A Chronicle of the Austro-Hungarian Navy

[Deleted]

Ok lets try this again, hopefully I can bring this attempt to a proper conclusion! 

Settings for this campaign
Very Large fleets
Manual Legacy fleet
100% research rate
Admirals mode


Background

For years the Austro-Hungarian navy had been a neglected force, forced to make do with a pitifully small budget that was constantly nibbled away by twin parliaments who viewed the fleet as little more than an unneeded luxury. This situation was to change in the 1890s, thanks to the efforts of Admiral Sterneck and the patronage of Archduke Franz Ferdinand who brought Imperial attention to the fleets poor condition. With adequate funding finally available the fleet could be brought into the modern era and an ambitious construction program begun. By 1900 this was almost complete and the Empire now possessed a modest force that could be counted on to at least contest control of its home waters.


                                       
Admiral Sterneck, father of the modern                                       Archduke Franz Ferdinands interest in naval 
Austro-Hungarian Navy                                                              affairs was vital in securing funding







The Fleet

Battleships


The Habsburg class are better thought of as coastal defense units rather than true ocean-going warships. With limited displacement available the designers have sacrificed coal reserves and crew comfort to fit as much firepower and armour as possible on a rather small hull. The main caliber guns are much smaller than most contemporary designs but overall the class is judged to be solid combatants.



Cruisers


While considered adequate warships the Habsburgs were correctly judged to be limited in certain important operational capabilities. In order to fill this gap, the Kaiser Karl VI class was designed. Almost appearing to be scaled down Habsburgs they traded armour and firepower for greater cruising range and speed.




Designed to act as fleet scouts the Zenta class are well rounded ships, highly thought of by their crews. They are some of the most active ships in the fleet conducting numerous goodwill cruises to foreign ports.


Destroyers


At only 400t the Panther class are smaller than the new 500t designs being introduced by the other powers, but this does not mean they are outmatched. Like the Habsburgs a small design has been packed with as much combat capability as possible. They might run out of coal after only a few days and crews are forced to share only a handful of sleeping spots but with ports so near at hand this means little.



1900

The first year of the new century was fairly quiet for the navy, now under the command of Admiral Spaun. As the current construction program wrapped up it was decided to invest in expanding the capabilities of the dockyards, with warships steadily growing in size Spaun was determined not to let Austria-Hungary fall behind. This mentality also applied to technology and here more investment was made, 12% of the budget now went to funding new research. Skoda Works and Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino were notable recipients of this funding with Spaun particularly interested in the domestic development of new armaments and ship designs.

Italy was widely acknowledged to be the fleets most likely opponent and so extensive intelligence operations were set up in cooperation with the Evidenzbureau. Tensions were low but it didn’t take much for the political climate to heat up.




Throughout April and May the destroyers under construction were completed and commissioned into the fleet.

In June an economic slump in brought about military budget cuts as both the Hungarian Diet and Imperial Council sought to divert funds to various social programs, despite vigorous protests from the War Ministry. These cuts proved to be short-lived and funding was restored to previous levels in September, prompting accusations of war mongering in Italian papers.

In December while attending a Christmas banquet Admiral Spaun got into a rather animated discussion with several army officers on who presented the greatest immediate threat to Austro-Hungarian interests with the Admiral loudly proclaiming that Italy wanted nothing more than to seize the Dalmatian coast and force the Empire to give up all access to the sea. Unfortunately, the Italian ambassador was in attendance and overheard this proclamation, resulting in a great deal of outrage throughout Italy.



Admiral Spaun, a highly capable if somewhat blunt 
Commander-in-Chief for the Navy

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January - August 1901  Peace Shattered

The first five months of 1901 were remarkably quiet, the completion and commissioning of the battleships SMS Wien and SMS Budapest and the armoured cruiser SMS Sankt Georg being the only notable events.

In June this quiet was shattered by a small group of extreme Italian Nationalists. Filled with a desire to ‘complete the unification’ they made their way into the port of Fiume, hoping to trigger a popular uprising that would place the city under Italian control. After failing to assassinate the mayor and other local officials the group barricaded themselves in a seaside warehouse. No uprising or even a show of support from the local populace occurred but all demands for surrender were refused. After 2 days of siege the destroyer SMS Wolf anchored itself in the harbor and fired several shots, blowing open the warehouse and allowing the army to storm in.


Giusseppe Garibaldi, one of the heroes 
of Italian Unification. The Fiume insurgents
were far less successful in their efforts

At this point Italy requested the return of the survivors, promising they would be held on trial, but the Empire refused to release the men. A week later a trial was held and the sentence of death swiftly delivered. The reaction in Italy was one of purest anger, massive demonstrations were held with crowds demanding justice for the ‘Martyrs of Fiume’. On both sides of the Adriatic mobilization orders were given, war was imminent, it was now just a question of when exactly it would start.

Caught somewhat unprepared Admiral Spaun issued hurried orders for the fleet to begin immediate intensive gunnery training. A design for a small coastal patrol ship was also drawn up, awkward looking with an ungainly superstructure the class would nonetheless allow the fleets destroyers to focus on combat duties. In an attempt to gain some favour with the Hungarians the order of 12 ships was given to the Danubius shipbuilding company. 

On August 4th the war finally began as clash between patrolling border troops escalated into a general engagement. With war begun it was decided that the Navy should try and leverage its numerical advantage over the Italians by instituting a blockade of the Adriatic and Southern ports. While not total this would deny the Italians traffic to their largest ports and hopefully set the stage for decisive clash that could end the war swiftly.


Italian Naval strength in August 1901, the influence of
Jeune Ecole theory is evident.

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August 1901 – September 1902 The Fiume War

The first naval action of the war was small and confused, a group of Italian cruisers attempted a raid on Austrian coastal shipping but could not find any in the fading daylight. Austrian warships on patrol similarly failed to spot the intruders.

In early September the Italians once again sent a force out, this time the Austrians were able successfully spot and intercept the enemy but after a brief exchange of fire the Italian ships pulled away, unwilling to press the attack. Lacking sufficient speed to force the engagement the Austrian ships were had to content themselves with sinking the destroyer Indomito who had taken a 15cm hit early on and suffered extensive engine damage.

This pattern of engagement continued throughout October and November. Italy would send out its protected cruisers and destroyers against targets up and down the Dalmatian coast and Austro-Hungarian cruisers and destroyers would in turn attempt to engage but lacked the necessary speed to run down their foes when they turned away.





Italian protected cruisers proved to be a source constant irritation throughout the war, almost always managing to slip away


With concerns being raised about the size of the Italian destroyer force a new design was drawn up in November. With a 50% increase in tonnage the new Spalato class promised to outrun and outgun any foreign design then in service.




On December 8th an operation was launched to try and tempt the Italian battleships out of their berths in Taranto. Word had been carefully leaked of a convoy due to sail for Libya loaded with weapons to arm a rebellion, Italy could not afford to ignore such a threat to its nascent empire and would have to attempt to stop it. In reality there was no convoy, instead when the Italian battleships and escorts left port they were met by almost the entire Austro-Hungarian fleet. Realizing the trap the Italians attempted to disengage but the battleships lacked the speed advantage of their cruisers and couldn’t disengage. Desperate to preserve his larger ships the Italian admiral ordered a torpedo attack on the Austro-Hungarian battle line. This succeeded in forcing an end to the pursuit but at great cost, 4 Italian destroyers were sunk and 6 more suffered various amounts of damage with not a single torpedo hit scored.

The war on land had been as indecisive as at sea, strong fortifications and rough terrain prevented either side from making any head way and stalemate had set in. Desperate to carry out some sort of offensive action the port of Bari of was selected as a target for bombardment, Italian ships might be drawn out again and failing that perhaps fear of a landing might force the transfer of some forces away from the frontlines. On the morning of January 15th the cruisers SMS Kaiser Karl VI and SMS Sankt Georg along with an escort of 3 destroyers set out, initially there was no opposition and the harbor area was shelled with no resistance. As the force turned for home an Italian force came into sight. Both sides were at first quite aggressive and the distance closed fast but after a pair of destroyers took crippling damage the Italian commander lost his nerve and ordered a withdrawal. Frustrated the Austrian captains could only watch as once more the enemy slowly pulled away.

In February the plan was repeated this time at Ancona, but without much success. Despite inflicting a great deal of damage on the harbor installations there was no attempt to engage by the Italians and no change in troop levels was detected.

March would see the first Austro-Hungarian ship loss of the war when SMS Kaiser Karl VI was out on patrol and in the pitch-black night ran, quite literally, into the Italian destroyer Nembo. In an act of almost suicidal courage the crew of the slowly sinking destroyer actually managed to fire a torpedo as the Kaiser Karl VI attempted to turn about and head for home. This struck home and within minutes the ship had capsized.



Italian destroyers suffered heavy losses in the conflict but also scored the only real Italian victory


Perhaps inspired by this success the Italians attempted to carry out a large attack on the port of Spalato, committing both battleships in hope of achieving a decisive blow to turn the tide of the war. Before they even got halfway to their target the force had been spotted and intercepted by Austro-Hungarian battleships eager to engage. What developed was 3 hour running battle with neither side able to significantly damage the other. The smaller caliber guns of the Habsburgs were scoring hits but could only inflict superficial damage to the superstructure. The larger Italian guns suffered from poor accuracy but managed to inflict moderate damage to the lead ship SMS Wien and force the Austrian line to slow. Wary of Italian torpedoes in the fading light, low on ammunition and only capable of 12 knots the Austro-Hungarians turned away, the Italians making no attempt to pursue. As the battleships cruised along, they encountered the cruiser Brindisi, whose captain had slipped past the engaging battleships to try and hunt down now vulnerable merchant traffic and now only realized his danger far too late. A salvo of shells ripped into the lightly armoured cruiser, detonating a forward magazine and blowing the bow off the ship.


Only engaging in two actions, Italys battleships failed to score any decisive blows 


This dramatic sinking heralded the end of any further Italian efforts to engage in open combat. Austro-Hungarian ships would launch several operations against coastal targets throughout the late spring and summer but achieved only limited successes, losing the destroyer SMS Bar to a mine near Benghazi. The real damage being inflicted now was economic, with its largest ports inaccessible only a trickle of imported raw materials could enter the country. Disheartened by the navy’s inability to challenge the blockade and under intense pressure from the new industrialists the Italian government sued for peace at the end of August. Initially Austro-Hungarian politicians were tempted to demand the colony of Libya but when presented with how much this would cost to administer and protect they contented themselves with simple financial reparations.


Unsung these ships performed a valuable service freeing up Austro-Hungarian destroyers from coastal patrol duties in the wars latter half

For Admiral Spaun and the navy victory in the war against Italy was cause for great celebration. Not since the Battle of Lissa had the fleet been held in such prestige, enjoyed this time without the shadow of defeat on another front hanging overhead.