, while the third would be in Brindisi. Two drifters from each division would be at a subsidiary
base at Taranto for docking, boiler cleaning, and repairs. The Italians provided a pair of merchant
ships (Gallipoli and Adratico) and a small auxiliary steamer (Mazzini), which was armed with three
six-pounders and used for inspections, mail delivery, etc. When they arrived, the drifters had no
armament, although Thursby worked to acquire some. On the 12th October, Restore was sunk by
the German U39, graphically illustrating the need to provide some form of self-defence. By the 8th
November all the drifters were armed, typically with 47mm or 57mm guns and a few three-
pounders.

Each trawler carried a series of light steel indicator nets anchored to the sea bed at various depths.
These were intended to capture enemy submarines by entanglement, though this rarely worked in
practice. Thursby complained that he did not have sufficient drifters, and during winter boats often
had to take shelter and nets were lost. On the 15th November 1915, the Admiralty dispatched a
further 40 drifters, which began to arrive on the 7th December. Warships and aircraft supported the
drifters, though at various times during the war other priorities meant that very few warships could
be spared for this duty.

After an Italian cruiser and French destroyer were lost in June 1916, the Italians stopped using
cruisers during daylight, leaving destroyers to protect the Barrage. In July, the Austro-Hungarians
raided the line, sinking two drifters, damaging two more and taking nine prisoners. The next day,
10th July, the Italian destroyer Impetuoso was sunk and the drifter line was moved south, to a less
vulnerable position.

On the 30th October 1916, a special conference was held regarding the Otranto Barrage. Here it was
decided that the drifters would be moved to a line running from Otranto to Asproruga, and that the
Italians would lay a minefield ten miles wide, thus reducing the area the drifters had to patrol. Other
commitments permitting, the Italians would have two destroyers on patrol. The Italians would also
add 22 trawlers and 18 coastal torpedo boats to the Barrage, as well as stationing more aircraft at
Brindisi and Valona. The Italians did provide 20 additional drifters, as did the British, but promises
of extra gunboats were not kept, leaving the drifters vulnerable.

On the night of 22nd December 1916, four Austro-Hungarian Huszár class destroyers raided the
line. Six French destroyers in the vicinity sailed to the sounds of gunfire, but there was much
confusion in the darkness. Four of the French destroyers lost contact with their leader, and the two
destroyers still under command took hits which put one temporarily out of action and reduced the
speed of the second. Italian destroyers and the British light cruiser Gloucester had been dispatched
to catch the raiding force, but only caused more difficulties when French and Italian destroyers
rammed each other in the darkness.

At an Allied naval conference in London in January 1917, it was agreed that the drifters were
insufficiently protected. In order to improve organisation, the barrage system was to be placed
under the command of a single British officer, Commodore Algernon Heneage. He was to be
directly under the Italian Commander in Chief and able to call upon the services of all Allied ships
not in use elsewhere. If required, he could also ask for assistance from other Allied ships on the
vicinity.

The Italians and French started to argue for a fixed net of around 40 miles in length instead of nets
towed from trawlers. The British thought that this was impractical, but agreed to the construction of
a one mile long trial net. At a conference in April, it was agreed that the Barrage did not have
sufficient drifters (124 were available in total. Seventy were out at any one time). To counter this,
the conference recommended hastening construction of the fixed net barrage.

The Battle of the Otranto Straits

On the night of 14th May 1917, the Austro-Hungarian navy launched their largest raid on the
Barrage. The raid was carried out by the cruisers Novara, Helgoland, and Saida supported by the
destroyers Csepel, Balaton and U-boats U4 and U27, along with German u-boat UC-25, under the
command of Admiral Miklós Horthy. A supporting force composed of the armoured cruiser Sankt
Georg, two destroyers, and several torpedo boats was on standby. The old pre-dreadnought
battleship Budapest and a screen of torpedo boats were also available.

As the force sailed south, they encountered and attacked a small Italian convoy, sinking a destroyer
and a munitions ship, and setting another ship on fire, causing it to be abandoned. The Austro-
Hungarian force began the attack on the Barrage at 03:30, usually warning the drifter crews to
abandon ship before opening fire. 47 drifters were on the Barrage when the force attacked, of which
14 were sunk and four were damaged. The remaining drifters withdrew until the Austro-Hungarians
returned to port.

Some drifters chose to fight, most notably the Gowan Lee. When ordered by Helgoland to surrender
and abandon ship, the captain, Joseph Watt ordered full speed ahead and called on the crew to give
three cheers and fight to the finish. The crew managed to get a single shot off before their six-
pounder was disabled, but they kept working to get the gun firing again, despite being under heavy
fire. The Gowan Lea was heavily damaged but remained afloat. She picked up survivors from other
drifters that had been sunk and came alongside alongside Floandi to remove her dead and wounded.
Joseph Watt was awarded the Victoria Cross for his “most conspicuous gallantry”. One of the crew
received the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal and two received the Distinguished Service Medal for
their parts in the action.

The Allied forces moved to block the Austro-Hungarian retreat. At 07:00 the Italian flotilla leader
Mirabello, with the French destroyers Commandant Rivière, Bisson, and Cimeterre intercepted the
main Austro-Hungarian force, but being out-gunned, chose to shadow rather than engage. At 07:45,
two British cruisers (Dartmouth and Bristol) and five Italian destroyers engaged the destroyers
Csepel and Balaton, which had been conducting a diversionary attack off the Albanian coast. After a
short fight, in which one Italian destroyer’s boilers were disabled, the Allies retreated as they came
into range of the coastal batteries at Durazzo.
At 09:00 Bristol sighted the Austrian cruisers, and the Allied force turned to engage. Some of the
Allied destroyers started to suffer from mechanical problems; those that did not were tasked with
protecting those that did, so that the two cruisers continued the battle without the destroyers.
Meanwhile, reinforcements from both sides were dispatched. By 11:00, the Austro-Hungarian
cruiser Novara had been crippled, but Sankt Georg was approaching with a force of destroyers and
torpedo boats. Acton, the Allied commander, temporarily withdrew to consolidate his forces,
allowing the Austro-Hungarians to take Novara under tow.

SMS Novara after suffering damage at the Battle of the Otranto Straits

Acton broke off the pursuit, though an Italian destroyer misread the signal and attempted to launch
a torpedo attack. It was driven off by heavy gunfire. Csepel and Balaton rejoined the others, and the
Austro-Hungarian surface force returned to Cattaro. The German u-boat UC25 later caused serious
damage to Dartmouth with a torpedo attack, and the French destroyer Boutefeu was sunk by a mine
while pursuing UC25.

The Austro-Hungarians planned another, larger attack in June 1918. This was to include all four
Tegetthoff class dreadnought battleships, but the attack was called off when the Szent István was
spotted and sunk by an Italian MAS boat while sailing south.

At the time, most observers considered the Barrage to be a useful and necessary anti-submarine
measure. Unexplained losses were generally ascribed to the Barrage by the Allies, helping its
reputation, though only a single u-boat loss (the U6) has been confirmed as being a result of the
Barrage. The effort expended by the Austro-Hungarian navy in raiding the line suggests that they
also considered it to be of some significant impact. However, it is now known that Austro-
Hungarian and German u-boats routinely transited the drifter line with little difficulty, so it must
now be seen as a failure. Not only did it do little to impact the u-boat threat, it took up significant
resources which could almost certainly have been put to better use elsewhere.
About Russell Phillips
Russell Phillips writes books and articles about military technology and
history. Born and brought up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, he
has lived and worked in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and
Staffordshire. He currently lives in Stoke-on-Trent with his wife and
two children.
Russell’s articles have been published in Miniature Wargames,
Wargames Illustrated, The Wargames Website, and the Society of
Twentieth Century Wargamers‘ Journal. He has been interviewed on
BBC Radio Stoke, The WW2 Podcast, The Voice of Russia, and Cold
War Conversations.

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