Foredeck of the small cruiser Aspern showing shielded 12cm (4.7-in) main gun and boxy, square bridgeworks characteristic of this class, commissioned 1899-1900. These were fairly fast, shallow-draft, very handy and maneuverable craft, well adapted to inshore work in the Adriatic. For the conspiracy minded, this rare photo offers circumstantial evidence of time travel. Look carefully at the Signalman squatting next to the hatch: he is obviously mousing in operation of an early 21st century digital laptop computer, probably introduced during the ship's 1907 visit to America. No doubt brought aboard to improve the ship's gunnery targeting, it is clearly being used here to fritter away time on frivolous electronic games! Strongly suggestive evidence indeed.
I. Armored Cruisers
Early Armored Cruiser: S.M.S. Maria Theresia (1893)
Armored Cruiser Kaiser Karl VI (1899)
Armored Cruiser Sankt Georg (1905)
II. Light/Protected Cruisers
Torpedo Cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth (1889)
Small Cruiser: S.M.S. Zenta (1899)
In the earliest and most entrepreneurial part of the War, Zenta was lost in action against a combined British and French squadron off Durazzo on Aug. 18, 1914. 173 of her 292 people were killed; the remaining crewmen were either sent to hospital or remanded to POW camp in Montenegro for the duration of the conflict.
Small Cruiser: S.M.S. Aspern (1900)
Small, nimble ships capable of policing the many coves and islets of the Dalmatian coast were a signature type in the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine throughout the period. This one journeyed transatlantic with the Sankt Georg in 1907.
Pioneer Fast Cruiser: S.M.S. Admiral Spraun (1910)
The prototype Rapidkreuzer, with 6 Parsons turbine engines and an armament of seven 3.9" guns and 4 torpedo tubes.
Most Advanced Fast Cruiser: S.M.S. Novara (1913/1915)
Last of the 3-ship Helgoland Class, closely based on the Admiral Spraun but mounting an additional pair of 3.9" guns. Remaining 2 ships in class (Saida and Helgoland) commissioned 1914. The four rapid cruisers, with new Tatra class destroyers, formed the core of the force assailing the Otranto Barrage, May 14-15, 1917 (see description).
Austrian naval power at work: Austrian cruisers bombard French army batteries set up to support Montenegrin insurgents in 1914; click here to enlarge. This photo was shot from the shelter deck of the 27-knot protected cruiser Saida, sister of the Novara and Adm. Spraun, whose slender, arrow-like hulls were packed with 16 Yarrow boilers and 6 Parsons turbines but only the most perfunctory armor protection, giving the class the apt description of "fast cruisers" (Rapidkreuzer). Armed with nine 3.9-in guns and a formidable torpedo arsenal, Saida and her two sister-ships distinguished themselves in combat against the Allies in the partially successful raid on the Otranto Barrage, May 14-15, 1917.In this action, known as the Battle of the Otranto Straits, Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of Adm. Miklos Hórthy (right) attacked the anti-submarine barrier across the straits. Striking by stealth at night, the numerous force of cruisers, destroyers, U-boats, and torpedo boats sank 14 militarized trawlers being used in the anti-submarine war; damaged the British cruiser Dartmouth; and partially dismantled the barrage, before the intervention of British and Italian cruisers from Brindisi drove them off. Adm. Hórthy's flagship, the Novara, suffered a severed main steam pipe. Her engines disabled, she had to be towed from the scene by her sister Saida. In the battle's aftermath, a German U-boat operating in concert with the Austrian surface forces laid a series of mines, one of which sank the French destroyer Boutefou with all hands.
The vulnerability of Allied forces on the Barrage tempted Hórthy to try again the following year. In 1918, Hórthy -- now promoted to C-in-C -- staged an even more audacious assault, this time utilizing two of the new Tegetthoff class dreadnoughts along with a heavy supporting force. However, this time the Italians were ready for him and he was forced to abort the mission as the sortie ended disastrously for Austria-Hungary. This fiasco did not greatly tarnish Hórthy's reputation as a war hero: he became long-term Regent of Hungary after the War and a force in European politics for nearly 25 years.
In the topsy-turvy world of the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine during WWI, the main battle fleet was confined to port because of the coal shortage, while cruisers and destroyers saw more action than the great dreadnoughts constructed at such great expense. Unexpectedly, diesel- and gasoline-burning submarines and motor torpedo boats proved the most effective warships of all in the Adriatic theatre. As in the German navy, the fleet's inactivity did not reflect a lack of pluck or initiative on the part of the men. Although a case could be made for a "Good Soldier Schweik" mentality prevailing in the Austro-Hungarian armed services as the war dragged on through four long, numbing years, those sailors who thirsted for action volunteered for duty in torpedo boats and submarines. There they frequently found the glory they craved -- or the death they courted -- sometimes both at the same time.
