Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 194, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1918 — ITALIAN NAVAL HERO TELLS OF HIS EXPLOIT [ARTICLE]

ITALIAN NAVAL HERO TELLS OF HIS EXPLOIT

Rizzo Describes How Two Mdtor Boats Sank Two Austrian Battleships. MOST DARING FEAT OF WAR Whole Thing Didn’t Take More Than Quarter of an Hour—Motor Boat’s Crew Go Mad With Joy Over “ Their Success. BY BEATRICE BASKERVILLE. (In the New York World.) Ancona. —Commandant Rizzo, i who has performed the most daring naval feat of the war, began his sea career as officer in the Italian merchant service. Not till Italy entered the war was he acquainted with the royal navy. He is under thirty, dark-eyed, quiet, has largish features which look as though they were cut out of steel, a square jaw and a slower manner of speaking than most Italians. When I first asked him, during his short stay in Ancona port, for particulars of his sinking of the St. Stephen and the Prince Eugene, Austria’s two largest ships, he modestly replied that he was no talker, and that for the rest he had to start off for Genoa in a very short while. But when he learned- that The World correspondent had traveled from Rome to hear him talk and that it would not take long, he yielded. "In the Creeping Dawn." "It was on the 10th of this month, he said. “I was returning to port after one of those humble and hard missions which we sailors have had to perform all the while these three years. I had made up my mind to leave the enemy’s coast, when, in the creeping dawn, I saw the smoke coming out of funnels, about 3,000 yards off. I thought we were found out and being chased by the enemy. It was hopeless to try to run away, so I turned my two motor boats, the second being commanded by Head Steersman (now Lieutenant) Aonzo, and made for the enemy. «»As the dawn grew I saw we were in for a large convoy of destroyers escorting two floating cyclops, of the Viribus Unitis type, which is the largest dreadnaught type in the Austrian navy. They had four at the beginning of the war; on the 6th of June they had three. Now they have only one left $ " 'Here we are at last,’ I said to my men. ‘This is a holiday!’ "We had not much in the way of arms —two torpedoes on each boat eight, small enough to be thrown by hand, between us, and two machine guns. But this was a chance we would never get again if we waited a thousand years, so I took it.

Three Clean Hits. “Aonzo was to slip around to the left and attack the Vlrlbus Unitis dreadnaught that made up the rear, and which we now know was the Prince Eugene. I was to make for the sister ship, which we now know was the St. Stephen. I slowed down to silence my motors, but as soon as I was well within the line of convoys I went forward at full speed. Our men held their breath. My motorist had a quiet fit every time the engine made a little noise. Another moment and the enemy saw us. Then began a furious cannonade. “Aonzo sent his first torpedo, but it did not work. His second hit the giant full in her poop. Then I followed with my two biscuits, precise, obedient and sure. The first landed between the St. Stephen’s funnels, in the boiler compartment; the second under her tower.” . - "After That It Was Hell.” The commandant paused, evidently reviewing events, then went on: “After that it was hell. There was a storm from their guns and a muddled crowd of destroyers encircled the two giants, which were beginning to sink. Some chased my boat. I saw 1 must either get out into the open like a dart or perish. With a violent jerk we turned our boat on herself and made for it. But a destroyer balked our path. So I jerked round to the left and rushed right under the prow of the St Stephen, now almost swallowed by the sea. Aonzo took the chance be got by their attacking me

and made off too. The same destroyer that barred his way went for me. “Our motor boats were only a hundred yards apart. It was just as if we were trying to escape from a locomotive by running along the railroad. The cannons buzzed and roared round our heads. I thought a dose of the machine gun would do them good, but it didn’t. They were very close and our moment seemed to have come. Like angry mastiffs they rushed after us, their prows looming over us from above. Then I tried them with two torpedoes. The first fell foul, but the second hit its mark. There was a terrific explosion and the destroyer wohblpd and began to turn over. I made for safety as hard as I knew how. “The whole thing, from the time we attacked till I fired that second torpedo against the chasing destroyer, didn’t take more than a quarter of an hour. Crews Mad With Joy. “When we got into the open, safe and sound, I was able to smile again. My five lads were still astounded with the rapidity qf events. Then one of them cried, ‘We’ve.been in hell!’ And they went mad with joy, hugging, cheering, kissing, crying in a fine frenzy of glory at what we had done.

“They hoisted our biggest flag and decked the boat in bunting, like a bride. To our delight we saw that from some way off Aonzo hoisted his, too, in answer to us. They were safe as well. "I don’t think we were within four miles of our port when my lads, under the delusion that they could be heard,, kept shouting out landward: ‘Two Viribus Unitis! We’ve sunk two Viribus Unitis!* 4 “You won’t ’succeed in persuading the enemy that they weren’t the victims of spies. But I assure you that there was neither spying nor treachery in the whole thing. The Prince Eugene, which Aonzo torpedoed, sunk on her way home and lies near the Austrian coast, as our hydroplanes soon afterward found out The St. Stephen sunk where she was torpedoed. Those dogs won’t venture out again now. All they’ve left to do is to carry their dreadnaughts’ carcasses off and send them to Lubiana. “The greatest enemy our torpedo boats have is the moon,” concluded the commandant. “Had it been a moonlight night, we should all have gofie to the bottom without doing them any harm.” Ancona is doubly grateful to Rizzo, for there is no "doubt in the minds of its inhabitants that the enemy fleet he dispersed was making for them to bombard them off the face of the map. All the heroes of this enterprise have received honors and decorations from the king of Italy, prize money fsom the admiralty, and a large sum of money from the Italian public.