On 20 July 1944 Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg set off a bomb at Hitler's Wolfsschanze headquarters near Rastenburg, today Kętrzyn in Poland. Hitler survived, the coup in Berlin collapsed, and Stauffenberg was shot that night. In 1866 Austria's fleet beat the Italians at Lissa, and in 1657 the Poles cornered Rákóczi at Czarny Ostrów.
Stauffenberg's bomb
By the summer of 1944 a network of officers and civilians had been planning for months to kill Hitler and seize power. Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, chief of staff to the commander of the Replacement Army, had access to Hitler's situation conferences and decided early in July to plant the bomb himself.1
On 20 July he brought it into the Wolfsschanze, the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's headquarters in the woods near Rastenburg in East Prussia. The site lies at Gierłoż, near the town now called Kętrzyn in Poland.2
At the midday conference Stauffenberg left his briefcase with the bomb near Hitler and went out of the room on a pretext. It exploded at about 12.42, shortly before 1 p.m., in a room with 24 people in it. Four of them were killed, but Hitler survived with light injuries.3
The coup that failed
The conspirators meant to use "Valkyrie", an existing plan for the Replacement Army to take over in an emergency, to seize power once Hitler was dead. Stauffenberg flew back to Berlin believing he had succeeded, but word that Hitler was alive spread through the afternoon, and many officers held back.4
In the evening troops loyal to the regime surrounded the Bendlerblock, the army offices that were the headquarters of the coup. That night Stauffenberg, his adjutant Werner von Haeften, Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim and Friedrich Olbricht were shot in its courtyard. Ludwig Beck died there too.5
The Gestapo made wave after wave of arrests in the days that followed, and families of the conspirators were interned. The People's Court tried the accused, and hundreds were put to death.6
Two navies, one sea
Lissa, Vis in Croatian, is an Adriatic island that Treccani places in present-day Croatia. In the summer of 1866 Italy and Austria were at war; according to the Hrvatska enciklopedija, Italy had sided with Prussia, and Habsburg territory on the Croatian coast was a strategic prize for it.7
Both sides had young ironclad fleets. Italy had twelve ironclads. Austria had seven. Treccani describes the Italian fleet as more numerous and better armed. Wilson counts 276 rifled guns on the Italian side against 121 on the Austrian, with four times the weight of metal.8
Tegetthoff, born at Marburg (Maribor) in 1827, had made his name against a Danish squadron off Heligoland in 1864. To make up for his weaker guns, he trained his crews to fight at close quarters and to use their ships as rams. Wilson writes that Austria's sailors were Italians or Dalmatians, among them 800 men from Venice itself; the Hrvatska enciklopedija says some 5,000 of the 7,871 sailors on the Habsburg ships are thought to have come from Croatian lands.9
Two days off Vis
Persano's fleet arrived off Vis on 18 July, intending to take the island. His ironclads bombarded the forts at Komiža (Comisa) and at the main harbor, while wooden frigates were sent against another bay; the attack was renewed the next day, and the island held.10
Tegetthoff lay with his fleet in the roadstead of Fasana, near Pola. On 19 July, told that the attack had been renewed, he decided to sail. Wilson writes that on the night of the 19th Persano asked his captains what they would do if Tegetthoff appeared, and they replied that they would sink him with their rams.11
"Sink him"
Wilson describes the Austrians advancing in wedge formation, the seven ironclads in front with the flagship Erzherzog Ferdinand Max at the point and the wooden ships behind. At 10.35 a.m. Tegetthoff signalled "Panzerschiffe den Feind anrennen und zum Sinken bringen", which Wilson translates as "Ironclads to charge the enemy and sink him." According to Clowes, a further signal, "Muss Sieg von Lissa werden" ("This must be the Victory of Lissa"), was prepared but could not be made before the fleets met.12
Persano had formed his ironclads in a single line ahead. Just before the clash he left his flagship, the Re d'Italia, for the ram Affondatore, and his captains were not told of the change. Stopping the Re d'Italia to change ships opened a wide gap in the line, and the Austrians passed through it.13
According to Clowes, the Italian Principe di Carignano opened fire at 10.43. Heinrich von Moll, captain of the Austrian ironclad Drache, was killed in the action. Clowes counts him among the victims of the first Italian shots.14
The Re d'Italia goes down
The battle broke into confused fighting in dense smoke. Several Austrian ironclads closed on the Re d'Italia, whose steering had been damaged and which could no longer maneuver. The Ferdinand Max rammed her at eleven and a half knots, and the Italian ship heeled over, lurched back and sank. Clowes times the sinking at 11.20 a.m., 37 minutes after the action began.15
Tegetthoff ordered boats lowered to pick up survivors, but Italian ships attacked and drove off the rescuers.16
The ironclad Palestro caught fire, by a shell according to Clowes, and left the fight burning. Offered boats to take off her crew, her commander, Alfredo Cappellini, refused to leave. "Those who wish to go, may go," he said, in Clowes's English; "for my part, I remain." Wilson renders it: "Whoever likes can go, but as for me, I stay". At about 2.30 p.m. the fire reached ammunition kept ready for the guns, and the ship blew up in sight of both fleets. Wilson counts 19 survivors out of 230; Clowes, one officer and 19 men out of 250.17
The cost
Treccani puts the Italian loss at more than 600 men and two ironclads. Wilson counts about 620 Italian dead and 161 wounded, including those lost in the attacks on the island. Of the 600 people aboard the Re d'Italia, Clowes writes that 168 were saved; Wilson gives 166 saved and 400 lost.18
In Wilson's count the Austrians lost 38 killed and 138 wounded, and the wooden ship of the line Kaiser, which had rammed the Italian ironclad Re di Portogallo, suffered most. The Affondatore sank in Ancona harbor some days later; Clowes dates this to 6 August; he ("it is said") and Wilson ("probably") both link it to damage from the battle.19
Verdicts
Wilson writes that in Italy it was at first claimed that the fleet had won a great victory. Persano was put on trial and held responsible for the defeat. According to Clowes, he was acquitted of cowardice and treason on 29 January 1867 but found guilty of negligence and incapacity on 15 April. Wilson says that the Senate tried him and also convicted him of disobedience. Both write that he was deprived of his rank. Tegetthoff was promoted to vice admiral.20
The Hrvatska enciklopedija judges that the battle had no direct effect on the outcome of the war but, as the first great naval battle of armored ships, influenced naval tactics. Clowes calls Lissa the first battle between armored fleets in the open sea. The ÖBL credits the victory with winning Austria command of the Adriatic, which mattered for the Dalmatian coast.21
Wilson, writing in 1896, noted that the ram sank only one ship that day and quoted Admiral Page: "In spite of the power of the ram, the gun is still the principal and dominating weapon of naval war."22
Battle of Czarny Ostrów, 1657: the end of Rákóczi's Polish adventure
20 July 1657 · 369 years ago
At Czarny Ostrów, the Polish Crown army of Potocki, Lubomirski and Czarniecki cornered the invading Transylvanian army of George II Rákóczi during the Deluge. Rákóczi capitulated and broke with Sweden, yet days later Crimean Tatars allied to Poland destroyed his army.
Read the full story of Battle of Czarny Ostrów, 1657: the end of Rákóczi's Polish adventure ›Also on this day
Battle of Lissa
20 July 1866 · 160 years ago
Near the Adriatic island of Lissa, an Italian fleet under Persano fought the Austrian fleet of Wilhelm von Tegetthoff in the Third Italian War of Independence. It was the first large battle of ironclad warships, and the Austrians won, sinking two Italian ships partly by ramming.
