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    A Fleet in Being: Austro-Hungarian Warships of WWI
    A Fleet in Being: Austro-Hungarian Warships of WWI
    A Fleet in Being: Austro-Hungarian Warships of WWI
    Ebook126 pages36 minutes

    A Fleet in Being: Austro-Hungarian Warships of WWI

    By Russell Phillips

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    About this ebook

    The Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine -- The Austro-Hungarian Navy -- was in at the beginning of World War I when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie lay in state aboard its flagship, and at the end when it dissolved along with the empire that commanded it. During the war, this small but powerful "fleet in being" forced the Allies to maintain a blockade of the Otranto Straits. German and Austro-Hungarian U-boats ran riot in the Mediterranean even though the capital ships almost never left port.

    Illustrated with thirty photographs and drawings, this book provides a comprehensive and detailed reference of the ships that made up the KuK Kriegsmarine, its operations, and the unique problems this unusual fleet faced, from contentious duelling parliaments to ships built by landlocked Hungary.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherShilka Publishing
    Release dateDec 10, 2011
    ISBN9781502257338
    A Fleet in Being: Austro-Hungarian Warships of WWI
    Author

    Russell Phillips

    Russell Phillips writes books and articles about military technology and history. Born and brought up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, they have lived and worked in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire. Russell has always had a deep interest in history and conflicts all over the world, and enjoys sharing their knowledge with others through clear, factual accounts which shine a light on events of the past. Their articles have been published in Miniature Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, The Wargames Website, and the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers' Journal. They have been interviewed on BBC Radio Stoke, The WW2 Podcast, Cold War Conversations, and The Voice of Russia. They currently live in Stoke-on-Trent with their wife and two children.

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      Book preview

      A Fleet in Being - Russell Phillips

      A Fleet in Being: Austro-Hungarian Warships of WWI

      Introduction

      From 1904 to 1913, Admiral Graf Rudolf Montecuccoli was Commander in Chief of the Austro-Hungarian Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine (Imperial and Royal War Fleet). Montecuccoli was a driving force behind the modernisation of the fleet, in which he was helped by support from Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was succeeded in 1913 by Admiral Anton Haus, who became the only active duty officer not a member of the Imperial house to be given the rank of Grand Admiral, in 1916. He died of pneumonia in February 1917 and was succeeded as commander in chief by Admiral Maximilian Njegovan. After the mutiny at Cattaro, Njegovan was retired on the 1st of March 1918, replaced by Rear Admiral Miklós Horthy.

      The navy's main ports were Pola, Trieste, and Cattaro, while the Naval Academy was in Fiume. The navy's ships were supplied primarily by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) in Trieste, Cantiere Navale Triestino (CNT) in Monfalcone, Whitehead in Fiume, and Danubius (a company set up and subsidised by the Hungarian government) also based in Fiume.

      The Adriatic During WWI

      Unique Difficulties

      The Austro-Hungarian navy faced some unique difficulties. Although one of Europe's great powers, Austria-Hungary was not a colonial power, and so did not feel the need for a large, powerful navy. Since range was not of great importance, and finances were often tight, Austro-Hungarian warships were generally smaller than their counterparts in other navies.

      The Dual Monarchy's system of government exacerbated the problems of naval funding. The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 meant that both Austrian and Hungarian parliaments had to agree naval budgets. Hungary, not having a coastline, generally preferred to spend money on the army rather than the navy. The Hungarian parliament would sometimes block funding of naval projects altogether, or make approval contingent upon certain concessions. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a keen supporter of the navy, however, and campaigned energetically on its behalf. After he and his wife were assassinated in 1914, they were laid in state aboard SMS Viribus Unitis.

      The navy drew sailors from all parts of the dual monarchy, which led to problems with communication, since the empire had eleven official languages. All sailors had to learn some essential commands in German, but officers had to be able to speak at least four of the empire's languages. Different nationalities tended to gravitate towards particular roles: Germans and Czechs were often engineers or signalmen, many gunners were Hungarian, stokers were Croats, and deck crews were frequently Italian.

      Naval Aviation

      The Austro-Hungarian navy saw the potential of aircraft as early as 1910, and started to develop seaplanes for both reconnaissance and attack missions. Given the problems that the navy had always faced with funding, senior naval officers were quick to see

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