Battle of Lissa (1866)

The Battle of Lissa was a naval battle between Austrian and Italian forces on 20 July 1866. It took place in the Adriatic Sea near the island of Lissa (now Vis) and was a victory for the outnumbered Austrians. It was the first major sea battle involving ships using iron and steam, and one of the last to involve deliberate ramming.

The battle occurred as part of the Austro-Prussian War, with Italy allied to Prussia. The major Italian objective was to capture Venice from Austria.

The fleets were composed by a mix of unarmoured sailing ships with steam engines, and armoured ironclads also combining sails and steam engines. The Italian fleet outnumbered the Austrian fleet, comprising of 12 iron-clads and 17 unarmoured ships against 7 and 11 Austrian ships repectively. A single turret ship took part of the action, the Italian ship Affondatore.

Count Carlo di Persano (60 years old) commanded the Italian fleet, while the Austrian fleet was commanded by Tegetthoff (39 years old).

Contents
1 Plans for the Battle
2 10 o'Clock - The Fleets Engage
3 The Decisive Moments - The Ramming Attacks
4 The Aftermath
5 Order of battle

5.1 Austria
5.2 Italy

Plans for the Battle

The attacking Austrian fleet was divided into 3 divisions. The 1st Division consisted of the armoured ships, the 2nd the powerful unarmoured battleship Kaiser and 5 Cruisers. Finally the 3rd Division consisted of the smaller Screw Gunboats and armed merchants. The merchant cruiser Stadion was ahead of the fleet acting as a scout.

The 3 divisions were formed up into three consectutive arrowhead or "V" formations, the armoured 1st division under Rear Admiral Tegetthoff was in the van, the weaker gunboats and merchants of the 3rd division to the rear while the powerful but unarmoured vessels of Commodore Petz's 2nd division were in the centre.

The Austrian plan, due to their relative lack of firepower, was to close quickly into a melee and utilise close range fire and the ram on a small portion of the Italian fleet and sink them, breaking the Italian will to fight.

The Italians, despite their superiority, where not prepared for battle. They were busy preparing for landings when the news that the Austrian fleet was at sea and seeking battle reached them. Persano cancelled the landings, ordered the fleet into line abreast and having second thoughts, cancelled that order and ordered the fleet into 3 divisions in a line ahead formation. The same formation that age of sail battles were fought in.

The 1st division in the van consisted of the Principe di Carignano, Castelfidardo and Ancona under Admiral Vacca, Admiral Faà di Bruno's 2nd division in the centre consisted of the flagship Re d'Italia, Palestro and San Martino, and the 3rd division to the rear had the Re di Portogallo, Maria Pia and at the extreme rear the Varese under Admiral Ribotti. The other ships where dispersed into the battleline, except for Affondatore, which was on the far side of the 2nd squadron and out of the battleline.

Before the battle Persano caused more confusion by deciding to transfer his flag to the Affondatore and the 2nd and 3rd Divisions slowed to allow Re d'Italia to lower her boats. However the signal to slow down never reached the 1st Division and they continued to steam on, allowing a gap to open in their battleline. To compound the error, Persano never signalled the change of flag and throughout the action the Italians continued to look to the old flag Re d'Italia for orders rather than Affondatore.

10 o'Clock - The Fleets Engage

Having ignored the warnings of "suspicious ships in sight" from his pickets, Persano had allowed the Austrians to effectively ambush his force while it was still forming. Tegetthoff, seeing the gap opening between the 1st and 2nd Divisions decided to emulate Nelsons tactic at the battle of Trafalgar and force his fleet into the gap and concentrate on raking the Italians and ramming. This meant that he allowed his T to be crossed, and while approaching Vacca's 1st Italian Division threw a heavy weight of fire at the Austrians, replied by only their chase guns, but because Persnao was in the process of transferring his flag no general order was given and the 2nd and 3rd Divisions did not join in and the Austrians crossed this killing area, but suffered some serious damage. The Drache on the extreme right (starboard) wing of the Austrian 1st Division was hit 17 times by heavy shells, losing her mainmast and temporarily losing propulsion. Her captain, von Moll, was decapitated by a heavy shell, but his subordinate, Weyprecht, brought the ship back into the fight.

By 10.43am the Austrians had bought the Italian van to close action. Habsburg, Salamander and Kaiser Max on the Austrians left wing had engaged the Italian 1st Division, while the right wing of Don Juan, Drache and Prinz Eugen engaged the Italian 2nd Division. Persano, now on the most powerful warship in either fleet, Affondatore stayed clear of the engagement.

With the confusion in the Italian van, Commodore Petz took the opportunity to take his 2nd Division to the Italian rear and fall on their 3rd Division. The unarmoured wooden ships of the Austrian 2nd Division were facing modern ironclads armed with heavy guns, yet despite suffering heavy fire they held together. The Screw Frigate Novara was hit 47 times, and her Captain, von Klint, killed. The Erzherzog Friedrich was hit by a heavy shell below the waterline but still remained afloat, while the Schwarzenburg was disabled by heavy Italian fire and set adrift.

The Decisive Moments - The Ramming Attacks

Seeing things going badly, Persano found the courage to throw himself into battle, deciding to ram the unarmoured Screw Battleship Kaiser rather than one of the armoured ships engaged with the Italian 2nd Division much nearer him. However, the Kaiser managed to dodge the Affondatore. However, taking heart from his Admiral, the Captain of Re de Portogallo decided to hurl his ship at the Kaiser, maintaining a heavy fire with her rifled guns as he did so. At the last moment, von Petz turned the tables on her and turned into the ram, in effect conducting a counter ram. The impact tore off the Kaisers stem and bowsprit, leaving her figurehead embedded in the Re de Portogallo. The Italian used the opportunity to rake the Kaiser with fire, putting her mainmast and smokestack into the sea. The smoke was so great that as they backed off for another ram they lost sight of each other and ended the duel.

At roughly the same time, Tegetthoff threw his flagship Erzherzog Ferdinand Max at first the former Italian flag Re d'Italia then the Palestro. In both cases he scored only glancing blows, but these caused serious damage, especially to the Palestro which was dismasted and set afire.

Showing remarkable courage the Palestro's Captain, Capellini, told his men that they could abandon ship but he would stay, and pulled his ship out of the line. His crew refused to leave their Captain and the Palestro finally blew up and sank at 2.30pm, with only 19 survivors out of the ships complement of 230.

Meanwhile the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max was circling Faà di Bruno's Re d'Italia, pouring on fire before surging forward and achieving a good impact with her ram. This put an 18 foot hole below the Italians waterline, and the Italian struck her colours and sank two minutes later. According to legend her Captain shot himself after giving the order to strike the colours.

As the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max limped away, wounded by conducting 3 ramming attacks, the Ancona closed on her attempting to ram. In the excitement the Italian gunners got a full broadside off at point blank range, but while they had remembered the gunpowder, they had forgotten to load the shot.

After his encounter with the Re de Portogallo earlier in the battle and having fought his way clear of the Maria Pia, Commodore von Petz's Kaiser found itself at close range with the Italian flagship Affondatore. Despite being a perfect target for a ram, Kaiser survived when Persano ordered Affondatore to turn away.

The Aftermath

Kaisers encounter with the Affondatore was the last major action of the battle. With two armoured ships sunk, the Italians withdrew, although there would be some exchange of long range artillery for several hours.

Persano returned and announced a great victory, causing much initial celebration until the real results of the battle were published. He has court marshalled for cowardice and dismissed from the navy.

Tegetthoff returned home a hero, was promoted Vice Admiral, and is considered one of the greatest naval commanders in history.

Strategically the engagement was inconsequential, as the Italian defeat was overshadowed by the crushing Prussian victory over the Austrian Army. So in the end Italy gained Venice, notwithstanding the defeat at Lissa.

Order of battle

Note: Awaiting confirmation of some details and the names of all the Italian Gunboats. Vessels are ranked by fighting power (Most powerful first)

Austria

1st Division - Armoured Ships

2nd Division - Wooden Steam Warships

3rd Division - Minor craft (Gunboats and Armed Merchants)

Italy

Armoured Ships

Wooden Steam Warships

Minor Warcraft (Gunboats and Armed Merchants)

See also: Battle of Lissa (1866), 1866, 20 July, Adriatic Sea, Austria, Austro-Prussian War, Battle of Trafalgar, Carlo di Persano, Ironclad, Naval battle