Radetzky class battleship

The Radetzky class were Pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1907 and 1910. All ships were built by the STT shipyard in Trieste.

The ships

The Radetzky Class was very similar in appearance to the eight British King Edward VII class pre-dreadnought battleships. The Radetzky's were very handsome vessels with four convert|30.5|cm|in|abbr=on guns mounted in two centerline turrets and eight convert|24|cm|in|abbr=on guns in four wing turrets. They also carried twenty convert|10|cm|in|abbr=on casemate-mounted guns as well as numerous lightweight quick firing (QF) weapons.

Early service

The class saw limited action during World War I. In October 1914, "Radetzky" destroyed French army artillery batteries supporting the Army of Montenegro against the Austrian army at Cattaro. On May 24, 1915 all three ships bombarded the Italian coast. "Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand", with the main fleet, bombarded Ancona. "Zrinyi" shelled port facilities at Senigalia, and "Radetzky" bombarded a railway bridge at Potenza. They then returned to Pola, where they remained for the rest of the war.

Late war career

By October 1918, Austria prepared to transfer her entire fleet to Yugoslavia in order to keep it out of Italian hands. On November 10, 1918, one day before the armistice, Yugoslav officers with scratch crews sailed "Radetzky" and "Zrinyi" out of Pola. As they cleared the breakwater at Pola, they sighted the approaching Italian fleet. The two battleships hoisted American flags and sailed south along the Adriatic coast to Castelli Bay near Spolato. They appealed for American naval forces to meet them and accept their surrender. A squadron of USN submarine chasers in the area accepted this. However, under the subsequent peace treaty, the Yugoslavs were not able to keep the battleships, and all three were broken up in Italy in 1920.

hips

* (1908)
* (1909)
* (1910)

References

* Conway's "All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921"