The Third war of Independence Part II
The Naval Forces
While on the paper, the new expansion program wanted by the Count had created a Navy with ships more modern than that of Austria-Hungary, the great majority of them were built in different foreign yard, as Italy for the moment was incapable to produce modern ships. Naturally acquiring new ships was just one of the problems of the Regia Marina; there was also the need to integrate men and officers of the various pre-unitary navies, especially the Piedmontese and the Bourbon whose rivalry was many time crippling.
The refusal to confirm the various promotion given by Garibaldi during the conquest of the Bourbon Kingdom, due to the fear of Republican feeling of the officers in question was another morale problem for the newly created Navy; one that greatly augmented the tension among the personnel.
Among the other problems for the Italians there were a general scarcity of trained technical personnel and officers, not counting the fact that many don’t spoke Italian but a series of dialect sometime barely recognizable; finally many of the new ships had various technical problem or had been built with subpar material.
At the beginning of April, the government decided to form a naval force with the assignment to wage war against the Austrian Empire. The officer assigned to lead it Admiral Carlo Pellion of Persano, after an inspection at the base of Ancona, reported to the King and Prime Minister the condition of the Navy and declared that at least three months were needed to bring it in fighting condition; in the end Cavour gave him only two. (1)
Persano was a Sardinian officer that many in the Navy and in the political circles considered mediocre and whose advancements were obtained more due to ‘friends in high place’ than true talent. Cavour himself years before had expressed the intention to bring him to the court martial for almost sinking of the Royal yacht, while the royal family was on board and even the King never forget or really forgive that accident. Unfortunately for both the ruler and the Minister he was the only naval officer with experience and politically reliable; at least Persano obtained as Chief of Staff Captain Amilcare Anguissola, a trusted friend. (2)
Guided by Wilhelm Von Tegettoff, a veteran of the recent Danish conflict, the K.u.K Kriegsmarine, on the other side, while inferior numerical and for tonnage, had her ships built by national yards, so tuned to her necessity, and in general more reliable. Even the crew were more uniform and have a better training thanks to the Naval School at Venice, nevertheless in the weeks before the conflict, the Admiral augmented the numbers and the intensity of the drills.
The Initial Naval Activity
As previous order, the 18th June the Fleet left Taranto and headed towards Ancona, her new base of operation for the duration of the conflict. The ships arrived 4 days later, with a cruise speed of only 5 knots so to not put too much strain in the engine. The port of Ancona were too little to hold all the ships, so the great part of them were forced to stay out in the harbor, moored at buoys.
Without specific order and in need to continue the maintenance of his fleet and the training of the men, Admiral Persano decided to remain at his base only sending some scout to keep an eye on the Austrian activity.
The first encounter with the enemy happened 27 June, when the scout Messaggiere discovered a 12 ship strong Austrian squadron in route to Ancona. Persano, using the Re D’Italia as flagships and with nine other armored unit, all the combat worthy ships in his possession, sailed from his base to intercept it. Tegetthoff decided in the end to not engage the enemy and ordered at the squadron to return at the base. The only shoots fired during this action were the three round from the armored frigate Regina Maria Pia against the steamwheeler Greif, but all missed their target and later Persano order the cease-fire. (3)
Later in a reunion with his officers, Persano decided to not follow the enemy and go back at Ancona.
After he created a tight surveillance service while continuing the training of the crew and the maintenance of the ships, so to bring all at the most high level of efficiency possible.
Consequence of Sadowa
After the initial battle at Custoza, the situation on the Italian front had become relative quiet, neither La Marmora (even if prodded by both the King and Cavour to be more aggressive) or the Archduke desired another engagement on open field at the moment. The only action of the Italian forces was to start the siege at the ‘Quadrilatero Fortress’ and the Austrian used the time for further fortify their position.
The Prussian victory at Sadowa soon changed this dynamic.
The day after the defeat, the Austrian government asked the mediation of Napoleon III, proposing to give to him Veneto (so to later give it to the Italians) if Italy accepted a ceasefire and left the war.
The French Emperor, accepting the Austrian request, sent a telegram to Vittorio Emanuele II, explaining the proposal.
This was one of the rare occasion were both the King and the Prime Minister perfectly agreed on a line of action, even for different reason.
The two men were on the same side regarding refusing the offer, the King because he found it not honorable besides he found Napoleon meddling too intrusive. Cavour instead thought that give up an ally in this manner will have dire future consequence for the diplomatic position of Italy and he had further plan for the war and the French mediation attempt were an obstacle.
La Marmora under heavy political pressure, even Bismarck have complained about the Italian war effort or better the lack of it, decided to finally send two division to Garibaldi (lead by Medici and Bixio, two of Garibaldi former adjutant) in Trentino and to start the full invasion of Veneto, leaving just 6 division (commanded by Cadorna) to continue the block of the Quadrilatero fortress.
Now the general situation were more favorable to Italy, as many Austrians troops were moved north to fight against the Prussian.
Even Persano was strongly encouraged to take action otherwise another will have took his place, this fixation of Cavour for some naval action were a great source of attrition between him and the Army leaderships. In fact many general in fact thought that the resources spent in ‘vastly overprized toys’ were wasted instead to be correctly used to support the real backbone of the Kingdom. The Prime Minister instead was a firm believer of naval power and the importance of possessing a strong Navy, so he felt that a naval victory was the only way to be vindicated.
The Italian Army Advance.
La Marmora rapidly advanced in all Veneto, with just the occasionally but hard fight against the remainder Austrian forces and by the time of the cease-fire, the first units were a couple of km from the Isonzo.
The harshest fights of the second part of the campaign happened in Trentino, were the renewed offensive by Garibaldi was supported by two division sent by La Marmora (4); the latter probably sent to demonstrate some initiative and make the politicians and the King stop, at least for a moment, the strong demand for action.
General Khun attempted some counterattack, but were initially too weak to stop the enemy. This was part of the General plan; he wanted to concentrate his forces in an attempt to launch an attack when the volunteers finally started their assault at Trento. While this counterattack was successful and the Garibaldini were unable to encircle the Austrian position being beaten in the Battle of Condino, the Austrian lacked the forces to follow the enemy and launch their offensive, so Khum was forced to order at his men to just retake their position and remain there.
The final straw for the Austrian come the 10th when Bixio and Medici division started their assault on Trentino, forcing Khum troops to fight a two front war. Khum, after having received just three regiment from Verona as reinforcement, attempted to block the Italian southern advance at the beginning, blocking the Primolano Pass.
The 12th after the position had been taken and retaken by either side many times, the Italian definitely conquered Primolano, forcing Khum to a total redistribution of the troops, so to be prepared at the Siege of Trento.
At the same time, the General had obtained the permission from the Archduke to leave the Italian Tyrol and concentrate over the protection of Bozen. Khum was intentioned to not leave the city without a fight, so he prepared his troops for a battle right in front of Trento and for a general retreat. He was sure that the Italians will have let him go away as they seemed that their objective was occupy as much of Trentino they can and not destroy him.
The battle of Trento was short, hard fought and bloody, with the numerical superior Italians lead by relatively inexperienced Generals, fighting against troops lead by one of the best Austrian commander. Khum in a couple of occasion almost succeeded in encircle the Italians but the enemy sheer number and the menace of Garibaldi forced plus a little luck for Medici (a cavalry unit attacked without permission alerting the Italian of the presence of a larger force) forced the Austrian to leave the terrain quickly.
Sunday 15th June 1866 Italian troops finally enter in Trento.
BATTLE OF LISSA
Choosing the objectives
The Prime Minister, the King and other politicians and military commander pressed Persano to take the fleet out and engage the enemy. The moment was critical both politically and military and the indecision, some said even cowardice, of the Navy was a stain on Italy honor, with the menace of being dismissed looming over him, Persano finally decided to launch an operation directly against the Hapsburg territory, hoping to lure out the enemy fleet.
He proposed the attack and the conquest of Lissa, an island of Dalmatia were a naval base was present; Persano requested at least 6.000 soldiers for the effective conquest and control of the island, but for scarcity of ships, only the half was authorized for the initial assault(5), the rest will have come later.
The 16th July 1866, an Italian fleet composed by 24 ships (included the just arrived Affondatore) sailed from Ancona with objective the fortified island of Lissa. Using map prepared years earlier(6), Persano and his officers prepared their plan, thinking that the target could be conquered with a surprise attack. The commander divided his fleet in 5 squad, one with the role of scout, three for the attack on the three port of the island and the fifth, composed by some gunboat, with the assignment to cut the telegraph line and shut down a nearby observation post so to isolate the place.
Unfortunately the gunboats were discovered during their mission by Austrian officers that immediately relied the information to Tegetthoff; while the Italian captain never had the possibility to reveal that they were discovered. The Austrian command denied at the Vice Admiral the permission to sail unless he was certain that this was not an Italian faint, so Persano for sheer luck gained two precious day.
The Attack
The morning of the 18th, the Italian fleet launched his assault at Lissa. The fleet was divided as expected by the plan and started the bombardment of objectives just before noon. The bombardment lasted till dusk, destroying or severely damaging great part of the batteries of the island, still there were a strong resistance from the Lissa garrison and the general weather condition and the nightfall advised against landing the troops.
At 10.00 of the 19, Persano decided to attempt to land his forces on Lissa, even with the sea not in perfect condition as for now the only good news was that some reinforcement troops had just arrived from Ancona. Under heavy fusilier fire but with the cover of all the fleet artillery the first Italian soldiers landed, starting the conquest of target.
For all the day the Italian fleet supported the troops bombarding the remaining Austrian holdout and by sunset over Lissa stood the Tricolore; all that at the cost of 79 deaths and 239 wounded for the Italians.
At the dawn of the next day the scout Esploratore discovered the Austrian fleet approaching the Italian position; the Lissa garrison had succeeded in warning Tegetthoff, the enemy was coming.
Battle plans
The Austrian admiral due to the inferior firepower of his ships, had planned to quickly advance towards a section of the Italian fleet, isolate her from the rest of the force, fire from short distance and ramming it, so to force her to retreat; for this reason Tegetthoff had given the order to concentrate all the fire a ship over a single target at the time.
Persano answered putting his armored ships in three column placed side by side and the minor unit behind them. A lot of time was lost due to the necessity of gather the units as they were scattered around the island.
At 11.00, the two forces finally faced each other, with the Austrian commander giving the order to attack the central line of the Italian formation, attempting in this manner to isolate Persano as his flagship the Re d’Italia was there.
Persano ordered to open fire against the enemy formation immediately, and while in general thanks to the excessive distance, the effectiveness of the Italians guns was limited, the Austrians suffered some important damage, like the ironclad Drache that was hit by at least 20 round losing propulsion and the bulk of his officers, so was forced to leave the engagement.
When Tegetthoff force engaged the Persano ships, the other two wing started an enveloping maneuver so to attack the Austrian ships from behind; especially the older that composed the rearguard.
The continuing exchange of fire between the ships and some difficult by the Italians to perform the maneuver gave at Hapsburg forces more time to pummel the outnumbered forces of Persano Division.
The Austrian initial attempt to ram the enemy ships failed due to evasive maneuver, the Affondatore attempted later the same maneuver against the frigate Novara, causing severe damage but failing to sink her.
At the same time, the Italian reserve, not understanding correctly Persano order entered in battle while the other wing ended their attempt at encirclement, the fight quickly devolved in a confused series of battle between small groups without real coordination. The wooden ship Kaiser attempt to ram the Re del Portogallo ended with the latter not only evading the attack maneuver but also use the occasion to try its own ramming against the Kaiser; the Austrian ship successfully avoided the Italians, but the Re del Portogallo guns still caused severe damage. The Kaiser was finally put out of commission by an attack of the Affondatore soon after the end of this particular engagement
After 2 hours of battle, Tegetthoff, taking in consideration the situation of ammunition and supply and the condition of the remaining ships, decided to retreat and return at their base. On the other side, Persano gladly let the Austrian depart as even him had almost finished the ammunition and his men were too tired to continue the fight or begin to pursuit the enemy.
The Italian fleet remained in position until the evening, so to recover any shipwrecked sailors and in case the Austrian had returned. The morning after, Persano sent the more damaged ship, still in condition to navigate, to Ancona with wounded and the prisoner and more importantly with the news of the first victory of the Italian Navy.
In the end, the Italian suffered the loss of two armoured ships ( San Martino and Regina Maria Pia) and severe damage at many other unit, not counting the loss of almost 700 men; the K.u.K. (Austrian Navy) instead lost 5 ships (plus another that needed to be scrapped after the battle) and more than 1000 men
France meddling
Just after a couple of days after the Austrian defeat at Sadowa, Napoleon III started to send diplomatic feelers to both Prussia and Austria, offering his service to settle the conflict. This started a series of diplomatic conflict both internal and external in the various faction of this war.
Bismarck promptly agreed at the French mediation and made public is two demand; the exclusion of the Austrian Empire from the affair of the German Confederacy and Prussian control of the German territories north of the river Meno. The only add done by the French Emperor were the clause about the integrity of the Austrian Empire except Veneto and the possibility of the German states south of the Meno to form their confederacy.
The motivation of the Prussian chancellor for this very lenient term, instead of the massive territorial gain Bohemia-Moravia that the Prussian King originally envisioned, were to avoid the creation of 'Great Germany' and the struggle to absorb the catholic south. The so called 'Little Germany' plan, caused a serious rift between Bismarck and king Wilhelm due to the different final objective of the two me; legend says that Bismarck menaced to throw himself out of the window if his plan was not accepted...and the king without saying a word open one.
Naturally this proposal was not received well in Florence, not only limited the Italian gain at Veneto but the prize itself was to be given at Italy indirectly, as Austria demanded to cede the territory to France and later Paris will have turned to the Italians.
For this reason La Marmora was greatly pressured by both Cavour and the King, to immediately resume the offensive in both Veneto and Trentino and at the same time the Prime minister ordered at the Navy to begin the operation to engage the Austrian Fleet otherwise they will be both relieved of their command.
While both Bismarck and Franz Joseph greatly resisted the Italian attempt to acquire more territory than originally planned, more precisely the already conquered Trentino dragging the negotiation to standstill and at the same time the chancellor was on a battle of will with his own king about his desire to expand Prussia, desire rekindled by Cavour similar intent.
In a shocking move, Bismarck announced the 21 that he accepted unilaterally the French plan, with only the adding of the provision that Austria-Hungary will be forced to cede to Prussia a slice of Silesia so to placate King Wilhelm, and that an armistice was agreed starting 26 July.
The reaction of King and the rest of the Italian government was intense and furious, Cavour, still bedridden due to a relapse of malaria (the prime minister refused to step down till his doctor give him the permission to continue his work and basically directed the war effort from the bed of his family house) menaced to continue the war alone till the Italian legitimate aspiration will be fulfilled. At the same time he frantically hoped to strengthen his position with a more clear military victory as even the United Kingdom had expresses his doubt about the Italian right to acquire more land, now the Kingdom of Italy was diplomatically isolated.
The victory at Lissa greatly improved the Italian position, with the Italian Army already in possession of the land originally agreed and also of Trentino and now with a foothold in Dalmatia; the Viennese court was afraid that continuing the conflict will cause the Croats and the Magyar to start a rebellion and in general the morale of the army was low due to the defeat in both front.
The diplomatic breakout happened the 23, the day after Lissa, with a note of the Italian government directed to both Bismarck and Napoleon III that stated they agree in demanding only the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto as the pact signed, but that they consider Dalmatia as a part of it due to the ties with the Republic of Venetia and naturally, both territory and the Iron Crow symbol of the Kingdom will need to be given directly to the Kingdom of Italy and not through intermediary.
In his diaries Camillo Benso Count of Cavour, declared that this was his intention from the beginning, as he fully know that ceding Trentino was a too great humiliation for Vienna and his momentary Prussian ally will have not permitted, still Trento was worthy an attempt.
Both Bismarck and Napoleon III reluctantly decided to get along with this diplomatic fiction after some though, as it permit to close the conflict and even the Hapsburg government accepted the deal as it was less humiliating than give away Trentino a long standing imperial territory, after all, Dalmatia was much more difficult to defend and can be easily retaken.
Armistice of Cormons
The formal armistice between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy was signed the 9th August 1866 by General Agostino Petitti Bagliani di Loreto for Italy and General Carl Moring for Austria-Hungary. This treaty freeze the military situation with the Italians holding Trento and Lissa and in control of Veneto until the Isonzo, with the troops of the 'quadrilatero fortress' barely holding.
Treaty of Vienna
The formal peace treaty between the two nations was signed the 1st October 1866, established the cession of Veneto, and annexed Dalmatia directly to Italy. Some attempt of Napoleon III to be part of the peace process were politely deflected as Cavour and the King wanted that Italy not sharing the laurels of victory with anyone else and Vienna was persuaded in keep the diplomatic talks by some rumor about Garibaldi refusing to retreat his volunteers from Trentino and start an anti-Hapsburg guerilla, in reality the General, as stated in his famous answer to the King order to return in Italy, that he had no intention to disobeys orders.
(1)OTL the government (lead by La Marmora) barely give at the Navy, a couple of weeks
(2) OTL he was assigned Edoardo D’Amico...and the two men greatly despised each other.
(3)OTL only 8 ships were ready and no shot was fired, this it’s just a sign of the Italian navy being a little better.
(4)OTL only 1 division was sent.
(5)OTL only 600 men were assigned
