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Action of 8 June 1915
Part of Adriatic campaing of World War I
Austro-Hungarian L48 seaplane attacking M.2 Città di Ferrara(illustration by Wilhelm Malchin)
Date 8 June 1915 Location c. 20 km from Premura, Vis Island, Adriatic Sea Result Austria-Hungarian victory
Belligerents
Austria-Hungary	Italy
Commanders and leaders
Lschlt. Gustav Klasing Schiesskommandant Hans Fritsche von Crouenwald	Castruccio Castracane degli Antelminelli
Strength
L48 seaplane several torpedo boats	M.2 Città di Ferrara marine airship
Casualties and losses
none	2 killed 7 injured and captured

The Action of 8 June 1915 was a combined air and naval clash beween the Italian airship M.2 Città di Ferrara and Austro-Hungarian Navy L48 seaplane and two military vessels near the coast of north-eastern Italy as a part of Adriatic campaing of World War I. The airship was chased after a bomb raid on Pula by an air and navy patrol while the Austro-Hungarian aircraft crew was able to destroy the airship in the air. This incident is marked in aviation history as the first case of an airship being shot down by another aircraft.

Background

Air and naval actions started shortly after the Italian Kingdom entered the war on the Allied side on 24 May 1915. Just a few hours after this act Italian city of Venice was hit by an air raid by Austro-Hungarian Air Force planes, Austro-Hungarian navy then proceeded a coastal bombardment raid on the port of Ancona. Italians responded with an attack on 23 and 24 May, when the V.1 Città di Jesi M.2 Città di Ferrara had the task of carrying out an incursion on the enemy naval stronghold of Pola. Despite of harsh weather, airships managed to reach their target, drop bombs on a coastal facilities and probably even damage a Austro-Hungarian destroyer SMS Velebit. Threatened by two enemy seaplanes, the commander suspended the action and returned to the Jesi airfield. On 30 May Città di Ferrara took off from the Campalto airport near Venice to bomb Pula again, also filling its task successfuly.

Action

On 8 June 1915 M.2 Città di Ferrara under the command of captain Castruccio Castracane degli Antelminelli was instructed to proceed a bombing mission against the Whitehead torpedo factories and the Ganz & Co. Danubius shipyards in Fiume. During the raid the airship was hit and seriously damaged by an enemy anti-aircraft artillery fire. Aircraft flying in a low height permanently loosing gas of its body was approximately 20 km from Premuda then reached by the Austro-Hungarian seaplane Lohner L 48 piloted by Lschlt. Gustav Klasing with Schiesskommandant (artillerist) Hans Fritsche von Crouenwald as an observer, which took off from its Fiume base after the air raid. Also several Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats followed the airship from Fiume.

Klasing and Frische at first attacked the airship by a deck machine gun fire without having any mayor effect - M.2 continued on its escape. After the Austro-Hungarian aviators ran out of ammunition, Klasing then managed to got his plane on a distance about 15 meters from the airship and then the crew shot two flares to the airship body. The second shot caused and explosion of a hydrogene gas, airship body started to burn and fell into the sea.

Aftermath

Impact on the water or drowning caused the death of two crew members, while the survivors were picked up by an Austro-Hungarian torpedo boat and taken prisoner. Residues of the ship were collected and taken to Fiume.

The event was strongly used by an Austro-Hungrarian war propaganda and in Central Powers countries media various depictions of an incident appeared.

The shotdown of the M.2 airship entered to the military aviation history as the first successful attack of a plane on an airship.

See also

• M.2 Città di Ferrara
• Lohner L

Citations

1. Petrescu, Victoria Relly (2013). The Aviation History. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 64. ISBN 9783848266395.
2. "Navigation - Air - Airships". Istria on the Internet. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
3. "Navigation - Air - Airships". Istria on the Internet. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
4. Collective of authors (1918). Heldenwerk: herausgegeben zu Gunsten der Kriegsfüfsorgezwecke des Kriegshilfsbüros des kk Ministeriums des Innern. Innsbruck: Heldenwerk Verlags- und Vertriebs. p. 144. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
5. Mašek, Jiří. "Velká válka nad Jadranem". Válka.cz. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
6. Illustrierte Geschichte des Weltkrieges 1914-1918. Sechster Band (in German). Stuttgart: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft. 1917. p. 57. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
7. Illustrierte Geschichte des Weltkrieges 1914-1918. 2. Band (in German). Stuttgart: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft. 1915. p. 498. Retrieved 4 November 2024.

Bibliography

• Albrich, Thomas; Hagen, Nikolaus, eds. (2019). Österreich-Ungarns Fliegerasse im Ersten Weltkrieg 1914–1918 (in German). Innsbruck: Universitätsverlag Wagner. ISBN 978-3-7030-0997-6.
• Luigi Mancini, ed. (1936). Grande Enciclopedia Aeronautica (in Italian). Milan: Edizioni Aeronautica.

External links

• Aerial operations and battles of World War I
• 1915 in Italy
• Conflicts in 1915
• Naval battles of World War I involving Austria-Hungary
• Naval battles of World War I involving Italy
• Maritime incidents in Italy
• June 1915 events