SMS Radetzky

Radetzky was built at the shipyards of Trieste. Laid down on November 26, 1907 . For the construction of this battleship, Austria-Hungary used materials of its own production, and only materials from teak she had to import from abroad to equip the deck. The descent of the ship took place on July 3, 1909 , the introduction of the fleet - January 15, 1911 . In different years, from 880 to 890 people served on the ship.

Armadillo dimensions: 138.8 m long, 24.6 m wide and 8.1 m draft. The average displacement is 14,700 tons. Main power plant: two four-cylinder triple expansion steam engines with a capacity of almost 20 thousand hp and speed of 20.5 knots. Cruising range: 4000 nautical miles at 10 knots.

The main armament of the ship was three batteries: four 305-mm 45-caliber guns in two main gun turrets, eight 240-mm guns in four side gun secondary turrets and the third most powerful battery - twenty 100-mm L / 50 guns in casemate installations , two 66-mm guns for ground fire, five 47-mm (four types L / 44 and one type L / 33) rapid-fire guns. There were also three torpedo tubes with a caliber of 450 mm.

Before the war

Radetsky made his first visit to the UK in June 1911 during the coronation of George V. In 1912, with the ships “Archduke Franz Ferdinand” and “Zrinyi”, the battleship participated in exercises, as well as in a parade in the Ionian Sea in protest against the Balkan Wars (there were other cruisers - the British “ King Edward VII ”, the Italian “ Ammirallo di San Bon ”, French“ Edgar Kine ”and German“ Breslau ”). All these ships under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney tried to block the coast of Montenegro and prevent the Serbs from sending reinforcements to Scutari.

During the operation, Radetzky became the base for seaplanes that carried out air raids on the position of the Serbs, but the raid efficiency was small, since very few aircraft could be launched from the battleship. Soon, the Serbs left Scutari, who was occupied by a group of international forces. In 1913, the Radetzky and his two armadillo brothers Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Zrinyi were transferred to the 2nd division of the ships.

World War I

Radetzky was involved in the operation to cover the German ships Göben and Breslau at the very beginning of the war, and after breaking through the Mediterranean he returned to the port. When the French landed on Mount Lovcen in October 1914 to help the Montenegrins and attack the Austrians near Cataro, on October 15, the Austrians called in to help the fleet. "Radetzky" led the naval group, since its guns had a greater range of fire. October 21 shelling of 305-mm guns of an armadillo forced the French to withdraw their troops and leave their positions.

May 23, 1915 "Radetzky" began the bombardment of the Italian and Montenegrin coasts immediately after the declaration of war of Austria from Italy. The main objective was the naval base in Ancona, and the coast of Montenegro was secondary. During the shelling of Ancona, "Radetzky" went south to attack and, not meeting the enemy, fired on the Termite Islands and a number of cities. Having left the Gulf of Manfredon, the Radetzky collided with two Italian destroyers. One of them managed to break out of the environment ring, the second was seriously damaged. After the Austrians learned about the reinforcements approach, they left the battlefield and stopped trying to capture the damaged destroyer. On the way to the base in Pula, Radetzky managed to destroy the railway bridge near the city of Fermo, which led to the death of 63 soldiers and civilians.

The shelling of Ancona did not lead to the expected success, and the scale of hostilities of the Austro-Hungarian fleet decreased. However, as a result of the shelling, the Italian troops were delayed for two weeks, which allowed the Austrians to strengthen their positions on the Italian border by withdrawing troops from the Balkans and the Eastern Front. Until the end of the war, the ships of Austria-Hungary remained in Pula. Fuel supplies were drawing to a close, and soon the fleet was blocked in Otranto Bay. Admiral Anton House could only reduce the numerical superiority of enemy soldiers by setting mines and attacks from submarines.

After the war

In October 1918, Austria decided to surrender its entire fleet to the newly formed Yugoslavia so that Italy would not get any military reparations. On November 10, 1918, Yugoslav soldiers captured Radetzky and Zrinyi, taking them out of Pula. On the way they came across Italian ships, but the Yugoslavs raised the US naval flags and sailed south. In Spalato, a U.S. Navy submarine squadron accepted surrender of armadillos. However, according to the terms of the peace treaty, Austria was still forced to surrender its ships partly to Italians. In 1920, Radetsky fell into the hands of Italians and was soon scrapped there.

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