Monopoli

We are out at sea again. Every time we cruise before Monopoli the Commander looks with interest and yearning over to the fuel storage tanks. During the night after we had charged the battery, we try to get very close. Slowly and quietly we approach to within a hundred meters. No guard is visible or maybe he is asleep. The tanks are within grasp and nothing moves. "They must feel pretty secure out there." whispers the Commander to the Second. Then we slowly move away again.

That was the second time we tried this maneuver now and nothing suspicious showed. We did figure for sometime that the Commander is working out some kind of plan, but what could it be? We change course to Southeast and then come back again. While I was sitting at the steering wheel I overheard the two talking about an explosion.

When it got dark we moved out to sea to charge the battery again. Around 2:00 hours we see land and go into battle mode. We come very close to shore. "Aha," says the Commander, "Now they are changing the sentry near the oil tanks." We sit and wait quietly. There is no sound except that of the waves softly splashing against the sea wall. No ship or torpedo boat and no motorboats are visible far and wide. Neither is the sentry. He must have a large area to walk that we could not see him. Either that or he was asleep somewhere.

In the meantime, The Torpedo-Master had received the order and was preparing an Ekrasit cartridge. Now we knew where we stood. The tanks are to be blown up. Soon everything was ready and three men climb up the sea wall and disappear toward the tanks. A short time later we see the flash of the safety fuse and the men are rushing back. We were approximately twenty meters from the wall and waited for them. Then three splashes as they jumped into the water. Short signals from a flashlight gave them direction and they were here in an instant. As soon as they are safely inside, the boat dives.

Suddenly, a loud detonation and a huge fireball rises toward the sky from the tanks. The fuel storage was burning. As we kept going we all looked through the periscope one after the other to enjoy the view of the gruesome-pretty show. Now things started to get busy out there from all directions. We went down to thirty meters and headed Northeast. When we arrived at the station they told us that the storage tanks at Monopoli had been blown up…apparently by "saboteurs."

Decoration

Like a storm the Torpedo-Master rushed into our barracks. " The crewmen of the Fifteener, Fall in and hurry!." he called. Na, what's going on now, I thought. We were still rather suspicious and believed that we were going to get some kind of instructions about barracks regulations, day orderly or some kind of duty. But none of the above was true. While in formation in front of the barracks we waited in anticipation of things to come.

Then came the officers. But look there! The Second and Third Commanders also took their places at the right end of the formation. First the Commander gave a speech in which he expressed his praise for our conduct at sea and also at the station. Then he read a letter from the Fleet Command praising us for our successes and congratulating us for our decorations. And then the Second stepped forward.

The Commander started awarding the medals. The first and second Torpedo-Masters received the Gold as did the Engine-Master and an instructor. All together four Gold, seven large and one small Silver. The UBXV was the most decorated boat. So far now we had four Gold, eleven large and four small Silver and seven Bronze for a crew of eighteen men besides officers. Something like this could not pass without celebrating.

"Drink children! Who knows how long we are going to live. One of these days it is going to cost us our necks." said the Torpedo-Master who always got sad when he had a little too much. In very high spirits and even heavier stomachs we turned in very late that night. Even the officers looked somewhat shaken on the following day.

The New Station At Gjenovic

We headed back to our station. Outside the barricades a torpedo boat flashed to us the signal that we should enter at the new station at Gjenovic. We were anxious to see what it was going to look like. The talk about it went on for a long time. It was said that brick barracks were built and we were supposed to get beds over there. Of course all was only hear-say. Those shelf units we used as beds at the Villa Stein were anything else but real beds and the rest of the furnishings had the same style. Everything was genuine war-like or maybe what we thought of as "wild west."

When we entered at Gjenoviv we first had to find our dock but it was not difficult. The Fiver was first and then our Fifteener. Then came the Sixteener and finally the Seventeener. There was one more place for the Sixer but he won't be coming anymore. He has been overdue for quite some time and must have been caught.

After we stepped on land we looked at the nice barracks the have built here. The interior was one large room with four rows of beds similar to the rooms in a big hospital. How times have changed. Now the crews from all four boats were together. Tables and benches were set up for the men between the rows of beds. Our personal things had been brought here already and each of us had our places assigned.

"Everything is just fine and dandy." noticed the Second Torpedo-Master, "But I would still rather stay at the Villa Stein." We were far less disturbed but here it smelled too much like barracks and they would soon start with their military discipline. "That will all be up to us," said the Torpedo-Master from the Sixteener, "If we keep order ourselves there shouldn't be any problems because nobody who is not from a boat will be snooping around here. The station crew lives on the Panonia anyway and is none of our business."

We really missed Ponte Rosa. Even though it was nicer here it hurt us to be together with so many. In Rosa the rooms for the different boats were divided and we were completely separated from the others. Here we could not do fencing or wrestling or entertainment like dancing anymore. But there was also one at Rosa who missed us very much. It was the owner of the wine tavern there. He could close up shop now. And then there was another one who was surely glad we were gone. He was the so-called Mayor. We had always harvested his lemon trees before he had the chance. Nevertheless, we soon got used to the new place and it felt a little more like home.

The Commander Hung Up On The Periscope

We have been cruising around the Strait of Otranto for four days already. It is a real game of hide-and-seek. During the night we charge the battery and ventilate, during the day we are in battle mode or stay completely submerged. A few times we prepared for attack but never got to fire. We were too slow. Not much showed up but fishing boats, torpedo boats and sometimes a destroyer but they were too fast for us.

What a heat inside the boat. Even though we sit in our bathing suits we are all dripping with sweat. When the boat is ventilated at night then it is comfortable but after we dive for a few hours it is the same again. We suffer dreadfully from thirst. Everyone has the feeling that he can't open his mouth anymore from all the eating of lemons. When the cook comes around with the water supply everyone tries to obtain a little extra swallow. As a result of the heat even the air is hard to breathe and we all gasp.

The other day a thunder storm comes up. Thank God for some cool relief! When it was still raining at night we all went up on deck. How we enjoyed that shower bath. The air inside the boat improved quickly as well. The next day the weather is nice again but the sea is a little agitated. Suddenly some smoke comes into view.

We run in battle mode. It is still to early to dive. Anyway comes the order "Ready to dive!" We all go to our dive stations and wait for what will come next. There, what's going on? The boat suddenly sinks. The Commander has just enough time to slam the hatch cover closed and the Torpedo-Master, who is the command relay in the tower, quickly bolts it tight. We instantly blow the dive tanks and come up again fast.

But during this unexpected maneuver the Commander, observing the smoke, was not aware of the boat sinking until the water ran into his shoes. After he had nudged the hatch shut he held tightly onto the periscope while the Second, not watching too closely, quickly raised up the periscope. Now the Commander was hanging onto the periscope five meters up in the air!

After we had surfaced again we eagerly searched for the cause of the unwanted dive. It took a while until Drmicek discovered that one of the regulator valves was slightly open. Apparently, when the crewmen jumped to man their dive stations, one of them bumped into the valve and nudged it open a quarter turn without noticing. That was enough to make us sink so unexpectedly.

Time For My Furlough

Ah yes! It was still nice to be on furlough even though I have no parents anymore and all my siblings are in service with other people. I really wanted to see my brother but he could not get off. With the ambulance they had no time to go on furlough now. He wrote that he wanted to come but it would have been too late. I had already left because I wanted to spend a few days in Vienna too.

Well, now I am back again. It is peculiar, I never believed before what strange thoughts one gets during furlough about the war. One looks at things with totally different eyes. Of course, the real misery one sees only in the hinterland. There the heroism looks completely different. And without wanting to, one comes to the conclusion that the war is nothing else but a business in which the poor people have to pay the bill. The same here as on the other side. And now I understand the words that Pernauer once said. It really seems to be that way.

In the hinterland all kinds of hardships and annoyances and almost nothing to chew. How they treat the war refugees...as if they had not already lost everything, their homeland, belongings and property. Our Salzbugians are not aware of these things and can not even appreciate the full meaning of Homeland. All the things you find out here in the hinterland, you feel like vomiting. Why don't they just realize it is all for nothing and just make peace?

With such thoughts I returned to service and a few hours later had to go out on action. Nothing helped. The twenty kronen that I gave to the medic were just wasted. I wanted to shirk going out on action and just could not think of anything better than to stick my thumb between the yawl and the stabilizing float when I brought the officers on board. It pinched my thumb really bad. Now I cried out and lamented something awful and ran to the medic in a hurry. I showed him my injury and induced him with ten kronen to paint my whole hand with iodine and in order to have him wrap the bandage up to my elbow I turned over ten kronen more.

With my arm in a sling I marched over to report that I could not go out with them. But oh, how I miscalculated. The Second unwrapped my bandage, took out his pocket-knife and scratched the iodine off my thumbnail. He laughed and said, "Well, if everyone would be as healthy as you...you just better come along."

Confounded and abandoned! Now I have one bad thumb which really hurts very much, twenty kronen gone to the dogs and the ridicule that the whole crew has bestowed on me. "You having lots of pain?" one after the other asked. Pfui Teufel!

All Eighteen Men In One Arrest

We believed to notice when we left the Commander that only with difficulty he kept from laughing. "You Torpedo-Master, is this the keg of beer the General was going to buy for us?" asked the Telegraph-Master. We all looked at each other and then burst into laughter. "We should hire the Torpedo-Master as our fortune teller and clairvoyant." Machine-Man Strasser joked. "You may all #*&#* me!' answered the Torpedo-Master as he left. "He is quite upset over it." noticed the Machine-Man.

Now they built a temporary jail on board the Panonia. A boardwall was set up in a square down in the cargo hold large enough for all eighteen men. No bench or cot for laying down. "It's dark, but for that every comfort is lacking." said Pernauer when we moved in. One man from the reserve crew was on day-charge on deck. Besides his ammunition pockets he carried a throw-line in his hand. Another man took care of inspection. He was down in the cargo hold and also served as our guard. When he locked us up he suggested that we should take it to heart before he went away.

But we would rather take it to the belly. He was scarcely out of sight when we started. "Hello, Guard! We are thirsty!" The sentry took the wine pitcher and brought water. "The water is not drinkable." we complained. So he brought us wine. That was much better. "You see, this one knows his way around." said one. "Hey guard, bring the mandolin." called another again. He brought the mandolin and because he did not want to keep running back and forth he also brought the zither and my mouth organ.

Our thirst grew bigger and we kept him going anyway. Actually, it was the day-charge that did the going so the guard did not have to climb up on deck every time. He used his throw line to lower all the things he had to bring us.

At nine o'clock in the evening when the Commander came to see us and to see if we were repentant, all he could see was a jumble of legs and instruments. The wine had done its job. Then he chased us out. For that we had the next three days trial runs.

Round Trip In The Bocce

Now we were suddenly the talk of the day in the Bocce. On the next morning we had to make a trip around the Bocce. On all the ships that we passed the crews were standing in parade formation. They greeted us with hurrahs and we responded in the same manner. We cruised around for four hours like that. I did not have time to even roll myself a cigarette. We were hoarse by now and our shouts of "Hurrah" sounded more like crowing. No wonder. After the victory celebration of the day before our voices sounded suspicious anyway. On top of that we had to wear our tight parade uniforms and we could hardly move. But the white linen clothes would have gotten heavy too fast.

We were glad when we tied down under the Budapest. "Na, don't you want to come back and stay here again?" the Helmsman asked me as we took a walk on deck of the ship. "My most obedient thanks, but no." I answered him. In the two hours we spent on the ship we enjoyed ourselves quite well talking to our former comrades. We were happy nevertheless when we left again. This constant showing off was not for us.

Stefan had returned from furlough and was very mad at the misfortune that he missed the grand action that we saw while he was gone. Was it not almost certain that the small "Silver' (medal) was due if not the big one? When we returned to Porto Rosa the whole crew received three days recuperation in Castel Nuovo. We were ready to take full advantage of that but it turned out we had bad luck with those days.

We preferred to take the passenger steamer to Melinje and to walk from there to Castel Nuovo instead of taking the motorboat of the U station which bore the grand name "Cannon Boat" and which would have taken us directly to Castel Nuovo. Nevermind that it had no cannon on board, but it was such an antiquated great flood vehicle that with it, you always ran the risk of having to row for at least half the trip. More shot out of the tailpipe than powered the boat.

So we marched nine and nine men in a row arm-in-arm the wide road to Castel Nuovo and sang marching songs. The world was beautiful and belonged to us. We never paid attention to the car that was following us and did not move to the side when it sounded the horn. We thought it was still far behind us and if it moved closer we would have certainly made way.

We were thirsty and entered at the Schneider which was the first tavern on the street to empty a pitcher of cold beer. But the Torpedo-Master, inquisitive as he always is, stopped to look at who was in that automobile. What do you know? It was a General and now he sees the cap ribbon with the S.M.S. UBXV on it. He calls the Torpedo-Master over and asks, "Are you from the UBXV?" The Torpedo-Master acknowledges dutifully while completely forgetting to address the General as "Your Excellency." "Are the other men also from the XV?" asked the General. "Jawohl!" said the Torpedo-Master and then he was dismissed. he came into the tavern saying "I almost thought he would treat us to a keg of beer." But oh dear, that was a big mistake.

When we arrived back in Rosa they asked us right away what we did wrong. On the next day we had to report. "Do you know why you have to report?" asked the Commander. When we denied it he explained it to us. "So that you remember it for the next time, When a superior wants to pass with his car you instantly have to jump aside and salute him very strictly. And you address a General with 'Excellency.' So remember that, all of you are going into the lock-up for twenty-four hours. Dismissed!"