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The Action of 15 September 1916 was an attack by two Austrian Lohner L seaplanes on the French submarine Foucault. It was the first submarine sunk by aircraft.

Background
The French Navy ordered Foucault as part of its 1906 programme, which got laid down at the Cherbourg Naval Yard in November of that year. She was not launched until 1912, since work went slowly and she was first commissioned on 20 June 1914. Foucault was named after Léon Foucault, the 19th century French physicist.

Foucault was supposed to blockade the Austro-Hungarian home ports in the Adriatic sea for the French fleet, carrying eight torpedoes.

Action
The flying boat L132 of the k.u.k. The Kriegsmarine was on the return flight from Durazzo to Kumbor, when his observer, Sfr. Maximilian Sewera discovered a submarine 10 nautical miles southwest of Punta d'Ostro. It was heading northeast just below the surface. Presumably it was lurking for ships leaving the Bocche di Cattaro. In this extensive bay there was an important port of the k.u.k. Navy.

After L132 had landed, the message was forwarded to the cruiser command. They quickly discovered that there were currently no Austrian units of in this region - so it had to be an enemy ship/submarine.

On 15 September 1916, near Cattaro two Austrian submarines caught the enemy submarine under the command of Léon Henri Dévin (FRA) from a depth of 10 meters. Lieutenant Walter Zelezny, one of the two pilots sitting in the L135, dropped four bombs and successfully scored hits forcing the submarine to surface.

The boat leaned to one side and sank uncontrollably into the depth. The depth indicator stopped at 75 meters - the device couldn't show more. When the submarine's batteries began to give off toxic fumes, the crew already believed in their certain death. But suddenly, almost half an hour after the two explosions, the depth gauge's needle climbed back up easily. The electric pumps achieve enough capacity to save the Foucault from their damp grave. Shortly afterwards, the boat broke through the surface of the water surprisingly quickly. The commander, LV Léon Henri Dévin, ordered his crew to abandon the submarine and quickly go on deck.

Just a little bit later the Austrian noticed that the crew was sinking along the submarine. The two seaplanes landed to capture the crew avoiding them from being drowned. As surprising as the boat turns up for them, the crew of the submarine was also surprised when the two planes crashed down on them. The second officer of the Foucault reacted quickly and opened fire on the lower-flying L135 with a machine gun. The flying boat then drops one of the 10 kg bombs, most of which were washed overboard by the crew on the narrow deck. Konjovic goes to the water with his L132 to help the shipwrecked. Zelezny, in L135, is following his example. One of the French officers however refused to be rescued by the enemy pilots and swam in the very cold water for over 30 minutes, but he got captured by the alarmed torpedo boat Tb 100M, with which the crew of the Foucault is being brought to Cattaro. The French captain and a first officer flew back to Kumbor in the two seaplanes.

Aftermath
Although being saved from getting drowned, the entire crew was captured until November 1918 when Austria-Hungary collapsed and surrendered to Italy. Léon Henri Dévin was later promoted to corvette captain by the war council. This action was the first time a submarine got sunk by aircraft in history.

After this success, Zelezny received many telegrams and letters of congratulations. His father wrote him in a letter something like:

"I'm very happy about your success, especially because no mother will cry after you sank the French submarine and saved the entire crew."

During the First World War Franz Zelezny created the defense shield for the armored cruiser of the k.u.k. Navy SMS Sankt Georg (1915). On this cruiser his son Walter Zelezny [2] (1893–1977) was embarked, who became known through a special mission (1916) as a naval aviator in World War I.

Order of battle
French Navy


 * Foucault, submarine

Austro-Hungarian Navy


 * L132, seaplane
 * L135, seaplane
 * Tb 100 M, torpedo boat