Catoctin clarion., 1917-02-08
ITALIAN WARSH|PS
FOOL AUSTR|ANS
Explore Mine. Defended PoIa Har.
bor, Fire Torpedoes and
Escape Unscathed.
FOE Think IT An AIR RAID
searchIights illuminate the Sky, Bat.
teries Open Fire Wildly and Inef.
ficientIy While Destroyers
Quietly Slip Away.

have succeeded In breaking the DoOn
at POla, the best defined and most
fortified naval harbOr in the world
They spent two hours exploring the
harbOr a few hundreds Of yards from
the forts and came out safely after
they had accomplished their most diff
fcult and delicate mission, when nu'
merOus powerful searchlights vainly
Illuminated sky and sea and the bat
teries fired wildly and inefficiently."
The most difficult and delicate mis-.
sion consisted in torpedoing a man-o''
war. In fact, when the torpedo boats
reached the customary anchorage OF
part Of the Austrian fleet" possibly
the good roadstead in the channel OF
Fasana, the entrance Of which they
had successfully forced, torpedoes
were fired against large enemy wal
vessel, but 1t was ascertained that
both remained entangled in the nets
protecting the ship and as they failed
to strike hard substance their
charges were not ignited and the tor.
pedoes did not explode.
Saved by Nets.
Had the torpedoes exploded the
Italian warships would not have been
able to come out Of POla and probably
would have been lost. In fact, they
owed their safety to the nonexplosion
If the torpedoes.
Three Italian torpedo boats left port
on the evening of November l, and
toward midnight they were off Pola.
Shortly after midnight the warships
were near the entrance of the Fasana
channel, closed by means of iron
chains, steel cables, enormous beams
and nets extending across the mouth
Of the channel as a protection against
submarines. The barrier is formidable
and its removal seems impossible.
patrol boat Is moored alongside the
boom. The men on board are. supposed
to be on watch; instead, they are
asleep.
Two out of the three torpedo boats
silently approached the barrier and
their crews got to work. In less than
twenty minutes the boom was low.
cred sufficiently to allow their passage.
One of the torpedo boats entered the
harbor of Pola and came out after two
hours. There was absolutely no sign
of life inside the port and few lights
were to be seen on shore. The Aus.
trians relied so much on their mine
fields, barriers and batteries that they
were quite convinced an attack was
impossible either by day or by night,
and they slept soundly without watch
ing.
Results Not Known.
The results of the torpedo boats ex.
ploration inside Pola are of course not
known. Undoubtedly they must have
been very valuable, judging by the fact
that no attempt was made to torpedo
any Of the enemy ships before two
hours, and 1t is to be presumed that
all this time was not lost. Besides, had
not dawn been so near the torpedo boat
would have surely prolonged her ex'
ploratiOn inside POla. 1t was about
five o'clock in the morning when the
two torpedOes were fred against the
Austrian battleship In the Fasana
channel, almost simultaneously and at
q very close range. They both got en-
tangled in the nets protecting the ship.
Evidently three nets protected the
ship. because two were cut, but the
third prevented the tOrpedOes from
striking the hull, and their propellers
kept going outside the water with a
loud noise resembling that made by the
propellers of an airplane.
In fact, the Austrians on board the
battleship, as well as those OH board
other ships and on shore, mistook the
noise and took it for granted that POla
had been attacked by hostile air craft.
The alarm was raised ut once with the
rapidity of lightning. Searchlights
were put on and Illuminated the sky,
while all the guns of the aerial defense
on the hills and on the islands, as we'll
as all those on the ships and of the
shore batteries, opened fire simultane-
ously, wildly and inefficiently.
The Italian torpedo boat headed
straight for the barrier. The Austrians
in the patrol boat watching the en-
trance of the channel, who were not
quite awake, assumed that she was
one Of their torpedo boats going out to
sea in search Of the Italian airplanes
that were raiding Pola.