The Adriatic Campaign of World War I was a naval campaign fought between the Central Powers and the Mediterranean squadrons of Great Britain, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Australia and the United States. Characteristics First World War naval action in the Adriatic consisted mainly of Austro-Hungarian bombardments of Italy's eastern coast, and wider-ranging German and Austro-Hungarian submarine forays into the Mediterranean. Allied forces mainly limited themselves to blockading the Central Powers' navies in the Adriatic, which was successful in regards to surface units, but failed for the U-boats, which found safe harbours and easy passage into and out of the area for the whole of the war. Considered a relatively secondary part of the naval warfare of World War I, it nonetheless tied down significant forces. The Adriatic campaign was also important because for the first time two new weapons were used successfully in warfare, viz. the MAS torpedo boat of Luigi Rizzo that sank the battleship and the human torpedo of Raffaele Rossetti that sank the battleship in 1918. History 1914 Beginning of the war On 6 August 1914 an Anglo-French naval agreement was signed, giving France leadership of naval operations in the Mediterranean. The remaining British Mediterranean forces – one armoured cruiser, four light cruisers, and 16 destroyers – were placed under the control of the French Mediterranean Fleet, and bases at both Gibraltar and Malta were opened to the French. One day after the French declaration of war against Austria-Hungary on 11 August, a French fleet under Admiral Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère arrived at Malta. He had orders to sail with all available French and British ships, pass into the Adriatic Sea, and undertake whatever operations he thought best against Austrian ports. Lapeyrère decided to surprise Austrian vessels enforcing a blockade of Montenegro. The main Allied force comprised the French battleships and , and the cruiser . Two French squadrons of pre-dreadnoughts, two squadrons of cruisers, and five destroyer squadrons were held back in support. The British support group comprised two armoured cruisers and three destroyer divisions. The Anglo-French force succeeded in cutting off and sinking the old Austro-Hungarian light cruiser off Bar on 16 August in the Battle of Antivari, however Allied hopes in the engagement of baiting the Austrian capital ships into an action did not realized. Throughout most of late August most of the action was simple bombardment of Serbian and Montenegrin troops by