The raid was a partial success but the raiders were nearly destroyed by a shell hit which knocked out an engine on the Austrian cruiser . With heavier Allied forces closing in, the Austrians returned to Pola. The Austrians then decided to raid patrol boats guarding the Otranto Straits between Italy, Corfu and Albania. For further details see the battle of the Otranto Barrage. Allied fleets also played a role in coercing the Greek government to join the Allies and later supply the campaigns in Palestine and Macedonia. Although Germany was able to gain control of the Black Sea and part of the Russian fleet after the collapse of the Russian Empire, they were never able to break out into the Aegean. The German–Turkish fleet finally sortied into the Aegean in 1918 at the Battle of Imbros, but after destroying two British monitors sailed into a minefield. As a result the "Breslau" was sunk and the "Goeben" almost followed that fate, but the captain was able to run the ship aground and beach it before capsizing. The "Goeben" was not repaired until after the war and what Ottoman naval assets that remained were kept bottled up in the Black Sea. Allied fleets occupied Constantinople briefly after the Armistice of Mudros, until the new Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal took back control of the city in 1923. Allied ships did continue to intervene in Russia after the war ended, bringing expeditionary forces and supplies via the Mediterranean to the White armies in southern Russia. Romania, a member of the Allies, had at least 1 armed merchant ship in the Mediterranean. On 1 February 1917, near Gironde, a U-boat surfaced near the Romanian merchant "București", the latter being armed with two 120 mm guns. A short artillery duel ensued, between the merchant's aft gun (manned by officer Ciocaș Mihail) and the submarine's deck gun. Eventually, a shell from the merchant's gun fell 50 meters away from the submarine, prompting the U-boat to submerge and retreat. Japan, an ally of Great Britain, sent a total of 14 destroyers to the Mediterranean starting in April 1917. The Japanese ships were very effective in patrol and anti-submarine activity (The Japanese Navy spent 72 percent of their time at sea compared with 60 percent by the British and about 45 percent by the French and Italian Navy). Japan suffered 68 dead and heavy damage on the destroyer , torpedoed by Austrian submarine .