From 'sinking of the Benedetto Brin and Leonardo da Vinci ...
On 27 September 1915, at eight in the morning, some Austrian saboteurs destroyed the Italian battleship Benedetto Brin, anchored in the port of Brindisi, killing 456 sailors [... ] In early August of 1916, saboteurs Austrian crept in the port of Taranto, blowing up the battleship Leonardo da Vinci, killing of 248 Italian sailors.
[Martin Gilbert, The big story of the First World War , Mondadori, Milano 1998, pp. 243 and 341, source ]
These losses (sinking of the Benedetto Brin, the Leonardo da Vinci and Queen Margherita, the latter finished in obscure circumstances in a minefield just leaving the port of Vlora) are comparable to real naval battle lost, and represent a triumph for the network of agents enemy scattered in every environment. Friends of the former Queen Maria Sofia (Monaco of Bavaria dead at 18 January 1925 and sister Elizabeth, Empress of Austria-Hungary, known as "Sissi") were operating even before the throne of the pope. One of them was Mgr. Rudolph Gerlach, Bavarian, tied to the former queen, who had served in the Austrian army, sentenced to death in absentia for having personally directed the sabotage of Brin and Leonardo da Vinci. When he was finally arrested [editor's note at the end and on the famous "Shot in Zurich on 25 February 1917, counter-intelligence operation of the Royal Italian Navy, with whom was identified, exposed and neutralized a dangerous network of saboteurs operating in Austria Italy, thanks to the brave violation of the safe located in the headquarters Austrian Navy in Zurich] was not shot but, armed with powerful intercession in his favor, along the Swiss border, where it reached then Bavaria. [...] Of these cases has always spoken little or nothing, perhaps for love of country, perhaps to hide the responsibility of people untouchable.
[Arrigo Petacco, The Queen of the South , Mondadori 1992, cit. Five stars from , who is also the author of the note signed ed; Gerlach For other contact information, see Five stars yet, even here ]
Antonio Flowers
The Counter "civil"
From neutrality to the creation of the Central Bureau of Investigation 1914-1916
notes
76
A. Massignani, The Great War secret sea , cit., Pp. 195-196. According to sabotage Massignani these are "open questions of the secret history of World War I in our country, because many details remain to be clarified." 77 See Patrick
Ostermann, aspects of propaganda of the Central Powers in Italy during World War , "Historical Research", 1998, n. 2, pp. 293-314; A. Massignani, The Great War secret sea , cit., P. 202. The archives of the Office Central Investigation is rather sketchy, but it may provide other elements. Preserves, among other things, the responses of the prefect's request for information on all the sailors, including those dead or missing, the Benedetto Brin and Leonardo da Vinci: moral and political conviction, economic conditions of the individual and family of any changes in these conditions following an accident that had hit the ship, and so on (ACS, MI, DGPS, Central Bureau of Investigation, bb. 4 and 5, fasc. 63 "Leonardo da Vinci" and bb. 8 and 9, fasc. 115 "Benedetto Brin").
The Italian battleship Benedetto Brin belonged to Class Regina Margherita. Built on a draft prepared by the inspector of naval engineering Benedetto Brin and General Michel was a very good unit for its speed, security, equipment, seaworthiness for interior space. Its construction began in 1899, was launched in 1901 in Castellammare di Stabia and delivered to the Navy in 1905, received the flag of fighting April 1, 1906.
During the war between Italy and Turkey participated in the landing at Tripoli in 1911 and the following year was employed in the Aegean Sea. The
Benedetto Brin was lost Sept. 27, 1915 in the port of Brindisi after the explosion of santabarbara, some say due to a problem with ammunition, who after a sabotage Austrian and Italian saboteurs who because of Austrian attracted by promises of reward in money for each ship sunk or damaged. 421 perished including officers, noncommissioned officers, lieutenants and municipalities, the commander of the 3rd Marine Division's 2nd Team, Rear Admiral Ernesto Rubin de Cervin, and the ship's master, Captain Gino Fara Forni Pettenasco. [Source ] [other card, with pictures]
THE TRAGEDY OF THE BATTLESHIP BENEDETTO BRIN
September 27, 1915 The Great War raged for nearly four months in Europe, and the port of Brindisi was an important theater military operations. Here
were hosted numerous military ships and set sail from here later for the most important battles of the vessels and submarines of the Italian fleet.
was just after 8 am the morning of that hot Monday, September 27, 1915, and a loud roar shakes the city. The battleship Benedetto Brin, moored in the port medium (close to the beach Marimist), exploded the ammunition depot and a strong fire spread throughout the ship, which sank in a short time. Theodore
Andriani reports the testimony of Fausto Lever, senior officer of the Navy: "densosi distinguished in the smoke for a moment the mass of the steel tower aft 305 mm guns, which launched into the air by the force until dell'eplosione in the middle of the column, then fell violently into the sea on the left side of the ship. Moments later, dissipated the cloud of smoke, the hull of B. Brin was seen support slip without the bottom ten feet and descend slowly, forming a bed in the soft mud. While little damaged bow was hiding under the water that came to lick the guns of Battery 152, the stern submerged appeared distraught and reduced to a heap of scrap. Fallen tree and the chimney breast, stands straight and vertical the foremast. "
story as you can imagine from the gas explosion, the direction of least resistance, we are fortunately directed upwards instead of expand sideways and cause serious damage to nearby ships: the Julius Caesar, Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, the Nino Bixio, Emmanuel Filiberto, the Saint-Bon and Queen Margherita. On
943 crew 456 men were dead, among them the VC funds and Gino Fara-Admiral Ernesto Rubin de Cervin, respectively commander of an armored division commander along with 21 other naval officers, almost all gathered in the square ratio aft in the engine room or in service, only 8 officers were found survivors. Ben 369 men were missing or unrecognizable.
The funeral took place of the first bodies retrieved the following day at 16, the remains of the sailors were buried in a made available by the city cemetery, which convoked three days of mourning.
Lots of the wounded, immediately rescued by sailors from the Italian and French and carried with tugboats and other vessels in the infirmaries of the ships in port and the Red Cross and the hospital used for the event inside the International.
Numerous testimonies describing the gruesome spectacle of the tortured bodies and the horrible wounds of the survivors, the rescue operations which lasted the entire day and night, with the people who reverently poured on the streets of the port.
The ship was designed by naval and Navy Minister Benedetto Brin, who died before completion of work, the launch took place at Castellammare di Stabia November 7, 1901 at a total cost for its production of 51.35 million pounds. 138 meters long and 23 wide, had a tonnage of 14 thousand tons and was equipped with 46 cannons, 2 machine guns and four torpedo tubes.
participated in several naval battles in the war between Italy and Turkey in 1911, with the bombardment of the forts of Tripoli and the operations against Benghazi, Cyrenaica and Rhodes. He also participated actively in the war against the Austrians.
dell'esposione causes have never been clarified with absolute certainty, including the assumptions made with greater insistence that there is a false priest serving Austria, traitor or a sailor, who had allegedly placed a bomb near the "Santabarbara" of the ship.
was immediately ruled out the possibility of action by enemy submarines, since the port was closed by a wire mesh to be complete in subsequent tests.
The Committee of Inquiry has never confirmed any of the hypothesized causes, which may include spontaneous combustion in the area of \u200b\u200bexplosives.
Antonio Caputo emphasizes the theory of "tragedy waiting to happen", or proximity to the engine room Santabarbara (ammunition depot): The heat produced by the engine was not sufficiently dispersed by the fans, slow and inadequate, which caused the spontaneous combustion of ballistics in this premises, a powerful explosive made from nitroglycerin and collodion cotton exploding loudly and burns without producing smoke. To confirm this in the days following was ordered by the commander of the maritime fortress of Brindisi, the landing of ballistics even from other vessels.
deficiency ventilation and cooling had been reported to the Ministry in July 1914 with a handwritten letter of the ship's captain Gino Fara Funds, which evidently was not given the right result.
Bibliography:
[1] Theodore G. Andriani, The naval base at Brindisi during the Great War , 1993
[2] Anthony Caputo, Brindisi Memoirs, 2004
The battleship Leonardo Da Vinci was a unit of Navy in Class Conte di Cavour. Odero built in shipyards in Genoa, was set July 18, 1910 and launched in 1911, entering service in May 17, 1914. The battle flag, which measured 6x4 meters was given by Leonardo da Vinci Society and the town of Vinci and was delivered during a ceremony in La Spezia, June 7, 1914. The bonnet of the sign of battle, in gilded bronze, would have impacted on the front face of Leonardo kept the portrait in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and one of the sides a thought of the Italian genius who also became the unit's motto: "Do not turns in a star who is steadfast. "
location to base of La Spezia, on the eve of the first World War the unit was transferred to Taranto, where it was moored August 2, 1916 when it was sunk in port by an Austrian sabotage. The explosion and trying to save the ship and killed 21 officers and 228 men of his crew including the commander of the Supreme Picenardi died two days later from the burns and decorated with gold medal for military valor. In fact, the hypothesis of sabotage, that involved a merchant and a Commissioner of Public Safety was never proved, and was later also assumed the explosion of a charge of cordite in a munitions depot.
After the war, the battleship was recovered for repairs, and during the recovery operations, August 5, 1919 was found by a diver the hood containing the flag of fighting unit. The flag was a little faded and had a few tears, but overall was still in good condition. The bonnet and the flag are kept in Rome at the Shrine of the Flags of the Vittoriano. recovery ended September 17, 1919 but the project of repairing it was abandoned and the unit was sold for scrapping 26 May 1923. [Source ]
At the technical naval museum of La Spezia is "the model (b. 1635) of the battleship Leonardo da Vinci (1911 - 1916) designed by the sister and Masdea of Cavour and Cesare (the latter two units were to be processed in 1933, while Leonardo sank in Mar Piccolo in Taranto in August 1916 - this is an old model, initially just sketched, on a scale of 1 50, served to study the problem of recovering the unit, then it has been totally rebuilt and completed in the Laboratory of this museum);
some memorabilia taken aboard the Leonardo, after recovery of Unity ".
... the blow of Zurich
The first shot of Zurich: the Navy takes revenge
was our counterintelligence ship to take the company to unmask the saboteurs of Brin and Leonardo.
Fifteen minutes before eight o'clock, September 27, 1915, the sun was already high on the sea front in Brindisi. The "Benedetto Brin" beautiful monster of iron at anchor, hoisted the banner flagship with a perfunctory ceremony but austere. The battleship life again: the officers gave orders dried, the sailors were running on the deck, deck machinery roared. At eight
precise tragedy, suddenly, without notice, and therefore even more dramatic. A tremendous explosion, deep from the belly of the ship, shook the sea. There were setbacks, or the immense mass of iron was minimally raised: was only heard a huge roar as if a thousand guns had been fired in unison and immediately after the battleship out of sight, surrounded by a reddish yellow smoke that rose up to a hundred meters. On the docks, on the deck of the other vessel's life stopped. All look to the red cloud that floated to where the first dangling "Brin." A few moments of waiting and then the tragedy appeared in a vision that made the horror and panic in slow motion. The monster did not attempt to fight back, slid sideways, then bow before the stern.
They organized relief efforts from the port and ships. The "Brin" were heard only the moans of the wounded sailors trapped by twisted metal, others trapped in the hatch; the living of panic, no one left the ship before it was given the order.
Tug boats loaded with order and the survivors. In an hour the rescue operation was completed. 21 officers responded to the call not to thirty, including 433 junior officers and sailors on 906. The battleship had brought 454 men into the sea.
At first, the official spoke of the explosion "santabarbara. A special commission of inquiry began to work immediately.
the wake of the first investigations was created a wave of nervousness. Appeared in the newspapers of the early criticisms. The inquiry commission continued its work, suggesting a new hypothesis: sabotage.
The spy network that Austro-Germans had stretched across Europe to work for years. It was a secret war, parallel to the one fought on the front lines, interwoven with intrigue and betrayal. An invisible army that had already proved effective, managing to sabotage workshops, factories and arsenals. The committee passed on to our
counter their suspicions, which were also those of ordinary people. And our intelligence service began to hunt for the traitors.
But the road was long and surrounded by other tragedies.
The most frightening was happening a few months later in the summer of 1916.
That evening, August 2, 1916, the Mar Piccolo of Taranto looked like a forest, with trees of the first squadron tinted by masking night. Was a night without moon and sultry, the sign on the flagship "Cavour" was lying limp, like the flags of the other battleships: "Andrea Doria", "Julius Caesar", "Duilio", "Leonardo da Vinci, Dante Alighieri ".
The sailors were returned to the free exit, the 22 had the bugler played "brand'abbasso. At 23, was a few minutes, the "Leonardo da Vinci, was shaken by a dull roar that rose from the bottom. The hull for a moment and shook the trees of the foremast and aft swung violently.
Then came silence.
Some officers, courses on deck, they noticed a faint reddish smoke hatches out from the tower battleship. The danger of a fire was serious: there was in fact the "santabarbara.
increasingly frequent explosions shook the belly of the ship, fore and aft and the plates of the bridge knocked the nails, the light failed. For several minutes the panic upset the order of operations that the officers were ordering. The lift of ammunition burst into a blaze covered. The men threw themselves forward herded into the water, but hundreds of sailors were still in place below decks.
the explosion at 23:40. The "Leonardo" is divided into so many craters, with a roar that traveled through the air for many miles around. High flames lit up the night, the sailors were swallowed up in the pits produced by the explosions. At 23:45 the battleship was reversed: beginning agony that would not be slow.
lost their lives, with 249 sailors, 21 officers, was destroyed one of our most beautiful and modern battleships.
The disaster was serious. Together with the loss of "Brin", one of the "Leonardo" decimated the power of our fleet, but the disaster threw dismay the public, which were spreading the certainty and the fear of being at the mercy of saboteurs.
Not only are the two big ships "Benedetto Brin" and "Leonardo da Vinci" are the victims of the saboteurs.
A huge fire destroys a whole declined at the port in Genoa. Blows up the ship in Livorno "Etruria". A Navy blimp hangar burns at Ancona. Jump dynamite of Cengio. Serious damage is experiencing a burst the hydroelectric plant in Terni. Most terrible of all, a railroad car full of bullets leaving the naval munitions factory Pagliari (La Spezia), it explodes with terrific violence between civilians and military killed 265 people. Soon after, the station also sabotage Vallegrande, fortunately without casualties.
The war is likely to suffer a dramatic turning point for Italy because of cleverly hatched a terrorist plot and making clear the branches and of complicity in the country. Now we must fight this very serious danger.
As usual, it is a fortuitous and unforeseeable circumstances to put on the right track investigations. A
Man arrested by police while he is placing a powerful charge of dynamite under the dam of the hydroelectric basin Marmore Alte, near Terni. The capture of the saboteur is also important because it confirms a suspicion already rooted in the counter: it is an Italian, the enemy relies on people willing to betray his country to war for money. Almost simultaneously, two other individuals undermine the power of Chiamonte and Simplon, but at the last moment one repents, he represents and speaks.
the network that the Austrians are weaving to strike at the heart of Italy, begins to open up a gap.
Who gets to work first is the counterintelligence service of the Navy, because the Navy has been the hardest hit. It was headed by Captain Graduates Marino, the means are few people even less, but now - in front of the seriousness of the facts - the government is shaken and something concrete (in cash and specialists) is awarded to graduates.
Captain moves well. From the interrogation of saboteurs arrested, and the confidences torn from our secret agents abroad, as well as from information provided by informants, is able to ensure that the center of the terrorist organization is based in Switzerland. Precisely in Zurich, the headquarters of the Austrian consulate in that city. Who pulls the strings is the Consul himself, who in reality is a Lieutenant Commander Vienna's Imperial Navy.
His name is Rudolph Mayer, its almost unlimited availability of funds, its offerings in exchange for the sabotage carried on ships, amazing. For a submarine, 300 000 lire, and for a cruiser, 500 000, for a battleship, one million. Money then. In today's figures, to be multiplied at least a thousand, which means that the sinking of the "Brin" has made the saboteur billion. In the face of those sums, the traitor was always found. Graduates
first move is to involve a skilled naval officer, Lieutenant Commander Pompeo Aloisi, a career diplomat. He is sent to Switzerland, the legation in Bern, and placed at its disposal some of the most skilled Italian followers. Aloisi started to study the situation and to monitor the building which houses the Austrian consulate. The plan is prepared
daring: to enter the office of Mayer, open the safe, take away the plans of sabotage and saboteurs folders, thus exposing the entire organization.
to the Navy Department to know that they do not want to get. The "stroke" may provoke dangerous international complications, no naval officer should be physically involved. The thing you do, but without compromising anybody. Graduates
talks with Aloisi, says that he agrees: it proceeds.
begins one of the most amazing business spy of all time. It
recruit participants in the "hit". First, the lawyer Livio Bini, Livorno, a refugee in Zurich was the one who reported the den of Mayer. Then two engineers from Trieste, great secret agents: Bonnes and Ugo Salvatore Cappelletti. Finally, the "men of hand" the sailor Tanzini stenosis, of Lodi, who became Deputy Chief for his skills as a technical specialist and torpedo boats, already enlisted in the naval counterintelligence. He will be the chief of patrol. Then a mechanic refugee in Trieste, Remigio Bronzino specialist in the manufacture keys. Again, an agent that Mayer played a double game, of which we will never know the name and acting from inside the consulate. Finally, a burglar professional. It's called Christmas Papini, and Livorno, went to catch them in jail where he is to have robbed a bank of Viareggio, is a specialist in opening safes. Convince him easily, or Zurich for the enterprise, and free and plywood or immediately after the front. The team is ready.
While observing everything that takes place outside the building (habit of employees, schedules, physical appearance, visitors, access roads, police patrols, etc..), The double agent game begins to provide the first indications valuable. He says where he is and what is the safe, but also warns that we must go through to get there sixteen doors, each of which must have the key. Think of him to provide fingerprints and soon this seemed an unsurmountable difficulty is overcome. The men have Tanzini of the sixteen keys in question. Finally, you can draw even the plans of the offices, the way you draw, you choose the time of the assault. This requires that you try on the night of February 22, 1917, because it's Carnival and this time the police surveillance has declined, people have to do is interested in building the Austrian consulate. On Shrove Tuesday, while the rest of Europe is at war, Zurich rages between balls and confetti.
packages and loads of luggage (we must also take a blowtorch to Papineau, the sheets of thick blue cloth obscure the windows), moving at night in four: Tanzini, Papini, Bronzino and Bini. They go unnoticed move sure, open one after another, the sixteen ports. They stop in front of the seventeenth, not planned by anyone: the double agent had always seen it open and did not think this was also closed at night. We must desist. The surprise is terrible. We collect your luggage and return to where they started.
It begins again with nagging concern. Performing real miracles, the double agent provides the mold of the Seventeenth door in record time. Bronzini factory key. It was decided to try again on the night of a day, Saturday before Lent, the two guards of the consulate will be absent, a big German shepherd that circulates inside the garden will be sleeping with chloroform.
at nine o'clock in the four open the door of the building of the Austrian consulate, and one after the other, the sixteen successive doors already open the last time. The Seventeenth yields and finally arrives in the office of Mayer, where it is safe to rob. Are now obscured the windows with the role blacks to prevent light leak out. Tanzini lights a large flashlight. Below, in the street, to guard, are Bonnes, Cappelletti and Bini. Inside, Papini sets to work with a blowtorch. Aloisi has timed: if all goes well, the operation will last about one hour. It lasted four
. The steel walls of the safe against attack, Papini had to work to exhaustion of stamina. When he managed to pierce the outer wall, a jet of poison gas came out, because the Austrians had to draw on that gimmick to maximizing the assaults of potential burglars. They had to turn off the lights, open the windows to let out the gas, then went back to work Papini covering his nose and mouth with a damp cloth, drinking sometimes lengthy sips of water a flowerpot to appease ' throat irritation.
was past one o'clock in the morning when you could get your hands on the booty: documents, encryption codes, the complete list Austrian spies in Italy, the number of current accounts of a bank in Lugano, where were deposited the money they paid to sabotage the plans for future attacks (and that was how it was learned that the Austrians were preparing to blow up " Giulio Cesare "at the port of La Spezia and intervened in time). In the safe there was also a large sum of money, 650 pounds of gold and 875 thousand Swiss francs that went counter to the Navy. Also
jewelry and a valuable collection of stamps, now deposited with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs in Rome.
With three suitcases full of material the "commando" comes from the consulate to one and a half at night. Nobody cares. Tanzini Papini and bring in three suitcases station. Bini goes home. Bronzino instead went to the Italian consulate to inform agents and Cappelletti Bonnes that everything went well. Bonnes and then reach by Bronzino and Tanzini Papini and depart the station with them to Bern, where he awaits Aloisi destroyed by anxiety. They arrive at eight in the morning, Bronzino and Papini continue for Italy. To save time and prevent the burglary was discovered too soon, Bronzino has broken a key in the lock of the office of Mayer, so that the guardians should notify the next morning the Austrian captain that the door does not open, will be used to blacksmith, and our time will have to ease into the deep undisturbed.
In Bern, the luggage delivery Bonnes Aloisi and just to make the counting of the spoils. It's up to Bonnes himself, who knows German, translating texts. Now we realize the importance of the "hit". Suffice it to say that the two are in the hands of the full report of the sinking of the "Leonardo" (with the initials of the sinking, Eng. IF) and plans to blow up the "Giulio Cesare." The day after Aloisi
part for Italy with the most important documents and with the values \u200b\u200bfound, while the counting Bonnes goes to Bern and the translation: the past few days, he reached the Baron Aloisi in the capital.
It was a triumph.
What results? Light raids were made. He made two or three jobs, concluded with a handful of flies. Some of the names of culprits disappeared from the papers, interesting documents were torn or mutilated, big characters that should have been involved remained in the shadows. The truth never came to the surface and everything ended in a general cover-up. The deaths of Taranto and Brindisi, more deaths at the hands of murderous traitors Italian, had no justice.
Louis Bazzoli
2
The coup Zurich
Conversation held by Col. Luciano Salerno April 23, 2001 to shareholders of the Ass. Spezzina Friends of History "at the club Castel San Giorgio di La Spezia
What's in that suitcase?
When the night of February 20, 1917, stenosis Tanzini felt first request documents from two Swiss police then the rest was afraid it was all over, that the undertaking for which he had braved so many dangers, and ongoing serious risks were irretrievably wrecked. The heavy bag with all the paraphernalia of the perfect burglar who dragged painfully betrayed him, his arrest was inevitable. He decided to play all out, thinking that only an act of courage and chutzpah could save him. "As you can see from my passport is an Italian engineer. Return to fulfill my duty as a soldier, unfortunately, at this time I could not find an available taxi, and now I have to drag this little 'bit of weight to the station. "
But let's step back and go to that morning of September 27, 1915 (17 months) who had scored all the subsequent events.
from Sunday's Courier of March 20, 1955
Fifteen minutes before 8 September 27th, the sun was already high on the sea front in Brindisi. The battleship Benedetto Brin ", launched in 1901 in Castellammare di Stabia, long mt.14.737 138 t / s / l, 4 guns 305/40mm. and 4 from 203/40mm. flagship hoisted the banner of the Third Division while on the ship as life begins again every day at any station in the world. Officers dried gave orders, the sailors on the deck and ran below deck boilers roared. At eight specific tragedy, suddenly, without warning, from the deep belly of the ship. A huge roar, a tremendous explosion as if a thousand guns had been fired in unison and immediately after the battleship out of sight, surrounded by a reddish yellow smoke that rose up to a hundred meters. Distinguished himself in the thick smoke for a moment the mass of steel of 305 mm guns aft of the tower that was launched into the air by the force of the explosion and then fell violently to the left of the battleship at sea. The steel monster slid sideways, then bow before the stern touching the bottom of 10 meters, while the bow slightly damaged showed the stern was completely submerged shaken reduced to a pile of scrap. With Admiral Baron Ernesto Rubin de Cervin died on the ship's captain, 21 officers and 433 petty officers and 906 sailors who made up the crew. The first version said the explosion "Santabarbara" then slowly began to emerge in truncated sentences worst case "sabotage." Sabotage as had happened in the mainland in converted factories and arsenals (Ancona, Terni Genoa, Naples, etc...) The sabotage was now a leap in quality, even on a flagship. The spy network that the Austro-Germans had stretched across Europe worked fine, and for years, against their own allies. Ally because even though we were at war with Austria the war against Germany had never been declared. The Germans could turn the country undisturbed. Our old habit of keeping his feet in both camps. Our Secret Service (now operating at a sub-section, the Navy) began hunting for traitors.
A year later, in the summer of 1916 (August 2) replication. Anchor in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto, one sultry night without moon and there was a forest of trees. Ia was the team with the flagship "Cavour", "Andrea Doria", "Julius Caesar", "Duilio", "Leonardo da Vinci" * and "Dante Alighieri". A few minutes to 23 when the "Leonardo da Vinci, was shaken by a diamond deaf rising from the bottom. The hull shuddered for a moment then went silent. A plume of smoke emerged from the hatch red clear sign that this time the "santabarbara" was involved. He was ordained to the flooding of the aft storage of ammunition, but a violent flare between the two towers (aft), 305 sailors forced to leave, while the captain and officers were trying vain and desperate measures. The muffled and distant explosions grew tight and powerful. The plates of the bridge and knocked the nails out the blaze went up the elevator shaft of the ammunition with incredible pressure. At 23:22 the explosion. Flames lit up the night high while the sailors were swallowed up in the work chasms. At 23:45, the battleship is turned upside down. Supreme Commander Picenardi perished, some 20 officers and 227 crew. In the hunt to the cell spy, who organized the attacks also came out as a high priest of the Vatican, the German Gerlach, Secret Chamber of Pope Benedict XV century to Giacomo Della Chiesa distinguished for his pacifism. Of course, even though evidence in relation to these attacks there were none, there was enough to prosecute him in absentia. (Escape had been made through diplomatic channels) on the eve of the coup in Zurich with the evident embarrassment of his holiness. Germany was still formally at peace with us because the war is declared on August 28. From that the time review of the Italians, but mainly the French on the neutrality of the Vatican went to hell and no one gave more credit to the nail came out of the Vatican.
same conclusion the other commission of inquiry: Sabotage. But there were immediate consequences in high places: The Duke of Abruzzi, in charge of the Italian navy, he left office, and Admiral Cutinelli, head of the 1st Squadron, was sacked. The investigation opened by the supreme command attributed the attack to the Austrian secret service in competition with Italian traitors. Defendants were the merchant Vincenzi, hiding during the process (probably removed from service Austrian intelligence on suspicion of cheating), the Commissioner of Cimmaruta PS, Criscuolo chief quartermaster, and the ship's captain, Picenardi, responsible for not having been able to prevent sabotage, but dead. The trial, which lasted for three years, ended in June of '20 with an acquittal for all defendants for lack of evidence.
The Austrian navy was not large but could be in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean give even an awkward one, especially if it passed the Strait of Otranto with submarines. Austrian submarines, naval units as children, then dedicated themselves to a war of surprise attacks against our bases in the Adriatic Sea (Venice, Ancona), against lesser ships civil or targets of the coast, before returning to hide in the maze of islands of Dalmatia. Along this coast their fortified bases were numerous and well-defended by naval barrages (steel cable networks and multi-line). So was Trieste, Pola, Bakar, Losinj etc ... Along the Adriatic Coast, the Navy was therefore equipped armed trains which shuttled between Ravenna and Brindisi. Was not possible to flush them out, but hit them with the stabs of Mas Rizzo. "... And they responded with the same currency on the basis of the mas d'Ancona. 60 commandos set off from Pula in the night and landed 15 km from Ancona. They spoke good Italian and wore civilian clothes. In their objectives, taking over motorboat for the return, sinking submarines in the harbor and an Austrian ship caught. The operation went well until they are in pens customs, financial police suspicious when he gave the alarm. The entire group, including some who had already defected earlier, was captured. The final blow that led to "term" at sea ".
Luck would have it, a saboteur who was placing a charge of dynamite the dam of the hydroelectric reservoir Marmore (fed the mill in Terni) were arrested. Nilly the "penitent" opens his mouth and begins to unravel the tangle. The organizations of this kind usually do not report directly to the summit but a number of sealed cells where the subject knows only those who are directly above. The counter is set to work knowing that his is a race against time. The Marine Captain Graduates of the counterintelligence service of the Navy, is moving better. From the interrogation of saboteurs arrested and torn from the confidences of our secret agents abroad after months can make sure that the organizing center from which orders are planned attacks and is in neutral Switzerland, precisely in Zurich, the headquarters of the Austrian consulate . It is at the head of Rudolph Mayer Captain Commander of the Imperial Navy of Vienna, the official behind the screen console. If graduates need money to counter the enemy, Mayer manages mountains: its availability is almost unlimited, his gifts in exchange for the sabotage carried on ships, amazing, living annuity only for the sinking of a rowing shell. There was a tariff. A console must argue diplomatically
console. What are they for if not military officers. He is a diplomat with a background operation, preferably in navy, as Pompeo Aloisi, who reached Switzerland. From now on, his office will monitor the comings and goings from the office of Mayer, and finally come into his office, open the safe, take away the plans of sabotage and folders with the names of undercover saboteurs, thus exposing the entire organization. The risk: discover to conduct covert operations in a neutral country and be expelled at once, if it was fine.
THOSE INVOLVED IN THE SECRET WAR: MILITARY INFORMATION SERVICES
order to more easily understand some of the hidden aspects that characterized the "secret war" waged between us and Austria-Hungary, it is necessary to briefly outline the state in which were the two information services - the Austro-Hungarian and Italian - at the outbreak of hostilities, that is, to May 24, 1915. Information Service Austro-Hungarian (Evidenzbureau). Its origin dates back to early 1800 and, during the century, given the political and economic importance taken by the Dual Monarchy, the Evidenzbureau (This is the name retained by the Service until the collapse of the Empire) expanded his powers and became thus a powerful weapon that effectively contribute to the maintenance of order and security of multi-ethnic empire. In fact, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as eminently composite have to worry more than anyone else to know what he was preparing against it, not only outside but also inside. Hence the great importance given to the Information Service, which extended its tentacles everywhere, in close union with the Police. When the first months of 1915 it was clear that Italy would declare war in the short run to Austria, the 'Evidenzbureau massively intensified activity information to the detriment of Italy, this also supported by the Austrian Consulate in Venice, Naples and Milan are still open (after skills to those Germans who went to a gross political mistake declared war only a year later). On the eve of the beginning of hostilities from Italy, also enhances the Evidenzbureau all their places of peripheral information and moved to Switzerland in Zurich, "Section sabotage" dell'Evidenzbureau-Marina, which was first deployed to Trieste under the cover name of "Office Description Coast," entrusted to the direction of Commander Captain Rudolph Mayer ace of espionage and Vice-Consul in Zurich,
Information Service Italian
Italian Information Service at the outbreak of hostilities, was, in its various components, very weak, both in terms of structural and functional. The pressure of world events and especially the deployment of Italy to the Entente Powers, in a determinate way in recent months had made it necessary, in a very short time, a reorganization of its information structures, directing them to operate against Austria- Hungary, which, as is known, was, together with Germany, our ally in the Treaty of the Triple Alliance. While the Service Austro-Hungarian Empire could boast an existence more than a century, supported by solid experience, by the high preparation and career opportunities and by deep ideological and moral reasons, in a context of strict military discipline, which enhance the efficiency and even more aggressive, the Italian was in its infancy and was supported by the most patriotic spirit Journal of some particularly sensitive to the needs of intelligence that an efficient organization of central and peripheral, so that a leading politician of the time he called it "unprofessional." The Italian service was then restored and strengthened in the short span of a few months, under the pressure of events. His best ally the unredeemed. Trentino, Trieste, Fiume and Dalmatia were not solicited by us, but came to us spontaneously, insistently, to encourage us to accept the assistance of their activities, which threatened property, liberty, family and even their lives.
SI Remedial: RECRUITMENT
The Navy did not have, the Swiss confederation, any base of support, even among the military personnel who were then still the most watched. It was then to create from scratch this structure: operating a detachment of the preconditions to act on the counter next time against the Consulate. Two volunteers of the war, originally from Trieste, Lt. Hugh Cappelletti, the 3rd Artillery Fortress already Officer '"I" and the Lieutenant of the Naval Engineers Salvatore Bonnes, both engineers and experts of the German perfect and explosives, in an act worthy of great consideration, proposed to the MS of the Navy to go their own in Switzerland. Cappelletti was appointed Vice-Consul in Zurich, but Bonnes he was appointed Commercial Attache of the Italian Legation in Bern. This was therefore the official front, but soon would come the operational hidden, secret, under false names. The informant, Deep Throat, Livio Bini was that which was offered by counting double agent to arrange his legal slopes in Italy (to return but said he did so when an illegal immigrant was arrested in Italy and "convinced" only then to cooperate).
These and had added to the above, employed by graduates, Lt. bathtub. Pompeo Aloisi, diplomacy and already an honorary aide de camp of the King, but when the fourth department (Service "I") and Lt. Vucevich with three non-commissioned Navy typists and a refugee in Trieste, Remigio Bronzino aka Remigio Fractions "specialist manufacture keys: Finally a burglar "professional" this Christmas Papini from Livorno, where he was caught in prison for having robbed a bank in Viareggio. "either with us or to the front, with these words he said were enrolled Papini also said that" Better to face. " In this Papini version was free and unrestricted, but changed his mind. This branch of the IV Department of the Navy was housed in a building of the legation in Bern, located on Elfenstrasse. The Zurich office of Mayer for internal strife had meanwhile moved to several rooms on the top floor of a building located in Seidengasse and the Bahnhofstrasse. On both revenue leads to a courtyard, from which wound the staircase leading up to the last chapter where were the offices of Mayer. Downstairs a bank. Since the two inputs also function as the walkway during the day go by and customers of the bank did not give eye. The plan designed by the Commander Aloisi, now considered to be crazy, provided for a forcing of the premises of the Consulate, safe and theft of documents from which he would go back to the network of spies and saboteurs operating in Italy. The first thing to do was the "construction" of the keys to the gate of the courtyard on Seidengasse, which was closed at night and those doors to get to the offices and the safe of Captain Mayer. Colonel Luciano Salerno on account of the times and modes of recruitment of men, actually nonlinear, Papini had experienced in safes, keys, or difficulties with his reproductions event that also involved the recruitment of another unredeemed, bushings, former worker of Stigler. On 29 January (10 days after his arrival) Bronzino a report on progress to Lieutenant Cappelletti, complaining of the conduct of the lawyer Bini ambiguous.
the same day he handed it to the first Bini keys in his view had to work, but the lawyer who had brought them to him free access to the plans saying they passed the lock from side to side. On January 31, Bini did not show up appointment to try the keys and Bronzino, breaking their orders, went alone to the Austro-Hungarian Consulate here and saw that he had done a great job. On 12 February, at a meeting in Bern, Commander Aloisi and endeavored to cut off Bini Bronzino the help of the sergeant of the Royal Marina Tanzini stenosis (pictured above), a native of Lodi, a true man of action, who served as a specialist young torpedo boats and then passed through the Service "I". (Tanzini at night was to take the impression with wax and the following evening, Bronzino working, switch to another port and so on nights, so long as one is not in possession of the sixteen keys that can reach the safe). At the end of a week everything was ready: key after key to the safe and we arrived here was the task of Papini always doubtful and worried about the jail. It states that the coup will be attempted on the night of 20 (22) February 1917 (Fat Tuesday), because it's Carnival and this time the surveillance Police slowed: people to do is be interested in building the Austrian consulate. Loads of packs and bags (you must also take a blowtorch to Papineau, the sheets of cloth, often blue to black out the windows), moving at night in four: Tanzini, Papini, Bronzino and the revived Bini. They go unnoticed move sure, open one after another, the sixteen ports. They stop in front of the 17th, not planned by anyone: the double agent had always seen it open and did not think this was also closed at night. We return to where they started and that is where Tanzini meets the police.
's ill the crisis has passed, we can carry it with the first train to Bern
on dates is a plethora of numbers and assumptions. Everything is postponed to 25 (bank holiday and closed). It's around 22 when you open the door and here is the 17th office of Mayer safe to rob and desks aprire.Vengono immediately darkened windows with the role blacks to prevent leaking and the sparks that light the blowtorch torch. Below, in the street, to Pole, Bonnes, Cappelletti and Bini wildcard. Inside, Papini, Bronzino and Tanzini who set to work with a blowtorch. Aloisi has timed: if all goes well, the operation will last about one hour. It lasted four to the light of the acetylene currently stored in the Naval Museum La Spezia to the upper hall [at the technical museum-ship of La Spezia is in fact "a flashlight (b. 6061) with which he was lit on the night of 25-26 February 1917, the safe of the Consulate Austrian Zurich broken into by a group sent by the Italian secret service (they were found so the names of spies and sabotage notamento works by Italian, allowing you to suppress the activities of spies in our Austrian territory .)"]. The steel walls of the safe against attack, Papini had to work to exhaustion of stamina. When he managed to pierce the outer wall, came out a jet of poison gas, perhaps created by a non-metallic intermediate layer. They had to turn off the lights, open the windows to let out the gas. Papini uncertain resumed his work covering his nose and mouth with a wet towel and drinking water sometimes lengthy sips of a flower pot to soothe the irritation of the throat. They were over 2 am when he fell on 26 when the last wall and was able to get their hands on loot: gold objects, photographs, money, a stamp collection and many documents of great interest and informative as military codes and encryption the list of spies. With three suitcases full of material the "commando" comes from the consulate at around 4. Nobody cares. Tanzini Papini and bring your luggage to the station and goes home Bini. Bronzino instead went to the Italian consulate to notify Bonnes Cappelletti and that everything went well and that avvisino Aloisi (l 'ill the crisis has passed, we can carry it with the first train to Bern) that are coming. Bonnes and then reach by Bronzino Tanzini Papini and leave the station and the first train to Bern. From eight o'clock in the morning Bronzino Berne and Papini continue for Italy. It's up to Bonnes, the only one who knows German, translated the first pages of the report of the sinking of the "Leonardo" and new plans to blow up the "Giulio Cesare" with the initials of the informant Italian.
Tanzini, the Courier on Sunday, then told of his recruitment
embarked on the destroyer Kite who planted the anchors in Civitavecchia, had entered into a relationship with un'attricetta varieties that "acted" in a coffee place. One night while returning from one of the usual convention was about to return illegal immigrants on board, was surprised by his commander and, mo 'justification, claimed to have fallen to earth in person to ensure the consistency of certain items that ran in the city according to which the coal deposit of the Navy was systematically looted by unknown thieves. "Why did not you warn me now? She asked the officer. "I wanted to be sure it was true," replied promptly, but without much conviction knowing full well that the thefts had mentioned were nothing but a product of his imagination. Great was his surprise, therefore, felt praise for the zeal and urge to continue the investigation. Back at the cafe with her friend and Confide, I was immediately stunned Tanzini the explanation of the mystery: in fact, a long time large quantities of coal were deducted from the deposit, is falsifying the bills and minutes of meetings, both during unloading. Naturally, he hastened to report all that he had heard to his commander, the culprits were caught red-handed, and Tanzini had a commendation. Was just thinking back to that old story that Tanzini when flourished on the lips of one of the Swiss police feared the question:
- What's in that suitcase? - decided to play all out, thinking that only an act of courage and chutzpah could save him. "As you can see from my passport is an Italian engineer. Return to fulfill my duty as a soldier, unfortunately, at this time I could not find a taxi available, and now I have to drag this little 'bit of weight to the station. " The
went well. The police ended up inviting him to drink with friends in one of the few cafes still open at that hour ... For that reason, safe, Aloisi had become Italy sent two skilled burglars, who promised more than a big cash prize, all the values \u200b\u200bcontained in the chest, but the two, daunted by the great difficulties that the company had, resigned. He thought, then, to apply to our IV Department of the Navy, recently established its own to fight the enemy, spying, and so it was that came on the scene Equipped with him false papers, he first went to Bern, where he agrees with Aloisi , and then in Zurich, to realize visually of what can be done. His colleagues will be a Livorno, an expert in the difficult art of forcing modern safes, and a mechanic who knows how to imitate to perfection keys more complicated and, of course, that a refugee in Switzerland, which had revealed Aloisi to the place where she kept a list of spies .....( it can be assumed that this outing like that of '58 Bonnes and underlying bill have been triggered by the worst movie made in '51 on the matter and that appears at the end for the record).
June 25, 1954 Chamber of Deputies: the question of a decision in favor of Papini. VIOLA Hon. The bill, submitted by me and other colleagues from different parties, it is proposed to remedy any injustice suffered by a worthy citizen. It is not an injustice due to the desire nor the intention of certain individuals or the appropriate authorities or certain governments, but it is an injustice that is in fact the same, implicit in the same situation they came to find this worthy citizen named Natalie Papini, born and residing in Livorno ....... . This senior official (Aloisi), in order to accomplish the delicate task, he turned to his fellow countryman, the mechanic Christmas Papini, who managed to make available to the Italian counter-six parcels of interesting documents and a good amount of jewelry. The documents served very well to the Italian counter and jewels, which were to be delivered to the Christmas burglar valuable Papini, but were confiscated by the Italian state, because the Papineau did not want to be rewarded. It seems to have been rewarded Baron Pompeo Aloisi, i1 which, from that moment, at least it shows us the chronicle of the time, could make a stunning and deserved career, during which very often, referring to Baron Pompeo Aloisi, we were reminded of the episode documents Zurich closely linked to good Papini. Now, this worthy citizen, who continued to be a mechanic in his hometown of Livorno, is old (he just turned 73 years old), illness, and recently was also the victim of a serious accident. A personality of Livorno, apolitical, writing in the interest of this poor fellow, he says, inter alia: The say in all sincerity and frankness that Christmas Papini literally suffer from hunger today. Now unable to work due to the recent serious injury, aggravated by old age, without any resources and overburdened with debts, poor Papini is found in a very desperate condition. If you were to make haste in his favor, we run the risk of arriving too late. ... .... arrived late
Ferdinando Martini, the Colonial Secretary in the Cabinet Salandra contains the following annotation, June 17, 1915, in his "Diary 1914-1918" - Even Paolucci (the Marquis of Calboli Paolucci, our ambassador in Berne) confirms that Lugano ( Switzerland in general) has become a center of infection anti-Italian, a nest of spies paid largely from Germany, and to deceive, of voluntary and paid intriguing. Sorvergliarli should, but while that is people who look and fine aristocratic habits, our spies were mostly from the police, who do not speak Italian and they speak French, God forbid! (Both male). Espionage, high international espionage, is a closed book for us .- published in 1966 by Mondadori.
Short hints at sabotage.
Mayer in his work as well as on the money, which accounted for 50% of the capital, counting on deserters, draft dodgers, anarchists and unredeemed that still did not like Rome. He also said that they were involved some politicians in the wake of his ex-wife Sophie of Bavaria of Francis II of the Two Sicilies, and then reopening a painful chapter of Southern Italy to the Savoy. It was the group's lawyer, Livio Bini of Florence (and others who say that a certain Battistella) who declared socialist, but in reality was in Switzerland to escape a conviction for Bankruptcy .. The lawyer. Bini was acquired as an informant by the organization of "intelligence" of Capt. Mayer, with a monthly salary of 500 pounds (not much). The means adopted were exploding from the traditional chemical Ecrasite and Termite.
These explosives, which were placed (unmarked) in the coal used to fuel the furnaces of steam ships and locomotives, exploded, seriously damaging the boilers. Munitions were used for deposits still ticking bomb. It 'clear that also on board were not carried out thorough anti-sabotage checks were not implemented and no action for the surveillance and safety, such as pass-by-sector. Terminal Italian saboteurs was a Venice hotel on the Riva degli Schiavoni. This hotel served the men at the time an Italian soldier cavalry expert ticking timer and three sailors who were responsible to bring them (bombs) on board. Were closer to the "Santa Barbara" was better.
site Senate
Pompeo Aloisi after won the title of baron August 15, 1919 for services rendered at home, back to a high-level diplomatic career, culminating in 1932, when Mussolini was called by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assumed the interim by Duce (as his chief of staff). Meanwhile, Italy is in the various conferences of the League will be replaced June 9, 1936 by Galeazzo Ciano in the fullness of the powers of the Ministry. Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Italy March 22, 1928 - Grand Cordon of the Order of SS Maurice and Lazarus July 9, 1936. Purged in '44 reinstated two years later. Captain in the Naval Reserve (August 19, 1927)-Admiral in the Naval Reserve (June 18, 1936)
CONCLUSIONS Based on the names found in the lists Austrians, many informants and saboteurs in the pay of the enemy were arrested (about forty). These include the three leaders of the sinking of the battleship "Benedetto Brin" sailors and Guglielmo Achille Moschin Corporal Giorgio Bartolini and Carpi, three times a deserter from the 25th Cavalry of Mantua. On 1 August 1918, after a long process, the sailor was sentenced to life imprisonment Bartolini, and Corporal George Carpet and mariner Achilles Moschin were sentenced to death by firing squad in the back, later changed to life imprisonment sentence. They were eventually pardoned and released from prison between 1937 and 1942, the new "climate of friendship and alliance between Italy and the Germanic world!. In the same spirit: In 1939 Hitler's conquest of Czechoslovakia. Who is the Czechoslovak Army CSM? It 's that Irsa lieutenant, assistant principal of the conspiracy of PIVKA Carzano that would lead Italy to overthrow the front before Caporetto. Hitler was Austrian Braunau certainly remember the episode of Carzano as a betrayal of his country of origin to which he immediately shot Irsa. Not only that, as in the Museum of Prague were remembered as heroes all members of the division of Czechoslovakia organized by the 'Italian Army, Hitler makes them look and shoot. PIVKA, Slovenian saved because he died in 37. Always
Ferdinando Martini "Among the documents in Zurich fledged found no cards in time before our declaration of war, but came from a letter-books in our hands a lot you get to know and to rebuild. And according to that letterbook three deputies to the Italian Parliament had been in the service of Germany, salaried or not. "
were later arrested Former Members Adolfo Brunicardi, Enrico Buonanno and Luigi Dini, accused of intelligence with the enemy and some implications for business and partly espionage. Maria Sofia agents were operating even in the Vatican. One of these was Bishop Rudolph Gerlach, Bavarian, tied to the former Queen of Naples (who had fought in the Austrian army), sentenced to death in absentia for having personally directed the sabotage of Brin and da Vinci. The obscure characters the "Shot of Zurich" did not go to nothing. Commander Pompeo Aloisi, after the war, he left the Navy and began his diplomatic career positions and then acquiring the title of Baron in the Mussolini government. The Lieutenants Cappelletti and Bonnes, the sergeant of the Royal Navy and the worker Tanzini Bronzino, were always proud to have completed the transaction for the pure love of country, without ever having applied for or received compensation or other rewards or decorations of any kind of 'moral order. On all of them fell down a blanket of silence, so that the extreme modesty of the actors then broke into a dignified protest. In September of 1958 (after the outing on Sunday Tanzini the Courier of 20 March 1955) states in a memory and detailed, published in the national press, Cappelletti Bonnes and illustrated in detail as it was actually prepared and executed the coup de Zurich. Instead stayed somewhat disappointed Christmas Papini, who had received the promise that it could have all the money found in the Austrian safe: he received only 30,000 pounds because the money and jewels were personal elegantly restored after the war the consul and his wife.
WITHOUT FLAG
espionage genre (The Shot of Zurich)
Production LUIGI ELF COLD FOR FILM
Directed by Lionello De Felice Subject
Luigi Freddi
Screenplay
Franco Brusati
Giorgio Prosperi
Jacopo Comin
Lionello De Felice
Nantas Salvalaggio
Scenography Alfredo Montori
Craveri
Music Photography Mario Renzo Rossellini
Carlo Model Ninchi CAPTAIN TELEGRAM Tuscus
Carlo MORELLI
Claudio Ermelli
Fanny label '
Guido Celano Seamen POGGI
Hans Moog BARON SWISS
Massimo Serato TEN. Morassi
Paolo Stoppa "Professor"
Umberto Spadaro The burglar
Vivi Gioi HELD GRUBER
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