Raid on Pula
The Raid on Pula (Italian: Impresa di Pola) was a maritime raid undertaken on 1 November 1918 at the end of World War I. It was carried out with a manned torpedo by two officers of the Italian Regia Marina, Raffaele Paolucci and Raffaele Rossetti, with the goal of damaging what they thought was an Austro-Hungarian fleet anchored in the bay of Pula.
| Raid on Pula | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mediterranean campaign of World War I | |||||||
Viribus Unitis sinking, 1 November 1918 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Italy | State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Paolo Thaon di Revel | Janko Vuković † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1 manned torpedo | 1 battleship | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 2 captured |
300–400 killed 1 battleship sunk | ||||||
The fleet was handed by the Austrians to the newly established State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs only a couple of hours before the raid, with Janko Vuković, previously an officer of the Austro-Hungarian navy, being declared the commander-in-chief of the new state's navy. The state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs had declared neutrality in the war and informed the Allies of this shortly after taking over the armed forces on 31 October. However, the attackers were not aware of this, and rigged the main ship SMS Viribus Unitis (renamed to Jugoslavija) with explosives, which ended in the ship sinking and the death of Vuković.