Battle of Beirut

Overview

The Battle of Beirut was a naval battle off the coast of Beirut during the Italo-Turkish War. Italian fears that the Ottoman naval forces at Beirut could be used to threaten the approach to the Suez Canal led the Italian military to order the destruction of the Ottoman naval presence in the area. On 24 February 1912 two Italian armoured cruisers attacked and sank an Ottoman casemate corvette and six lighters, retired, then returned and sank an Ottoman torpedo boat.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Beirut on 24 February 1912 was a naval engagement fought during the Italo-Turkish War, one of several actions in which Italian forces sought to extend pressure on Ottoman positions beyond the primary Libyan theater. The battle was commanded on the Italian side by Paolo Thaon di Revel. Beyond its identification as a naval engagement in that conflict, the available record does not detail its outcome or its specific effect on the course of the war.

Commanders (1)