Luigi Rizzo


Luigi Rizzo, 1st Count of Grado and Premuda, nicknamed the Sinker, was an Italian admiral. He is mostly known for his distinguished service in World War I; as a torpedo boat commander having sunk no fewer than two Austro-Hungarian battleships.

Biography

He was born in Milazzo on October 8,1887 in a family with a strong tradition of Merchant Marine Captains. After receiving his training at the Naval Academy in Livorno, on March 17, 1912 Rizzo was appointed a ship-of-the-line sub-lieutenant of the Italian Navy. He saw action in the First World War when he conducted several spectacular raids as commander of torpedo boats against ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
In December 1917, Rizzo sank the Austro-Hungarian pre-dreadnought battleship SMS Wien while she was at anchor inside the defences of Trieste harbour.
On 10 February 1918, three MAS boats attacked Austrian shipping inside the harbour of Bakar, a port in an enclosed bay near Fiume at the head of the Kvarner Gulf. As it lay 80 km in a sheltered waterway, it was thought to be beyond attack, so the raid was intended as a psychological assault as well as a physical one. It became widely known as the Bakar mockery.
On 10 June 1918 Rizzo sank the large battleship SMS Szent István off Premuda. The sinking of the 21,700-ton ship, the greatest success of any MAS torpedo boat, is considered an important part of Italian naval history and is celebrated by the Italian Navy on 10 June every year.
In 1919 Rizzo took part in the seizure of the city of Fiume led by Gabriele d'Annunzio. He retired from active service in 1920 with the rank of commander.
He received the Gold Medal of Military Valor, the Silver Medal, the Cross of War, and was a knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy. France awarded Rizzo the Croix de guerre and made him a knight of the Légion d'honneur; the United Kingdom honoured him with its Distinguished Service Order; and the President of the United States awarded him the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.
Admiral Miklós Horthy, Commander-in-Chief of the Austro-Hungarian Fleet in WWI and leader of the Otranto Raid which saw the sinking of SMS Szent István, as Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary awarded Rizzo the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen.
In his later life, Rizzo worked in shipping businesses and shipyards, and volunteered during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
He eventually rose to the rank of Divisional Admiral and was ennobled by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, taking the victory title of Conte di Grado e di Premuda.
In September 1943, after he ordered the sinking of sevearal ships to prevent them from being commandeered by the Nazis, Rizzo was charged with sabotage and deported to Austria initially to the Klagenfurt military prison and later to the confinement residence in Hirschegg where he was reached by his daughter Maria Guglielmina, After the end of the war they returned to Italy. Admiral Luigi Rizzo died in Rome on June 27, 1951 after a long illness.