out on the night of 14/15 May 1917 by the cruisers , , and supported by the destroyers and and Austro-Hungarian U-boats and , along with German U-boat (operating as Austro-Hungarian U-boat U-89). The fleet, commanded by Commodore Miklós Horthy, sank 14 drifters out of 47 on duty, and damaged a further three seriously. Skipper Joseph Watt was later awarded the Victoria Cross for defending his drifter Gowanlea under heavy attack from Novara. The British light cruisers and —together with Italian and French destroyers, under command of Italian Rear Admiral Alfredo Acton—steamed from Brindisi to engage the Austrians, resulting in the Battle of the Otranto Straits. The British damaged Saida and disabled Novara, severely injuring Horthy. However, the British cruisers broke off the engagement when the Italian flag officer received notice of heavy Austrian forces coming out of Cattaro. Saida towed Novara back to port. Dartmouth was damaged by UC-25 as it returned to Brindisi. The night before, the same U-boat had laid a minefield at the mouth of Brindisi harbour; the struck one of these mines exiting the harbour the very same day and exploded, sinking with all hands. In June 1918, Horthy—by now commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy—decided to launch an attack on the barrage employing the four s based at Pola, the most modern in the fleet. While en route down the Adriatic, the battleship was torpedoed and sunk by an Italian torpedo boat at dawn on 10 June, resulting in the attack being cancelled. Notes References Millholland, Ray, "The Splinter Fleet of Otranto Barrage" The Readers League of America, New York, NY, 1936 Further reading Halpern, Paul, The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in World War I. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. . A comprehensive account of the battle. (IT) Carlo Stasi, Otranto e l'Inghilterra (episodi bellici in Puglia e nel Salento), in "Note di Storia e Cultura Salentina", anno XV, (Argo, Lecce 2003) (IT) Carlo Stasi, Otranto nel Mondo. Dal "Castello" di Walpole al "Barone" di Voltaire (Editrice Salentina, Galatina 2018) External links Austro-Hungarian Raids on the Otranto Barrage Otranto Barrage article from firstworldwar.com Otranto Straits Otranto Straits Otranto Straits Otranto Straits Otranto Straits Otranto Straits History of the Adriatic Sea Otranto