Battle off Cattaro
22nd April, 1909 - 14:04 local time
Austro-Hungarian Order of Battle
Battleships SMS
Habsburg (Habsburg-class, Flagship)
SMS
Kaiser (Monarch-class)
SMS
Wien (Monarch-class)
SMS
Radetzky (Monarch-class)
SMS
Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand (Monarch-class)
Armored Cruisers SMS
Donau (Frundsberg-class)
SMS
Adria (Adria-class)
SMS
Sankt Georg (Kaiserin-class)
Protected Cruisers SMS
Dromedar (Achilles-class)
SMS
Vulcan (Achilles-class)
SMS
Saida (Achilles-class)
SMS
Arethusa (Achilles-class)
SMS
Novara (Aspern-class)
Torpedo Boats (
2) Ulan-class
(
13) Panther-class
The Austrian battle line lay assembled outside the port of Cattaro; slowly crawling between minefields and sandbars, the collection of vessels - encompassing every vessel available to respond on such short notice - waited for the Italian fleet to rear its ugly head.
On the line itself, the
Zrinyi lay absent. As if a message from god himself, an awful storm the night before had fouled the ship, and left it in the drydock for repairs. Weber would, instead, have to make due with four examples of the aging
Monarch-class.
These were the ships that Weber had desperately fought to replace. First the
Zrinyi-class, then the
Habsburg, and even now the
Franz Joseph - they still remained in the ranks of the Austrians. They had to - battleships are no easy task to build, and replacing a fleet of five or six was not something you can do on such a limited budget and timeframe. So the old hulls were pressed into service, perhaps for one final time.
The weather was overcast. A storm sat on the horizon, unsure if it wanted to join the fray. The weather was calm - not perfect, but certainly not bad, either. The chilly Adriatic seabreeze kept the approaching summer heat at bay - fine weather for a walk on the town.
Weber stood on the bridge of the
Habsburg. It had been almost one year since Weber's last, disastrous outing. The ship looked as ready as ever, its gargantuan size and boastful armament looking grossly out of place alongside the old "pocket battleships" sitting afront the battle line.
Up ahead, a single merchant ship, blissfully unaware of the coming storm, slowly coasted into the dock at Cattaro. At the mouth of the channel, he saw ground crews manning the small, almost pitiful ground installations housing 4" naval guns.
Those had been built before Weber had been given a commission. Times had changed, but one look at the Austrian fleet sure didn't say that. For every
Aspern and
Habsburg there were twice as many
Panthers,
Kaiserins, and
Monarchs. Sure, in smaller operations, Weber had the choice to always send out his best, his
Frundsbergs and his
Adrias, his
Habsburg and his
Zrinyi. But this was a grim reminder - when push comes to shove, everyone's on the line. Your eighteen-thousand ton American wonder weapon isn't worth two kroner if half your battle line is paper and dreams.
Minutes turned to hours as the line of ships scraped up and down the Cattaro harbor. Was it a fluke - had they reported the fleet wrong? No, no, that's not - but wouldn't they be here by now?
They passed another ship, slowly heading up the Adriatic, following the Croatian coastline. More hours passed, and the sun began to set. Weber wheeled the fleet around, pulling closer to the harbor. The light cruisers filled out in front of the
Kaiser, bringing the battle line formation into a T. Sometime near 2000 hrs, the light cruiser
Saida lost contact with the fleet, straying too far into the foggy night. Following orders, it began a straight-line path toward the harbor.
At 21:06, the
Saida met an unidentified ship, sailing out of the harbor at high speed. Unable to identify, a crewman aboard the ship fired a signal flare, setting the cloudy night sky ablaze with red light.
Weber saw the flare immediately, and ordered the entire battle line to head straight for it. The
Monarchs grumbled and choked as they all performed hard-to-port maneuvers. The battle line fell into a disorganized mess as flags for unidentified contact were raised, and crews began to load and ready the naval guns.
At 21:29, an unidentified vessel appeared directly off the
Kaiser's bow.
It took less than a minute to identify the ship - some form of cruiser, flying the Italian ensign. The
Wien was the first to identify, and one of the secondary gunners fired the first shot on-target. The cruiser returned fire, one of the shells hitting home and fouling the
Kaiser's torpedo bay.
More ships fell out of the darkness, spewing fire at the Austrian battleships. Order fell to chaos as two battle lines slammed directly into each other, scurrying and turning to get some distance on the other.
The
Wien took a hit to the rudder at 21:36, jamming the rudder to starboard. A shell from the now-identified
Regina Margerita-class cut through the
Wien's hull, gracefully exploding in the coal bunkers rather than in the magazine behind it.
Repair crews set about fixing the rudder of the
Wien as it fell out of the battle line, while the
Habsburg raced to join the
Kaiser, who now stood alone against at least two Italian battleships.
The
Kaiser took shells into the belt, holding steadfast against the Italian line, but it was not to be. A nasty hit from the main Italian battleship - which remained unidentified - cut through the
Kaiser's waterline and forced it to withdraw. She swung about moments later and attempted to harry the Italian vessels, but a well-placed shot in the forward belt left the deck ablaze, and the Kaiser pulled away once again.
The
Wien rejoined the line moments later, the rudder free from shrapnel and unpinned once more. Weber rushed to the front of the line with the
Habsburg, cruisers and destroyers forming a pseudo-'battle box' as they pursued the fleeing Italian forces. They hit the central Adriatic with no sign of the Italian forces, so they returned to Cattaro, running patrols all throughout the area.
Hours passed without contact. Weber sat aboard the
Habsburg, frustrated. The Italians had gotten away, wounding another ship in the process. All the improvements he made were being dragged down by the failures of the past. Had the
Kaiser been a
Habsburg, there would be Italian capital ships at the bottom of the Adriatic.
The sun began to shine, morning slowly arriving, and with it, visibility. But there were no Italians to be found - they had left, likely to ports in Italy, after causing some minor damage to the port itself.
---
Weber grumbled again. By the numbers, Austria had won another victory - but it wasn't a
victory. They had no Italian hulls to make up for the loss of the
Frundsberg and the
Arpad. More line ships would be out for repairs - although he doubted he would let them back into the fleet, given their age. It was another piece of leverage, but one for the people, not for Weber or the Navy. Calls for peace would only intensify in the coming weeks.
Weber, then, used what time he had left in this stagnant war to ensure the future of the Austrian fleet, before his budget was inevitably slashed. The second example of the
Franz Joseph, the
Tegetthof, was ordered from the US dockyards.
The current state of construction both domestic and overseas, April 1909.Weber also contracted construction companies directly in Austria to improve the Croatian dockyards, hoping to eventually catch up with the grander shipyards of the US and even Britain. It was a pipe dream, but the expansion was necessary regardless.
Italy's morale continues to waiver, especially amongst the civilian populace.
An agent sent to Russia on counter-intelligence duty was captured, although his Austrian roots were quickly and totally disavowed. As much as Weber wanted it, a second front with Russia could not happen just yet.
Torpedo protection has finally been developed, allowing for a small degree of damage control on larger capital ships.
German cruisers continue to harass ports up and down the
Tyrrhenian. Weber, still unable to get the Italians to commit to a decisive fleet action, instead mimics the German strategy and the sends von Höhnel aboard the
Donau to harass the port of Ancona.
---
Raid on Ancona
9th May, 1909 - 15:18 local time
Austro-Hungarian Order of Battle Armored Cruisers SMS
Donau (Frundsberg-class)
Torpedo Boats (
2) Ulan-class
The
Donau approached Ancona from the southeast, in many ways mimicking the first action of the Austro-Italian War. Almost an hour after departing patrol in the Adriatic, an unidentified ship was spotted off the bow.
One ship became two - and the Italian ensign made itself clear in the distance. It was a small craft, likely a patrol boat - the second ship was too difficult to identify.
It became clear that the second ship was also some sort of patrol craft, and von Höhnel gave the order for flank speed - he wanted to catch these craft before they reported his presence, if it was possible.
In fact, the enemy ships were small auxiliary craft, much like the
Arciduca-types used by Austria. It didn't take long before the
Donau's main battery hit home.
The second craft raced within the suspected minefield surrounding Ancona, and von Höhnel gave the order to engage the military installations outside Ancona. Ancona's coastal batteries fired back, but the
Donau's armor held firm.
It took an hour for the Italians to respond - a few
Nembo-classes rushed out of the harbor, speeding at the
Donau. The Austrian cruiser responded in kind, dishing out a secondary barrage of gunfire.
Eventually some magazine in the military base lit the entire camp ablaze, and the
Donau withdrew from the harbor, wrecking one of the Italian torpedo boats in the process. The
Velebit stopped to rescue Italian survivors from the sinking boat, and the three ships passed back into the Adriatic unhindered.
---
On the strategic side, both
Jupiter-class protected cruisers finish working up and join the navy proper.
Austria also purchases the right to armor quality control measures from German armor manufacturers, and also an improved method of annealing.
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Convoy Raid off Cagliari
28th June, 1909 - 10:16 local time
Austro-Hungarian Order of Battle Armored Cruisers SMS
Donau (Frundsberg-class)
SMS
Sankt Georg (Kaiserin-class)
A few miles off Italian Sardinia, von Höhnel's cruiser group slams straight into an Italian convoy. Standing between the
Donau and the Italian transports is a singular
Marco Polo, alongside three Italian torpedo boats.
von Höhnel is cautious of the enemy torpedoes. The
Frundsberg met its fate to overconfidence and Italian trickery; he would not suffer the same fate. The
Donau snakes around the Italian cruiser, the two ships trading ineffective fire.
Shells rake the
Donau's superstructure, and the
Sankt Georg takes a shell in the aft hull, but neither ship is out of the fight, and the enemy
Marco Polo is similarly battered. The fight envelops the convoy, the
Donau's gunners sending shells wheeling through the Italian traders. One of the rear transports sputters and dies in the water, listing hard to port. Minutes later, a second and a third join them.
One of the Merchant ships fires back, albeit ineffectively - the belt armor of both cruisers bounces the 5" shells with ease.
An Italian merchant slips under the waves, and von Höhnel uses the disorganization of the convoy to slip back around through it, tightening the noose over the remaining transports.
The Italian cruiser was powerless to stop von Höhnel's careful yet aggressive maneuvers. For every shell the Italians successfully placed down-range, the Austrians could put twice as many back. Within the hour, all six transports had sunk or were in the process of sinking, and the Italians were on the retreat. But von Höhnel pressed the advantage: he would chase the Italians until they reached port, or until his guns went dry. The
Sankt Georg had already run out of ammo for the forward gun; but the
Donau had some eighty shells left, and he would use every one of them.
Shells flew back and forth; von Höhnel kept his distance, always evading and changing his course to keep Italian torpedoes off of him. Shrapnel fouled the
Donau's rudder, in typical fashion, and the
Sankt Georg moved to harass the torpedo boats away from getting a good shot.
The
Sankt Georg drained its reserve ammo, leaving only secondaries blistering away at the
Marco Polo. The
Donau quickly steamed up to the battle, rudder unfouled and guns ablazing.
The
Sankt Georg cut in front of the lagging
Marco Polo, just seconds from the protective minefield surrounding the Sardinian port Cagliari. The
Sankt Georg took a hit to the rudder, leaving the
Donau and the
Marco Polo dueling outside the harbor. The
Donau cut around, giving the Italian cruiser a run into the minefield. The two traded gunfire, closing within knife-fight range.
However, the appearance of the Italian torpedo boats forced the
Donau to withdraw, meeting the
Sankt Georg and retreating out of the harbor. Both ships slowed to a crawl as the crew switched from gunnery to damage control; the duel had left the
Donau in dire straits, and the ship had taken on a lot of water. Slowly, and carefully, they made their way to friendly waters.
---
The
Donau was heavily damaged, and would be out of action for a while, but so was the enemy cruiser - and an entire fleet of transports. It wasn't decisive, but it would do. Austrian dominance was cemented now, certainly.
The Austrian intelligence service approached Weber with the suggestion of sending an Italian revolutionary home, after capturing him in the Balkans. Weber dismissed the idea, simply because the revolution was clearly at hand in Italy, and the war was drawing to a close; there was no need to take the risk.
The Germans continue their masterful work, ensuring the blockade continues. And the Austrians kept up their side, sending out another detachment, this time to bombard Pescara.
It was pure luck that Weber had set the majority of the cruiser fleet on standby - in the hopes of conducting a fleet exercise in the Adriatic - for the Italians would not let this bombardment go unhindered.