Action of 8 June 1915

The Action of 8 June 1915 was a combined air and naval clash between the Italian airship M.2 Città di Ferrara and Austro-Hungarian Navy L48 seaplane and two military vessels near the coast of north-eastern Italy as a part of Adriatic campaign of World War I.

Despite harsh weather, airships managed to reach their target, drop bombs on a coastal facilities and probably even damage an Austro-Hungarian destroyer SMS Velebit.

On 8 June 1915 M.2 Città di Ferrara under the command of captain Castruccio Castracane degli Antelminelli was instructed to proceed on a bombing mission against the Whitehead torpedo factories and the Ganz & Co. Danubius shipyards in Fiume.

Aircraft flying in a low height permanently loosing gas of its body was approximately 20 km from Premuda then reached by the Austro-Hungarian seaplane Lohner L 48 piloted by Lschlt.

Gustav Klasing with Schiesskommandant (artillerist) Hans Fritsche von Crouenwald as an observer,[3] which took off from its Fiume base after the air raid.

The first bombardment of Venice by Austro-Hungarian naval aircraft four hours after Italy declared war (illustration by H. R. Schulze, 1915)
Marine pilot Gustav Klasing (c. 1915)
Front page of the Austro-Hungarian journal Illustrierte Kronen Zeitung , 10 June 1915