Page - 888 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

888 The Inner Front sions lay at anchor in the bays and harbours and had to suffer day after day the tedious drill and the excesses of long lay times. Since the attack on the Italian coastal cities at the beginning of the war with Italy in 1915 and the attack on the Allied blockades in the Strait of Otranto on 15 May 1917, there had been hardly any other large-scale operations. Only some units had bombarded the coast during the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo. There had also, however, been very few gratifying events. On 5 October 1917, a Czech and a Slovenian sailor had locked the officers of the torpedo boat Tb 11 in their cabins and brought the boat from Sebenico to Italy. On 10 December, in turn, Italian torpedo boats penetrated the harbour in Trieste and sunk the old battleship Wien. Treason could have played a role, so that the Italians were able to pass the block- ade of the harbour entrance unseen.2124 There was audible criticism of the Commander of the Fleet, Admiral Njegovan, who was accused of complacency and sloppiness. He appeared to have already given up.2125 Whoever could afford to, and this was above all the officers, indulged his idiosyn- crasies. Bears and monkeys, any kind of two- or four-legged animals, served to pass the time ; the enlisted men felt disadvantaged. The rations left a lot to be desired. Instead of 500 grams of bread, for a period of time there were only 400 grams. (In the interior of the Dual Monarchy, the levels were admittedly already down to approximately 230 grams or 300 grams for heavy workers.)2126 There were also lots of other things to find fault with. Punishments were allocated very liberally, so that the normal rhythm of ‘four hours on duty, eight hours off’ could easily change to 16 hours of uninterrupted duty. Detention sentences were imposed for the slightest offences.2127 On 1 February, the munity started ; by the evening, it had spread from the cruiser division to the battleship and torpedo boat flotilla. In the evening, the mutinying sailors announced their de- mands : measures for the immediate initiation of peace ; peace on the basis of the Rus- sian proposals, without annexations, etc.; the right of nations to self-determination and a faithful response to Wilson’s Fourteen Points ; the democratisation of the government. For the duration of the war, there was also to be some relief, such as extra rations, six weeks of holiday each year, more cigarettes, the fulfilment of special wishes and other things. The mutineers, however, had little success. The Regional Commander of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia, General Sarkotić, had the Bay of Kotor encircled from the land. On 2 February, the units that had remained loyal jumped ship in the inner bay. The ships with the mutineers, who also had the Commander of the Cruiser Division, Rear Admiral Hansa, in their hands, remained in the central area of the bay. Maritime en- circlement forces from Pola, however, entered the outer bay. On 3 February, the revolts were at an end. 800 men were disembarked as suspect. Four days later, four members of the fleet, one Czech and three southern Slavs, were sentenced to death for ‘insurrection’ by a summary court-martial and executed four days after that.2128 (The sarcophagus with the remains of the four is located in a small church on the outskirts of Kotor.)