STetc ch 37 - if consciences had toenails

[Michael Bailey]

Acknowledging Hauffnitz's implicit comparison of himself to war criminal Max Valentiner, Hicks notes that, "...you managed to avoid that."

"Spent my time in the Mediterranean Theater bottled up in the Adriatic behind the Otranto Barrage...no casualty count that I know of, idiot's luck no doubt...Some of us, if consciences had toenails, would be hanging on by just that margin. Yet conscience must find ways to go on operating inside history."

That last sentence seemed like a quote from somewhere else, but afaict it isn't. It's an interesting pairing: conscience and history. James Joyce wanted to forge the uncreated conscience of his race; hurrah for him! In contrast, various "great men" have prioritized making history over conscience - darn their recalcitrant hides!

I can't visualize any situation where one might find toenails helpful in maintaining position...perhaps that's the point.


  *
Drifters was what Churchill et al called the trawlers involved in the Otranto Barrage
  *
"Barrage" is kind of an odd word to apply there, isn't it? I guess they wanted to think of it as a continuous heavy attack, when it actually was like 100 smallish boats (the drifters) with suppport from destroyers. The Strait of Otranto has width of 72 km (45 mi, 39 nautical miles) - hard to cover that with 100 boats.


"On the 30th August 1915, the British Admiralty issued orders for sixty drifters to be prepared to leave for the Adriatic as soon as possible. These were crewed primarily by fishermen, with divisional officers from the Royal Naval Reserve. Not used to military discipline, the naval officers initially despaired of their charges, though they improved rapidly. Lieutenant M.E. Cochrane, the second in command, commented that “the human material was of the best … it needed only a period of polishing before it would shine with exceptional lustre.”
The first drifters arrived at Taranto on the 22nd September, evidently without warning. Rear Admiral Cecil Thursby complained, “You can imagine my surprise when suddenly sixty drifters were dumped on me with no organisation, provisions, stores or anything else.” The drifters were organised into three divisions of twenty. At any one time, two divisions would be deployed with their nets, while the third would be in Brindisi. Two drifters from each division would be at a subsidiary base at Taranto for docking, boiler cleaning, and repairs. The Italians provided a pair of merchant ships (Gallipoli and Adratico) and a small auxiliary steamer (Mazzini), which was armed with three six-pounders and used for inspections, mail delivery, etc. When they arrived, the drifters had no armament, although Thursby worked to acquire some. On the 12th October, Restore was sunk by the German U39, graphically illustrating the need to provide some form of self-defence. By the 8th November all the drifters were armed, typically with 47mm or 57mm guns and a few three-pounders.
Each trawler carried a series of light steel indicator nets anchored to the sea bed at various depths. These were intended to capture enemy submarines by entanglement, though this rarely worked in practice. Thursby complained that he did not have sufficient drifters, and during winter boats often had to take shelter and nets were lost. On the 15th November 1915, the Admiralty dispatched a further forty drifters, which began to arrive on the 7th December. Warships and aircraft supported the drifters, though at various times during the war other priorities meant that very few warships could be spared for this duty."



  *
The Castle of Otranto, early Gothic novel by Walpole...haven't read it...Wikipedia mentions a princely heir being crushed mysteriously by a giant helmet on his wedding day
  *
What a great metaphor for the consequences of warlike ethos on married life...


  *
Probably not directly pertinent...just happens to be the same part of the world
  *
Otranto Strait separates the heel of the Italian boot from Albania
  *
It's not super far from that Gallipoli...Baby Igor...