Dystopian
Then you'll have some perfect inspiration Ben, I'm jealous of you Europeans what with your proximity to famous geographic areas.
An der schönen blauen Adria - (semi) interactive RTW AAR
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Part 5 - Gearing for war (May 1903 - June 1905)
With Erzherzog Karl finished, the Admiralty has decided, after a fierce battle with the bureaucrats in Vienna, that two more battleships of the class are to be constructed. The hulls of Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Erzherzhog Franz Ferdinand were laid again in Portsmouth as the domestic manufacturers are still unable to produce good guns. The relations with Great Britain are solid so the Vienna approved.
In June 1903, the public was left in shock as the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) declared that inflation cannot be kept under the limit set by its regulations. While this declaration was promptly ridiculed by the Ministry of Finances and the OeNB board of directors was quickly replaced, the investors - most prominently US-based TEXACO, Inc. with its interests in Galician oil fields - were alarmed and the volume of investment inside the Monarchy dropped considerably. The governments in both Austria and Hungary reacted by increasing social budgets and taking money from other projects, most notably from expansion of heavy industrial base. These steps, widely criticized by experts, paradoxically led to a surge of mass unemployment as large manufacturers such as Ganz & Co. or Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik terminated a number of positions.
Quite predictably, the budget for the Navy was also to be cut. The Admiralty has responded by sending a delegation of high officers to present their position to both parliaments. While they stressed raising tensions between superpowers and still unsatisfactory level of naval expenditure (Austria was now spending more on her Navy then Italy, but considerably less that France), they have not managed to prevent the budget from being cut, even though they may have succeeded in containing the cut to a non-catastrophic levels. Still, the construction of Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was delayed for several months as the Navy was not able to secure the payments for the British in time.
In July, Austrian Admiralty was presented by an American offer to sell Simon Lake's patent to a submarine periscope to the Monarchy. Given the dire financial situation and the fact that Austrian doctrine did not believe in submarines, the offer was turned down.
After it became apparent that the crisis was only a very brief affair, the government agreed to give the Navy its much needed funds. Such move was welcomed by the Admiralty. Still, Mansfeld expressed his concerns that large increase in funding may increase tensions between the Monarchy and Italy and France. The tensions were already pretty high and only a few errors in diplomacy may have been able to send the countries into a bloody war.
Several scientific and doctrinal improvements were introduced. The Monarchy is, however, still lacking behind the world's technology leaders. What is highly interesting is that the Monarchy can now produce submarines. While they have no place in our doctrine, we can build them if such a need arises in the future.
The Portsmouth shipyards, apparently hit by British economy lackluster performance offer to build a fourth ship of the Erzherzog Karl class with a discount, however such an offer is laid down as it is out of the Navy's possibility to funds the fourth battleship.
In line with low-tension keeping policies, Austria-Hungary refrained from entering an adventure on the other side of the world.
Our spies have managed to get hold of blueprints for the French Devastation-class Battleship. To the Admiralty great surprise, it is apparent that this ships outclasses our Erzherhog Karl-class in pretty much every aspect short of speed.
Due to dire financial situation, the construction of Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand has to be halted again
A couple of months later, the production can be continued again as the Monarchy's financial situation improves
Central firing has been invented. While previously our ships were equipped only with central rangefinder (gun turrets crew are given data but have to train the guns themselves), central firing mean that it is possible to coordinate barrages and use a large computing machine to centrally calculate firing solutions, resulting in much more accurate gunfire. While the British (and French, to our knowledge) have central firing for some time already (it will be part of both the British-built Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand) we can now do a refit of Erzherhog Karl ourselves.
Another offer came regarding the technology. The British want to sell us their 13 inch guns of a dubious quality. While the guns are abysmal, we were forced to accept the offer as it may give our engineers some grounds on which to start their research into larger guns. Currently, we can only produce rather bad 11 inch guns which means it is much better to build capital ships abroad.
In May 1905, the strangest thing happened - good people of both Austria and Hungary gathered their humble savings and presented them to the Emperor to construct a battleship to guard the Realm from the enemy beyond the seas. The Admiralty has thus been given 50 000 000 (around 70-80 percent of average battleship cost).
The fate of this money, however, is unclear. Building the fourth Erzherhog Karl battleship would not be wise as the design is not the newest. Building a new class of ships now would also fail to meet expectations as the K.u.K. Ship Design Bureau lacks experience to build sufficiently new battleships. After a week full of consultations and telephoning two plans were devised - either a large dreadnought will be ordered from the US (since US can produce good quality 12 inch guns as well as superimposed turrets. Britain offers 14 inch guns that outmatch everything else in the world, but the tension with Britain is rising and it may not be wise to build a ship there) or the Admiralty will trick the public and lay down an utterly outdated and outclassed battleship for only a part of the funds. This will effectively free the money for other purposes, be it building light cruisers or destroyers or saving them for later when a better battleship design appears.
At the same time, two light cruisers of the Linz class were laid down - SMS Linz and SMS Novara. These are fast ships with numerous light guns to deter enemy destroyers or lighter cruisers away from the battle line.
In June, high tensions with Italy transformed themselves into the Austrian parliament openly calling for a war. Admiral Mansfeld managed to persuade the Hofburg that war is not wise before Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand is commissioned and Erzherzog Karl refitted with a better Fire Control and managed to squeeze more money for the navy, but the question regarding the war stays. And it is not a question of whether but of when.
Mansfeld drawn up four plans to achieve supremacy in the Mediterranean. The questions are two - against whom and when.
1) Early war with France - while France is nominally stronger, at the moment (until France commissions its new battleships), our ships are of better quality. If we start a war after Erzherzog Karl is refitted and Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand is launched, we will have a window of opportunity to strike. France also has to keep some ships to serve in her colonies, weakening her presence in the Mediterranean a little. Still, France is a formidable foe and this may be a (very) dangerous adventure. Lastly, early war would mean that France may be defeated before her financial advantage starts to really show. This would mean deceiving the public with fake battleship construction to save the money for the war.
2) Early war with Italy - Italy is behind us in both quality and quantity of ships. This war should be relatively easy unless we are struck by some unfortunate events. Such a war may remove a rival in the Mediterranean and give us an edge via reparations but it also means that France is given more time. This would mean deceiving the public with fake battleship construction to save the money for the war.
3) Late war with France - waiting for the US dreadnought to be delivered and then striking at France. This would mean Austria would enter the war with larger flagship and also more consolidated navy as additional destroyers and cruisers would be constructed. The downside is that France will have its scary battleships launched by then.
4) Late war with Italy - waiting for the US dreadnought to be delivered and then striking at France. Given our advantage in funding, research and ships, this will ensure that the war with Italy is an easy one. It will give us also more time to build some minesweepers as it seems that Italy is building a lot of submarines.
With Erzherzog Karl finished, the Admiralty has decided, after a fierce battle with the bureaucrats in Vienna, that two more battleships of the class are to be constructed. The hulls of Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Erzherzhog Franz Ferdinand were laid again in Portsmouth as the domestic manufacturers are still unable to produce good guns. The relations with Great Britain are solid so the Vienna approved.
In June 1903, the public was left in shock as the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) declared that inflation cannot be kept under the limit set by its regulations. While this declaration was promptly ridiculed by the Ministry of Finances and the OeNB board of directors was quickly replaced, the investors - most prominently US-based TEXACO, Inc. with its interests in Galician oil fields - were alarmed and the volume of investment inside the Monarchy dropped considerably. The governments in both Austria and Hungary reacted by increasing social budgets and taking money from other projects, most notably from expansion of heavy industrial base. These steps, widely criticized by experts, paradoxically led to a surge of mass unemployment as large manufacturers such as Ganz & Co. or Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik terminated a number of positions.
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Viennese citizens trying to stockpile food | A police officer in Graz trying to keep streets clean of begging children |
Quite predictably, the budget for the Navy was also to be cut. The Admiralty has responded by sending a delegation of high officers to present their position to both parliaments. While they stressed raising tensions between superpowers and still unsatisfactory level of naval expenditure (Austria was now spending more on her Navy then Italy, but considerably less that France), they have not managed to prevent the budget from being cut, even though they may have succeeded in containing the cut to a non-catastrophic levels. Still, the construction of Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was delayed for several months as the Navy was not able to secure the payments for the British in time.
In July, Austrian Admiralty was presented by an American offer to sell Simon Lake's patent to a submarine periscope to the Monarchy. Given the dire financial situation and the fact that Austrian doctrine did not believe in submarines, the offer was turned down.
After it became apparent that the crisis was only a very brief affair, the government agreed to give the Navy its much needed funds. Such move was welcomed by the Admiralty. Still, Mansfeld expressed his concerns that large increase in funding may increase tensions between the Monarchy and Italy and France. The tensions were already pretty high and only a few errors in diplomacy may have been able to send the countries into a bloody war.
Several scientific and doctrinal improvements were introduced. The Monarchy is, however, still lacking behind the world's technology leaders. What is highly interesting is that the Monarchy can now produce submarines. While they have no place in our doctrine, we can build them if such a need arises in the future.
The Portsmouth shipyards, apparently hit by British economy lackluster performance offer to build a fourth ship of the Erzherzog Karl class with a discount, however such an offer is laid down as it is out of the Navy's possibility to funds the fourth battleship.
In line with low-tension keeping policies, Austria-Hungary refrained from entering an adventure on the other side of the world.
Our spies have managed to get hold of blueprints for the French Devastation-class Battleship. To the Admiralty great surprise, it is apparent that this ships outclasses our Erzherhog Karl-class in pretty much every aspect short of speed.
Due to dire financial situation, the construction of Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand has to be halted again
A couple of months later, the production can be continued again as the Monarchy's financial situation improves
Central firing has been invented. While previously our ships were equipped only with central rangefinder (gun turrets crew are given data but have to train the guns themselves), central firing mean that it is possible to coordinate barrages and use a large computing machine to centrally calculate firing solutions, resulting in much more accurate gunfire. While the British (and French, to our knowledge) have central firing for some time already (it will be part of both the British-built Erzherzog Ferdinand Max and Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand) we can now do a refit of Erzherhog Karl ourselves.
Another offer came regarding the technology. The British want to sell us their 13 inch guns of a dubious quality. While the guns are abysmal, we were forced to accept the offer as it may give our engineers some grounds on which to start their research into larger guns. Currently, we can only produce rather bad 11 inch guns which means it is much better to build capital ships abroad.
In May 1905, the strangest thing happened - good people of both Austria and Hungary gathered their humble savings and presented them to the Emperor to construct a battleship to guard the Realm from the enemy beyond the seas. The Admiralty has thus been given 50 000 000 (around 70-80 percent of average battleship cost).
The fate of this money, however, is unclear. Building the fourth Erzherhog Karl battleship would not be wise as the design is not the newest. Building a new class of ships now would also fail to meet expectations as the K.u.K. Ship Design Bureau lacks experience to build sufficiently new battleships. After a week full of consultations and telephoning two plans were devised - either a large dreadnought will be ordered from the US (since US can produce good quality 12 inch guns as well as superimposed turrets. Britain offers 14 inch guns that outmatch everything else in the world, but the tension with Britain is rising and it may not be wise to build a ship there) or the Admiralty will trick the public and lay down an utterly outdated and outclassed battleship for only a part of the funds. This will effectively free the money for other purposes, be it building light cruisers or destroyers or saving them for later when a better battleship design appears.
At the same time, two light cruisers of the Linz class were laid down - SMS Linz and SMS Novara. These are fast ships with numerous light guns to deter enemy destroyers or lighter cruisers away from the battle line.
In June, high tensions with Italy transformed themselves into the Austrian parliament openly calling for a war. Admiral Mansfeld managed to persuade the Hofburg that war is not wise before Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand is commissioned and Erzherzog Karl refitted with a better Fire Control and managed to squeeze more money for the navy, but the question regarding the war stays. And it is not a question of whether but of when.
Mansfeld drawn up four plans to achieve supremacy in the Mediterranean. The questions are two - against whom and when.
1) Early war with France - while France is nominally stronger, at the moment (until France commissions its new battleships), our ships are of better quality. If we start a war after Erzherzog Karl is refitted and Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand is launched, we will have a window of opportunity to strike. France also has to keep some ships to serve in her colonies, weakening her presence in the Mediterranean a little. Still, France is a formidable foe and this may be a (very) dangerous adventure. Lastly, early war would mean that France may be defeated before her financial advantage starts to really show. This would mean deceiving the public with fake battleship construction to save the money for the war.
2) Early war with Italy - Italy is behind us in both quality and quantity of ships. This war should be relatively easy unless we are struck by some unfortunate events. Such a war may remove a rival in the Mediterranean and give us an edge via reparations but it also means that France is given more time. This would mean deceiving the public with fake battleship construction to save the money for the war.
3) Late war with France - waiting for the US dreadnought to be delivered and then striking at France. This would mean Austria would enter the war with larger flagship and also more consolidated navy as additional destroyers and cruisers would be constructed. The downside is that France will have its scary battleships launched by then.
4) Late war with Italy - waiting for the US dreadnought to be delivered and then striking at France. Given our advantage in funding, research and ships, this will ensure that the war with Italy is an easy one. It will give us also more time to build some minesweepers as it seems that Italy is building a lot of submarines.
Part 6 - Into the fray, boys! Für Tegetthoff!
"Meine Herren," started Mansfeld. "We have an important task ahead of us. Loyal subjects of our Kaiser have given us 50 000 000 to build a battleship. As you all know, we need the money but we do not have a use for a battleship now. So I ask you - how do we pretend to build a battleship without actually having to fund one?"
An older admiral rose in his chair: "Herr Kommandant, we need to ask ourselves what it is that we look for in a battleship."
"Well, firepower and armour," replied Mansfeld.
"And what it is that makes battleships so expensive?"
"Well, firepower and armour. And large size and heavy machinery to make the heavy ship move with at least average speed."
"In that case - what can we sacrifice to save on costs?"
"Well, we can make the guns smaller but that would make the large hull overly expensive for such firepower. We can sacrifice the armour, but then it is hardly battleship any more. Or we can have the ship be really slow. But that would make the ship useless and unable to keep with our battle line."
"Or, Herr Kommandant, we can do all three."
"So, if I understand it correctly," Mansfeld summed the idea. "We will build a battleship that has insufficient weaponry to engage other battleships, low armour to be able to trade shots with other battleship and speed so low that it cannot outrun stronger ships."
"Exactly. And it will be very small. For a battleship."
"But ... isn't that then a cruiser?"
"No, we will give it a slightly more armour than we usually have on heavy cruisers."
"So, we are effectively building a heavy cruiser."
"A very very slow heavy cruiser. But for the public it will be a battleship."
"Mein Gott."
After a month of work in designing the ship, Mansfeld took a look at the blueprints of the new Graz-class battleship: "this is the worst ship I have ever seen."
On a completely unrelated note, following on the invention of Central Firing, Erzherzog Karl was sent to shipyards to be refitted with this fire control device.
"Sir, a letter from Vienna."
"What does it say."
"They compliment us for the construction of the battleship."
"They. Compliment. Us. For. Graz. Gott, this Monarchy cannot survive for long."
And then, in November 1905, important men in top hats decided that the Monarchy has been in the state of peace for a little too long now. And other important men in equally expensive top hats were quite certain that the Kingdom of Italy also has not had a war lately. And since war offers limitless opportunities for advancing one's country (provided the country wins, of course - this little detail may have been hidden from the important men) a banal mishap in customs search of an Italian train heading for Budapest turned into the most hotly debated issue in both countries. So hotly debated that in the end it made stokers of both fleets reach for their shovels. For the time has come for steel and coal. The time has come for war.
Austrian naval expenditure is also approximately double the Italian one.
With both countries being very optimistic about the upcoming war, it was of no surprise that the first battle of this war was to come rather sooner. In the night of the fifth of November, Austro-Hungarian fleet left its home port of Pula and started steaming towards Sicily to either force a confrontation or to shell Italian harbours and coastal cities.
The taskforce under the command of Admiral Franz von Keil was centered around the four Austrian battleships - two older Kaiser-class battleships SMS Kaiser and SMS Radetzky and two modern Erzerzog Karl-class battleships SMS Erzherzog Karl and SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max. The vanguard of the taskforce consisted of a rather old armoured cruiser SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and light cruisers SMS Zenta and SMS Aspern. The fleet was screened by 20 destroyers. Due to recent refit of Erzherzog Karl and recent commission of Erzherzog Fredinand Max, Admiral von Keil flew his admiral flag on the older battleship Kaiser.
Alerted by fishermen who saw the fleet passing the Otranto bay, Italian navy was very well aware of the coming attack and decided to scramble all its available ships and steam towards the coming Austrians. Italian answer was four Benedetto Brin-class battleships (Benedetto Brin, Napoli, Dante Alighieri, Italia), old but solid vessels recently refitted with Central Firing systems, one Marco Polo-class armoured cruiser, six Taranto and Venezia-class light cruisers, relatively solid but woefully undergunned vessels, and 12 destroyers.
At 0723 hrs, just a few minutes after the sunrise, lookouts on Aspern, sailing at the side of the taskforce, noticed a distant smoke cloud. Since the smoke was isolated, von Keil decided to maintain the taskforce's heading until the ship is identified. Orders were given for the battleship divisions to increase their speed as to catch with Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia's vanguard.
Some ten minutes later, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia due to its higher masts and stronger optics, manages to finally identify ship as Italian armoured cruiser Marco Polo. Vanguard's commander, Fregattenkapitän Johann Ledwinka, orders the vanguard to maintain its curse and signals to Zenta and Aspern to turn to port and intercept the Italian ship. Von Keil's battleships rush full steam to catch with the vanguard but are limited to 19 knots of speed.
Marco Polo, upon sighting the Austrians, turns away from the approaching enemy and sails for the main body of the Italian force. Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia still sailing on its original course, starts to see large concentrations of smoke to the west, presumably the Italian battle fleet. Later, individual ships are spotted. Ledwinka finally steers his division towards the Italians. At 0901, the battle officially starts as Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia's fore 9 inch gun opens at Marco Polo at a distance of approximately 5 nautical miles. Marco Polo answers with its aft 10 inch cannon.
After six minutes of exchange, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia scores first hit on Marco Polo but receives two hits in short succession. Seeing that the battle started, von Keil on Kaiser signals to Erzherzog Karl and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, both capable of achieving 21kts as opposed to Kaiser's 19, to rush forward and overtake the slower ships. At 0910hrs, the Italian battle line, consisting of 4 Benedetto Brin battleships is spotted. Erzherzog Karl and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max's 12 inch batteries open on Marco Polo that is together with its destroyer screen and two Venezia-class light cruisers retreating towards the battle line.
With Kaiser and Radetzky lagging behind, Linienschiffskapitän Sípos Bertalan commanding Battle Divison 5 consisting of Erzherzog Karl and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, orders a turn to starboard to bring all guns on targets and to allow Kaiser and Radetzky to catch up. Since the Italian battle line maintains close order, it is not deemed wise to engage them with incomplete battle line. The Italian battleships, however, manage to get in range faster than Kaiser and Radetzky reconnect with the two battleships and at 0915hrs, battleships of both nations start the gun duel.
As Kaiser and Radetzky finally catch up and form the complete Austrian battle line, both lines sail next to each other and at a distance of about 4 nautical miles, trade shots. While the Italian gunners seem to be more skilled, Austrian battleships' larger broadside volume starts to count. At 1015hrs, a 10 inch shell from Dante Alighieri penetrates motor oil reservoir and ignites a fire on Kaiser. Von Keil thinks about disengaging but decides to give the firefighting teams more time. Austrian ships seem to receive more hits but due to lower calibers of Italian guns, no serious damage short of fire on Kaiser is received. Large number of secondary guns on Erzherzog Karl-class results in Austrian battleships not being able to utilize their main 12 inch batteries to their fullest extent as large number of splashes around Italian battleline prevents determining whether 12 inch shells fall short or long. The firefighting teams were able to contain the fire on Kaiser so von Keil follows with the Italian line. The protracted gun duel lasts for another hour or so, resulting in several non-serious hits on both sides.
Then by a stroke of luck, at 1205hrs a 12 inch shell from Erzherzog Karl penetrates Napoli's side, flies through its coal bunker and explodes near one of its boilers. Huge clouds of black smoke emerge from Napoli as fire consumes its machine rooms. It soon becomes apparent that the ship is losing speed and is not able to keep with the rest of the Italian squadron. As the battleships following Napoli take a turn to port to avoid collision, von Keil seizes a chance and orders a turn to port to bring Austrian line closer to the isolated and immobilized Italian battleship.
Napoli, fighting with fire and clouded in black smoke, is unable to put down effective fire on the approaching Austrian battle line. On the contrary, short distance makes Austrian fire devastating and soon Napoli is reduced to floating wreck incapable of mounting any meaningful resistance. The rest of the Italian line decides that the situation is unbearable and retreats, leaving Napoli alone against the Austrian fleet. With the rest of the Italian fleet further away and incapable of protecting Napoli, von Keil orders his destroyer screen to carry out a torpedo attack on Napoli.
Napoli is hit by three torpedoes, effectively sealing her fate. With the ship listing heavily to its port, an order to abandon ship is given. At 1230hrs, an order to stop shelling Napoli is signaled, although several batteries from various Austrian ships fire at the Italian ship for another 5 minutes. Von Kiel leads his battleline north to reengage with the rest of the Italian fleet.
To cover the Italian retreat, two destroyers - Fuciliere and Artigliere - steam towards the Austrians. With the battle effectively won, von Kiel decides to turn the ships away to prevent a possible lucky hits on his battleships. Turning to the west, Austrian battleships open on the two Italian destroyers. The destroyers turn and try to disengage but are caught in fierce fire resulting in several heavy hits on Fuciliere and light damage to Artigliere. Fuciliere, losing speed and taking huge volumes of water, is abandoned by its crew.
With Italian squadron sailing north and no hope of catching them before they reach their ports, von Keil orders all ships back. An order is given to Czikos to pick up survivors from Napoli but only a handful of survivors is found.
Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and her squadron sails north to follow the retiring Italians and maintain contact, the rest of the Austrian fleet turns home. There is light damage on all the battleships and it will be a night soon so von Keil decides not to stay in Italian waters any longer. Upon returning to the battleships, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia spots Marco Polo that was shadowing the Austrian fleet. Salvos are exchanged but Marco Polo is able to evade any damage and flee until it is completely hidden by the night.
The Austrian fleet reforms and sail back to Pula. Today, the first victory was won. The Monarchy can be proud.
"Meine Herren," started Mansfeld. "We have an important task ahead of us. Loyal subjects of our Kaiser have given us 50 000 000 to build a battleship. As you all know, we need the money but we do not have a use for a battleship now. So I ask you - how do we pretend to build a battleship without actually having to fund one?"
An older admiral rose in his chair: "Herr Kommandant, we need to ask ourselves what it is that we look for in a battleship."
"Well, firepower and armour," replied Mansfeld.
"And what it is that makes battleships so expensive?"
"Well, firepower and armour. And large size and heavy machinery to make the heavy ship move with at least average speed."
"In that case - what can we sacrifice to save on costs?"
"Well, we can make the guns smaller but that would make the large hull overly expensive for such firepower. We can sacrifice the armour, but then it is hardly battleship any more. Or we can have the ship be really slow. But that would make the ship useless and unable to keep with our battle line."
"Or, Herr Kommandant, we can do all three."
"So, if I understand it correctly," Mansfeld summed the idea. "We will build a battleship that has insufficient weaponry to engage other battleships, low armour to be able to trade shots with other battleship and speed so low that it cannot outrun stronger ships."
"Exactly. And it will be very small. For a battleship."
"But ... isn't that then a cruiser?"
"No, we will give it a slightly more armour than we usually have on heavy cruisers."
"So, we are effectively building a heavy cruiser."
"A very very slow heavy cruiser. But for the public it will be a battleship."
"Mein Gott."
After a month of work in designing the ship, Mansfeld took a look at the blueprints of the new Graz-class battleship: "this is the worst ship I have ever seen."
On a completely unrelated note, following on the invention of Central Firing, Erzherzog Karl was sent to shipyards to be refitted with this fire control device.
"Sir, a letter from Vienna."
"What does it say."
"They compliment us for the construction of the battleship."
"They. Compliment. Us. For. Graz. Gott, this Monarchy cannot survive for long."
And then, in November 1905, important men in top hats decided that the Monarchy has been in the state of peace for a little too long now. And other important men in equally expensive top hats were quite certain that the Kingdom of Italy also has not had a war lately. And since war offers limitless opportunities for advancing one's country (provided the country wins, of course - this little detail may have been hidden from the important men) a banal mishap in customs search of an Italian train heading for Budapest turned into the most hotly debated issue in both countries. So hotly debated that in the end it made stokers of both fleets reach for their shovels. For the time has come for steel and coal. The time has come for war.
| Ship type | Austria-Hungary | Italy |
| Battleships | 4 (2x 1899, 2x 1905) | 4 (4x1899) |
| Heavy cruisers | 3 (2x 1899, 1x1901) | 1 (1x1901) |
| Light cruisers | 4 (4x 1899) | 6 (3x1899, 3x1903) |
| Destroyers | 26 | 12 |
| Submarines | 0 | 13 |
Austrian naval expenditure is also approximately double the Italian one.
With both countries being very optimistic about the upcoming war, it was of no surprise that the first battle of this war was to come rather sooner. In the night of the fifth of November, Austro-Hungarian fleet left its home port of Pula and started steaming towards Sicily to either force a confrontation or to shell Italian harbours and coastal cities.
The taskforce under the command of Admiral Franz von Keil was centered around the four Austrian battleships - two older Kaiser-class battleships SMS Kaiser and SMS Radetzky and two modern Erzerzog Karl-class battleships SMS Erzherzog Karl and SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max. The vanguard of the taskforce consisted of a rather old armoured cruiser SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and light cruisers SMS Zenta and SMS Aspern. The fleet was screened by 20 destroyers. Due to recent refit of Erzherzog Karl and recent commission of Erzherzog Fredinand Max, Admiral von Keil flew his admiral flag on the older battleship Kaiser.
Alerted by fishermen who saw the fleet passing the Otranto bay, Italian navy was very well aware of the coming attack and decided to scramble all its available ships and steam towards the coming Austrians. Italian answer was four Benedetto Brin-class battleships (Benedetto Brin, Napoli, Dante Alighieri, Italia), old but solid vessels recently refitted with Central Firing systems, one Marco Polo-class armoured cruiser, six Taranto and Venezia-class light cruisers, relatively solid but woefully undergunned vessels, and 12 destroyers.
At 0723 hrs, just a few minutes after the sunrise, lookouts on Aspern, sailing at the side of the taskforce, noticed a distant smoke cloud. Since the smoke was isolated, von Keil decided to maintain the taskforce's heading until the ship is identified. Orders were given for the battleship divisions to increase their speed as to catch with Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia's vanguard.
Some ten minutes later, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia due to its higher masts and stronger optics, manages to finally identify ship as Italian armoured cruiser Marco Polo. Vanguard's commander, Fregattenkapitän Johann Ledwinka, orders the vanguard to maintain its curse and signals to Zenta and Aspern to turn to port and intercept the Italian ship. Von Keil's battleships rush full steam to catch with the vanguard but are limited to 19 knots of speed.
Marco Polo, upon sighting the Austrians, turns away from the approaching enemy and sails for the main body of the Italian force. Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia still sailing on its original course, starts to see large concentrations of smoke to the west, presumably the Italian battle fleet. Later, individual ships are spotted. Ledwinka finally steers his division towards the Italians. At 0901, the battle officially starts as Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia's fore 9 inch gun opens at Marco Polo at a distance of approximately 5 nautical miles. Marco Polo answers with its aft 10 inch cannon.
After six minutes of exchange, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia scores first hit on Marco Polo but receives two hits in short succession. Seeing that the battle started, von Keil on Kaiser signals to Erzherzog Karl and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, both capable of achieving 21kts as opposed to Kaiser's 19, to rush forward and overtake the slower ships. At 0910hrs, the Italian battle line, consisting of 4 Benedetto Brin battleships is spotted. Erzherzog Karl and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max's 12 inch batteries open on Marco Polo that is together with its destroyer screen and two Venezia-class light cruisers retreating towards the battle line.
With Kaiser and Radetzky lagging behind, Linienschiffskapitän Sípos Bertalan commanding Battle Divison 5 consisting of Erzherzog Karl and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, orders a turn to starboard to bring all guns on targets and to allow Kaiser and Radetzky to catch up. Since the Italian battle line maintains close order, it is not deemed wise to engage them with incomplete battle line. The Italian battleships, however, manage to get in range faster than Kaiser and Radetzky reconnect with the two battleships and at 0915hrs, battleships of both nations start the gun duel.
As Kaiser and Radetzky finally catch up and form the complete Austrian battle line, both lines sail next to each other and at a distance of about 4 nautical miles, trade shots. While the Italian gunners seem to be more skilled, Austrian battleships' larger broadside volume starts to count. At 1015hrs, a 10 inch shell from Dante Alighieri penetrates motor oil reservoir and ignites a fire on Kaiser. Von Keil thinks about disengaging but decides to give the firefighting teams more time. Austrian ships seem to receive more hits but due to lower calibers of Italian guns, no serious damage short of fire on Kaiser is received. Large number of secondary guns on Erzherzog Karl-class results in Austrian battleships not being able to utilize their main 12 inch batteries to their fullest extent as large number of splashes around Italian battleline prevents determining whether 12 inch shells fall short or long. The firefighting teams were able to contain the fire on Kaiser so von Keil follows with the Italian line. The protracted gun duel lasts for another hour or so, resulting in several non-serious hits on both sides.
Then by a stroke of luck, at 1205hrs a 12 inch shell from Erzherzog Karl penetrates Napoli's side, flies through its coal bunker and explodes near one of its boilers. Huge clouds of black smoke emerge from Napoli as fire consumes its machine rooms. It soon becomes apparent that the ship is losing speed and is not able to keep with the rest of the Italian squadron. As the battleships following Napoli take a turn to port to avoid collision, von Keil seizes a chance and orders a turn to port to bring Austrian line closer to the isolated and immobilized Italian battleship.
Napoli, fighting with fire and clouded in black smoke, is unable to put down effective fire on the approaching Austrian battle line. On the contrary, short distance makes Austrian fire devastating and soon Napoli is reduced to floating wreck incapable of mounting any meaningful resistance. The rest of the Italian line decides that the situation is unbearable and retreats, leaving Napoli alone against the Austrian fleet. With the rest of the Italian fleet further away and incapable of protecting Napoli, von Keil orders his destroyer screen to carry out a torpedo attack on Napoli.
Napoli is hit by three torpedoes, effectively sealing her fate. With the ship listing heavily to its port, an order to abandon ship is given. At 1230hrs, an order to stop shelling Napoli is signaled, although several batteries from various Austrian ships fire at the Italian ship for another 5 minutes. Von Kiel leads his battleline north to reengage with the rest of the Italian fleet.
To cover the Italian retreat, two destroyers - Fuciliere and Artigliere - steam towards the Austrians. With the battle effectively won, von Kiel decides to turn the ships away to prevent a possible lucky hits on his battleships. Turning to the west, Austrian battleships open on the two Italian destroyers. The destroyers turn and try to disengage but are caught in fierce fire resulting in several heavy hits on Fuciliere and light damage to Artigliere. Fuciliere, losing speed and taking huge volumes of water, is abandoned by its crew.
With Italian squadron sailing north and no hope of catching them before they reach their ports, von Keil orders all ships back. An order is given to Czikos to pick up survivors from Napoli but only a handful of survivors is found.
Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia and her squadron sails north to follow the retiring Italians and maintain contact, the rest of the Austrian fleet turns home. There is light damage on all the battleships and it will be a night soon so von Keil decides not to stay in Italian waters any longer. Upon returning to the battleships, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia spots Marco Polo that was shadowing the Austrian fleet. Salvos are exchanged but Marco Polo is able to evade any damage and flee until it is completely hidden by the night.
The Austrian fleet reforms and sail back to Pula. Today, the first victory was won. The Monarchy can be proud.
A glorious victory! Bring out the champagne and let's hope we can win some more before they decide to switch sides! 
Quite so!
Part 7 - the war continues (December 1905 - April 1906)
The return of von Keil's squadron back to Pula was triumphant! It seemed that with Napoli gone, Italy could not hope in a victory and would start negotiating for peace.
Damage sustained by Austrian battleships forced the whole battle fleet into dockyards, with Kaiser, the most heavily damaged ship, expected to underway repairs for two months. Rest of the ships were to be ready next month. This, however, had an unforeseen consequence in halting all Austrian merchant shipping. With battleships away from the Adriatic, Italy was able to force the rest of Austrian ships back to their ports due to Italian advantage in cruisers. Austrian coastline cities eagerly awaited the return of Austrian battleships that would force the Italian raiders away.
Small skirmishes were fought, though:
Protecting convoy
December 5, 1905 - as light cruisers Szigetvar and Zenta are escorting a convoy from Rijeka to Trieste, a smoke is seen on the horizon to the west. Both cruisers steam towards the suspected enemy vessels. At 1311hrs, lookouts on Szigetvar spot Italian light cruisers, although they are still unable to tell the type. Ten minutes later, the ship is identified as a Taranto-class light cruiser Marsala - a light and inadequately armed ship. Seeing Szigetvar and Zenta approaching, Marsala turns away and retreats. As the Austrian cruisers are unable to get in range and because it might be a trap to lure the cruisers away from their convoy, Szigetvar signals to turn back. Luckily, no other ship is approaching, the confrontation thus ended inconclusively with no shot fired by either side.
With Austrian battleships back in action, Italian cruisers are pushed away from the Mediterranean and Italy is effectively blocked. Austrian light and heavy cruisers patrol to search for enemy blockade runners. Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia sees a smoke on the horizon.
Engaging enemy raider
Enemy ship identified as Marco Polo, a heavy cruiser that Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia met in the battle of Malta.
Even though the enemy is better armed, Fregattenkapitän Johann Ledwinka decides to try his luck and engages the enemy. At around 0850hrs, Marco Polo's 10 inch fore gun opens on Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia that promptly answers with its 9 inch cannon. After around 15 minutes of exchange, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia is hit for the first time. Ledwinka turns the ship away from the enemy just as the ship is struck by another 10 inch shell into its superstructure, knocking out one of her secondary guns and killing its crew. Ledwinka is trying to flee but both ships are capable of reaching 20 kts so the distance remains the same.
Around 1300hrs, nearly 4 hours into the duel, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia is hit again, this time to hull. Water leaks into the hull but flooding is soon contained. What, however, worries Ledwinka is that the additional weight of the taken water and the hole beneath the waterline slows his ship to 18kts. The distance between both ships is around 3.5nm and slowly decerasing. Italian secondary 7 inch cannons open on the Austrian ships and several more hits are scored in the next hour. Marco Polo, however, also has trouble keeping her max speed; possibly due to exhausted stokers or fouled boilers. Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia finally manages to score a hit; this will be her only success in the battle.
Ledwinka looks on his watches. It is nearly February and the night comes soon. There is only a couple of minutes to twilight. He orders his gunners to stop firing as to make it harder for the enemy to spot his ship in the coming night. Once the night falls, he makes a prolonged turn to port. If the enemy sees him, it will be the end for his ship as it has no hope of winning a short range duel. However, God watches over the Austrians and Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia manages to turn almost 180°, evading its pursuer. Although heavily damaged and having just lost the battle, Ledwinka is thankful that his ship is saved.
In March 1906, Italy came with the first offer concerning peace. While this issue was being handled by the Imperial and Royal Foreign Ministry, the Admiralty was asked about its view regarding prolonged war. Admiral Mansfeld replied stating that the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine is in high spirit and ready to carry on the fighting with the prospect of delivering more defeats onto the Italians.
Having considered Mansfeld's depeche, Vienna decided to cancel the negotiations.
Some more scientific breakthroughs were made. Mastering wing turrets means that Austria-Hungary could finally build ships with more than 2 turrets, effectively allowing it to build its own Dreadnoughts. The trouble is that wing turrets are incredibly heavy as it basically means having to have 2 wing turrets to achieve more or less the same effect as a single centerline turret as a ship very hardly fires to both its sides simultaneously. Wing turrets, however, have the advantage of being able to fire slightly closer to the ship's axis than centerline turrets.
Attacking enemy convoy
On 25th March 1906, light cruiser Szigetvar comes across enemy convoy.
As the weather is heavy, low visibility makes Italian escorts unaware of the Austrian light cruiser until it is very late. Due to their inability to cooperate, Szigetvar makes her way into the convoy practically unopposed and starts engaging Italian merchant ships at low distances. Even though Szigetvar has only 6 and 3 inch cannons, its fire is accurate and - against unarmored ships - devastating. Italian destroyers form a line but are reluctant to engage the Austrian cruiser. One destroyer is hit, loses power and is soon sunk by accurate fire delivered from short range. After witnessing it, other Italian destroyers decide to retreat, leaving their merchant ships alone against Szigetvar that later claims 4 more ships. As the mission is a success, Szigetvar returns home with battle honors.
Since it is not only the navy that is fighting the war, the time has came for the Army to show its strength. The Kaiser, as a supreme commander of Austrian armed forces, sent a letter to Admiral Mansfeld, inquiring about the state of the navy, effectively asking whether it is viable to redirect part of the Navy funds to the Army to support their planned offensive. With Mediterranean firmly in Austrian hands, Mansfeld replies positively, stating that the Navy can get by with limited funds for a while.
Lastly, after much deliberation, the Admiralty decided on building a new battleship. However, much to dismay of domestic producers, it has again decided to order the construction to a foreign shipyard, this time in the USA. The reason for this hard decision is mainly that the Monarchy has troubles producing good guns. While we have the patent for 13 inch guns previously bought from Britain, the gun is of a very low quality. At the same time, US 12 inch guns is the best 12 inch gun available, better in its performance than 13 inch guns of other countries. The only better gun currently in production is British 14 inch gun, however, there is a risk of high tensions with Britain and therefore Vienna has not authorized a construction in Britain, even though the three Erzherzog Karl-class battleships were delivered without any problems. Moreover, USA is the only nation capable of building superimposed turrets, allowing us to save some weight that would otherwise be used by wing turrets. Lastly, ordering a ship from USA will allow us to do more espionage on their construction technology; similarly to how we have done with the British. The downside is that the largest American shipyard can only build ships up to 21000 tons, resulting in the Austrian dreadnought being slightly less armored than would have been optimal, but we will have plenty of time to build large ships ourselves once we get a hold of a good gun.
Therefore, an order for the first dreadnought was placed, expected to be completed in 30 months in 1909. Because the ship is built in the US and because Admiral Mansfeld likes irony, the ship is to bear the name of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, deceased brother to Emperor Franz Josef.
Part 7 - the war continues (December 1905 - April 1906)
The return of von Keil's squadron back to Pula was triumphant! It seemed that with Napoli gone, Italy could not hope in a victory and would start negotiating for peace.
Damage sustained by Austrian battleships forced the whole battle fleet into dockyards, with Kaiser, the most heavily damaged ship, expected to underway repairs for two months. Rest of the ships were to be ready next month. This, however, had an unforeseen consequence in halting all Austrian merchant shipping. With battleships away from the Adriatic, Italy was able to force the rest of Austrian ships back to their ports due to Italian advantage in cruisers. Austrian coastline cities eagerly awaited the return of Austrian battleships that would force the Italian raiders away.
Small skirmishes were fought, though:
Protecting convoy
December 5, 1905 - as light cruisers Szigetvar and Zenta are escorting a convoy from Rijeka to Trieste, a smoke is seen on the horizon to the west. Both cruisers steam towards the suspected enemy vessels. At 1311hrs, lookouts on Szigetvar spot Italian light cruisers, although they are still unable to tell the type. Ten minutes later, the ship is identified as a Taranto-class light cruiser Marsala - a light and inadequately armed ship. Seeing Szigetvar and Zenta approaching, Marsala turns away and retreats. As the Austrian cruisers are unable to get in range and because it might be a trap to lure the cruisers away from their convoy, Szigetvar signals to turn back. Luckily, no other ship is approaching, the confrontation thus ended inconclusively with no shot fired by either side.
With Austrian battleships back in action, Italian cruisers are pushed away from the Mediterranean and Italy is effectively blocked. Austrian light and heavy cruisers patrol to search for enemy blockade runners. Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia sees a smoke on the horizon.
Engaging enemy raider
Enemy ship identified as Marco Polo, a heavy cruiser that Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia met in the battle of Malta.
Even though the enemy is better armed, Fregattenkapitän Johann Ledwinka decides to try his luck and engages the enemy. At around 0850hrs, Marco Polo's 10 inch fore gun opens on Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia that promptly answers with its 9 inch cannon. After around 15 minutes of exchange, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia is hit for the first time. Ledwinka turns the ship away from the enemy just as the ship is struck by another 10 inch shell into its superstructure, knocking out one of her secondary guns and killing its crew. Ledwinka is trying to flee but both ships are capable of reaching 20 kts so the distance remains the same.
Around 1300hrs, nearly 4 hours into the duel, Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia is hit again, this time to hull. Water leaks into the hull but flooding is soon contained. What, however, worries Ledwinka is that the additional weight of the taken water and the hole beneath the waterline slows his ship to 18kts. The distance between both ships is around 3.5nm and slowly decerasing. Italian secondary 7 inch cannons open on the Austrian ships and several more hits are scored in the next hour. Marco Polo, however, also has trouble keeping her max speed; possibly due to exhausted stokers or fouled boilers. Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia finally manages to score a hit; this will be her only success in the battle.
Ledwinka looks on his watches. It is nearly February and the night comes soon. There is only a couple of minutes to twilight. He orders his gunners to stop firing as to make it harder for the enemy to spot his ship in the coming night. Once the night falls, he makes a prolonged turn to port. If the enemy sees him, it will be the end for his ship as it has no hope of winning a short range duel. However, God watches over the Austrians and Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia manages to turn almost 180°, evading its pursuer. Although heavily damaged and having just lost the battle, Ledwinka is thankful that his ship is saved.
|
Hit to the hull on Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia |
In March 1906, Italy came with the first offer concerning peace. While this issue was being handled by the Imperial and Royal Foreign Ministry, the Admiralty was asked about its view regarding prolonged war. Admiral Mansfeld replied stating that the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine is in high spirit and ready to carry on the fighting with the prospect of delivering more defeats onto the Italians.
Having considered Mansfeld's depeche, Vienna decided to cancel the negotiations.
Some more scientific breakthroughs were made. Mastering wing turrets means that Austria-Hungary could finally build ships with more than 2 turrets, effectively allowing it to build its own Dreadnoughts. The trouble is that wing turrets are incredibly heavy as it basically means having to have 2 wing turrets to achieve more or less the same effect as a single centerline turret as a ship very hardly fires to both its sides simultaneously. Wing turrets, however, have the advantage of being able to fire slightly closer to the ship's axis than centerline turrets.
Attacking enemy convoy
On 25th March 1906, light cruiser Szigetvar comes across enemy convoy.
As the weather is heavy, low visibility makes Italian escorts unaware of the Austrian light cruiser until it is very late. Due to their inability to cooperate, Szigetvar makes her way into the convoy practically unopposed and starts engaging Italian merchant ships at low distances. Even though Szigetvar has only 6 and 3 inch cannons, its fire is accurate and - against unarmored ships - devastating. Italian destroyers form a line but are reluctant to engage the Austrian cruiser. One destroyer is hit, loses power and is soon sunk by accurate fire delivered from short range. After witnessing it, other Italian destroyers decide to retreat, leaving their merchant ships alone against Szigetvar that later claims 4 more ships. As the mission is a success, Szigetvar returns home with battle honors.
Since it is not only the navy that is fighting the war, the time has came for the Army to show its strength. The Kaiser, as a supreme commander of Austrian armed forces, sent a letter to Admiral Mansfeld, inquiring about the state of the navy, effectively asking whether it is viable to redirect part of the Navy funds to the Army to support their planned offensive. With Mediterranean firmly in Austrian hands, Mansfeld replies positively, stating that the Navy can get by with limited funds for a while.
Lastly, after much deliberation, the Admiralty decided on building a new battleship. However, much to dismay of domestic producers, it has again decided to order the construction to a foreign shipyard, this time in the USA. The reason for this hard decision is mainly that the Monarchy has troubles producing good guns. While we have the patent for 13 inch guns previously bought from Britain, the gun is of a very low quality. At the same time, US 12 inch guns is the best 12 inch gun available, better in its performance than 13 inch guns of other countries. The only better gun currently in production is British 14 inch gun, however, there is a risk of high tensions with Britain and therefore Vienna has not authorized a construction in Britain, even though the three Erzherzog Karl-class battleships were delivered without any problems. Moreover, USA is the only nation capable of building superimposed turrets, allowing us to save some weight that would otherwise be used by wing turrets. Lastly, ordering a ship from USA will allow us to do more espionage on their construction technology; similarly to how we have done with the British. The downside is that the largest American shipyard can only build ships up to 21000 tons, resulting in the Austrian dreadnought being slightly less armored than would have been optimal, but we will have plenty of time to build large ships ourselves once we get a hold of a good gun.
Therefore, an order for the first dreadnought was placed, expected to be completed in 30 months in 1909. Because the ship is built in the US and because Admiral Mansfeld likes irony, the ship is to bear the name of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, deceased brother to Emperor Franz Josef.
Who's commanding the Szigetvar? I reckon he could do with some medals for decimating that convoy!
Are you sure it's Maximilian of Mexico rather than Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire? Seems to me he has more to do with the Austro-Hungarian Empire than the other one.
Are you sure it's Maximilian of Mexico rather than Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire? Seems to me he has more to do with the Austro-Hungarian Empire than the other one.
Well, the dreadnought is being built in the US so choosing Maximilian of Mexico is kind of a joke on the US as Maximilian was murdered by US sponsored terrorists
But even without that, I think it is quite a fitting name since Maximilian was definitely one of the most important people in the Austro-Hungarian navy as before his short career as the Emperor of Mexico he was a commander in chief of the Austrian navy responsible for a quick expansion of in both the ships and harbours that later allowed Tegetthoff to claim victory at Lissa.
EDIT: Ok, I am kind of an idiot. I haven't realized Erzherzog Ferdinand Max is named after the same guy
But even without that, I think it is quite a fitting name since Maximilian was definitely one of the most important people in the Austro-Hungarian navy as before his short career as the Emperor of Mexico he was a commander in chief of the Austrian navy responsible for a quick expansion of in both the ships and harbours that later allowed Tegetthoff to claim victory at Lissa.
EDIT: Ok, I am kind of an idiot. I haven't realized Erzherzog Ferdinand Max is named after the same guy
Part 8 - Long live the Monarchy! (May 1906 - March 1907)
Following weeks saw the Austrian battlefleet trying to lure the Italians into another large battle, but Italian fleet decided to hide in its harbours rather than risking destruction. With Kaiser Maximilian in construction and the Mediterranean firmly in the Monarchy's grasp, Mansfeld finally felt that it was possible to justify canceling the Graz-class battleship program. Therefore, the incomplete battleship was scrapped.
Škodawerke finally finished their new gun. Unfortunately, the Pilsen gun factory has not invented a large gun that would finally allow Austria to build its own adequately-armed dreadnoughts but instead decided to master their 5 inch gun design. 12 cm/46 (4.7") Skoda was indeed probably the best cannon of its class in the world. While not really needed, such gun will allow the ships to carry 5 inch cannons instead of 6 inch guns while delivering similar performance at much lesser weight. And even though Austrian ship designers were not really convinced, such guns should be able to be fitted even on destroyers, giving them cannons capable of punching through armor on most light cruisers.
On the 5th of May 1906, Austrian light cruiser Zenta (Zenta-class, same as Szigetvar) spots an Italian light cruiser belonging to the Venezia Class. Since Venezia-class ships are woefully undergunned, Zenta decides to rush into battle. The battle is short as the gunners on Zenta deliver their shells with deadly accuracy. Italian cruiser Bari is sunk while Zenta suffers only superficial damage from a single 4 inch cannon hit that penetrate Zenta's funnel.
As a result of Austria's absolute dominance on the sea, Italy has trouble keeping her economy on track due to blockade starving Italian industry of much needed materials and food. Governmental effort to introduce rationing system is met with fierce opposition from the starving people. Morale reaches a new low and not only half a year old enthusiasm for a war is long gone.
And it is light cruiser Zenta again seeing its share of action. In a fog, Zenta suddenly encounters another Venezia-class light cruiser, Brindisi. With the fog keeping the ships hidden from each other until very short range, fire of both cruisers is accurate but Zenta's broadsides are more devastating due to her much larger guns. However, due to fog, ships often lose sight of each other and the duel lasts several hours. Heavily damaged Brindisi tries to escape from Zenta but is hit again and again. And just when it seems that Brindisi will follow the same fate as Bari a few weeks earlier, one of her guns manage to send its shell through Zenta's machine room, destroying the machinery. With Zenta quickly losing speed, Brindisi is able to make its escape in the thick fog.
And it is time for the Army to show its colours. On the 22nds of July, the stalemate in Italian Alps comes to an end as Svetozar Borojevic's III. Armee begins a massive offensive. After a massive artillery preparation, Austrian columns pour onto the enemy and while sustaining heavy losses in Italian machine gun fire, manage to take both lines of trenches. Italian army is forced to fall back along pretty much the whole front to contain the Austrian advances and prevent the Austrians from having a clear path to Venice. Thus, the planned offensive to which considerable funds from the naval budget were redirected is a complete success, throwing the enemy back some 20 kilometers. It seems that this war is quickly coming to an end.
With Italian surface fleet no longer presenting any danger and the success of the Army, Mansfeld decides to move his oldest battleships - Kaiser and Radetzky - to reserves.
And as usual, we have some scientific breakthroughs - this time our scientists figured out how to build larger destroyers and we also developed larger signaling flags!
A couple of weeks later, Mansfeld is summoned to Vienna. It appears that the Italians are rather desperate and are willing to offer large reparations in exchange for peace; perhaps even agreeing to cede some of their colonies. Knowing Austrian superiority on seas, Mansfeld submits to Emperor Franz Joseph a recommendation to prolong the war for a couple of months, hoping that K.u.K. Kriegsmarine will manage to force at least one more decisive battle by that time, a battle that would crush the Italian navy once and for good. Mansfeld has spent a lot of time recently thinking about how things could have gone if von Keil decided to ignore the Italian destroyer attack on his battlefleet and continued to pursue their fleeing battleships.
But the Monarchy has had enough of fighting. Despite Mansfeld's recommendation, Franz Joseph decided to accept, bringing peace to the Monarchy.
On the following peace conference, a quarrel starts in the Austrian camp. As Italy is willing to cease Eritrea, the Monarchy must decide whether it wants to have its colonies or whether it would not be better to just settle with larger monetary reparations. In the end, for sake of national prestige, the delegation pushes for the first Austrian colony in history. Eritrea does not have economic value and due to the necessity to station some forces there will be more of a hindrance than use, but it will give the Navy an ability to project power into the Indian ocean, thus possibly tying some enemy forces there instead of allowing them to move to the Mediterranean.
In a search for a future governor of Eritrea, a rather unlikely candidate was chosen. Alois Musil, an explorer, orientalist and arabist, the discover of the desert castle of Quasr Amra, who having finished universities in Jerusalem and Beirut was fluent in Arabic and was among the most knowledgeable men in Europe when it comes to Africa and Middle East.
With the new colony, however, the Monarchy needed ships to secure it. As all previous ships were built for calm Mediterranean and relatively short coastline duties, it became apparent that new ships have to be designed. Therefore, a heavy cruiser was designed for performing colonial duties - apart from huge range, it also had accommodations for a unit of marines to help maintaining order in Eritrea. Due to its large range and marine contingent, the ship was designed to be relatively lightly armoured and was capable only of average speed. Its main armament consisted of four 8 inch cannons housed in two two-gun turrets and 10 secondary batteries made of the new Škoda 5 inch guns. As the ship was expected to maintain its presence in Eritrea rather than actively fighting in the Indian ocean, secondary batteries are not armoured at all. Such arrangement saves weight and enables the ship to have more guns, making it suitable for fighting destroyers and other light cruisers, but it is not expected to last long against anything larger than a light cruiser. The ship, as the only ship of its class, was named after the new governor.
Lastly, a new class of destroyers was designed and six hulls were laid down. Utilizing the newly allowed displacement of 700 tons and new 5 inch guns, the Brün-class destroyers (Brün, Olmütz, Iglau, Trebitsch, Karlsbad and Pardubitz; named after Czech and Moravian cities) are a relatively new and untried concept - a destroyer relying on its gun armament instead of torpedoes. They have a short range, but an unprecedented speed of 30 knots and sport four 5 inch guns, giving them firepower able to pierce belts of many light cruisers and even some lightly armored parts of heavier ships.
Finally, a modification of the Brün-class was made to have destroyers fit for colonial duties as an escort to Freiherr Musil. While essentially the same as the Brün-class, Kairo-class (two hulls laid down - Kairo and Adwa) have significantly longer range and additional armament in four 3 inch light guns (since colonial ships are more expected to fight light ships) at the cost of smaller and less powerful engines, cutting Kairo's max speed to 28 knots.
Following weeks saw the Austrian battlefleet trying to lure the Italians into another large battle, but Italian fleet decided to hide in its harbours rather than risking destruction. With Kaiser Maximilian in construction and the Mediterranean firmly in the Monarchy's grasp, Mansfeld finally felt that it was possible to justify canceling the Graz-class battleship program. Therefore, the incomplete battleship was scrapped.
Škodawerke finally finished their new gun. Unfortunately, the Pilsen gun factory has not invented a large gun that would finally allow Austria to build its own adequately-armed dreadnoughts but instead decided to master their 5 inch gun design. 12 cm/46 (4.7") Skoda was indeed probably the best cannon of its class in the world. While not really needed, such gun will allow the ships to carry 5 inch cannons instead of 6 inch guns while delivering similar performance at much lesser weight. And even though Austrian ship designers were not really convinced, such guns should be able to be fitted even on destroyers, giving them cannons capable of punching through armor on most light cruisers.
On the 5th of May 1906, Austrian light cruiser Zenta (Zenta-class, same as Szigetvar) spots an Italian light cruiser belonging to the Venezia Class. Since Venezia-class ships are woefully undergunned, Zenta decides to rush into battle. The battle is short as the gunners on Zenta deliver their shells with deadly accuracy. Italian cruiser Bari is sunk while Zenta suffers only superficial damage from a single 4 inch cannon hit that penetrate Zenta's funnel.
As a result of Austria's absolute dominance on the sea, Italy has trouble keeping her economy on track due to blockade starving Italian industry of much needed materials and food. Governmental effort to introduce rationing system is met with fierce opposition from the starving people. Morale reaches a new low and not only half a year old enthusiasm for a war is long gone.
And it is light cruiser Zenta again seeing its share of action. In a fog, Zenta suddenly encounters another Venezia-class light cruiser, Brindisi. With the fog keeping the ships hidden from each other until very short range, fire of both cruisers is accurate but Zenta's broadsides are more devastating due to her much larger guns. However, due to fog, ships often lose sight of each other and the duel lasts several hours. Heavily damaged Brindisi tries to escape from Zenta but is hit again and again. And just when it seems that Brindisi will follow the same fate as Bari a few weeks earlier, one of her guns manage to send its shell through Zenta's machine room, destroying the machinery. With Zenta quickly losing speed, Brindisi is able to make its escape in the thick fog.
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Kaiserjägers in Italian mountains | Austrian column following the rapidly advancing army |
And it is time for the Army to show its colours. On the 22nds of July, the stalemate in Italian Alps comes to an end as Svetozar Borojevic's III. Armee begins a massive offensive. After a massive artillery preparation, Austrian columns pour onto the enemy and while sustaining heavy losses in Italian machine gun fire, manage to take both lines of trenches. Italian army is forced to fall back along pretty much the whole front to contain the Austrian advances and prevent the Austrians from having a clear path to Venice. Thus, the planned offensive to which considerable funds from the naval budget were redirected is a complete success, throwing the enemy back some 20 kilometers. It seems that this war is quickly coming to an end.
With Italian surface fleet no longer presenting any danger and the success of the Army, Mansfeld decides to move his oldest battleships - Kaiser and Radetzky - to reserves.
And as usual, we have some scientific breakthroughs - this time our scientists figured out how to build larger destroyers and we also developed larger signaling flags!
A couple of weeks later, Mansfeld is summoned to Vienna. It appears that the Italians are rather desperate and are willing to offer large reparations in exchange for peace; perhaps even agreeing to cede some of their colonies. Knowing Austrian superiority on seas, Mansfeld submits to Emperor Franz Joseph a recommendation to prolong the war for a couple of months, hoping that K.u.K. Kriegsmarine will manage to force at least one more decisive battle by that time, a battle that would crush the Italian navy once and for good. Mansfeld has spent a lot of time recently thinking about how things could have gone if von Keil decided to ignore the Italian destroyer attack on his battlefleet and continued to pursue their fleeing battleships.
But the Monarchy has had enough of fighting. Despite Mansfeld's recommendation, Franz Joseph decided to accept, bringing peace to the Monarchy.
On the following peace conference, a quarrel starts in the Austrian camp. As Italy is willing to cease Eritrea, the Monarchy must decide whether it wants to have its colonies or whether it would not be better to just settle with larger monetary reparations. In the end, for sake of national prestige, the delegation pushes for the first Austrian colony in history. Eritrea does not have economic value and due to the necessity to station some forces there will be more of a hindrance than use, but it will give the Navy an ability to project power into the Indian ocean, thus possibly tying some enemy forces there instead of allowing them to move to the Mediterranean.
In a search for a future governor of Eritrea, a rather unlikely candidate was chosen. Alois Musil, an explorer, orientalist and arabist, the discover of the desert castle of Quasr Amra, who having finished universities in Jerusalem and Beirut was fluent in Arabic and was among the most knowledgeable men in Europe when it comes to Africa and Middle East.
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Musil - a honorary chieftain of Beni Sachr tribe | As a governor of Eritrea | Austrian garrisson entering Asmara, 1907 |
With the new colony, however, the Monarchy needed ships to secure it. As all previous ships were built for calm Mediterranean and relatively short coastline duties, it became apparent that new ships have to be designed. Therefore, a heavy cruiser was designed for performing colonial duties - apart from huge range, it also had accommodations for a unit of marines to help maintaining order in Eritrea. Due to its large range and marine contingent, the ship was designed to be relatively lightly armoured and was capable only of average speed. Its main armament consisted of four 8 inch cannons housed in two two-gun turrets and 10 secondary batteries made of the new Škoda 5 inch guns. As the ship was expected to maintain its presence in Eritrea rather than actively fighting in the Indian ocean, secondary batteries are not armoured at all. Such arrangement saves weight and enables the ship to have more guns, making it suitable for fighting destroyers and other light cruisers, but it is not expected to last long against anything larger than a light cruiser. The ship, as the only ship of its class, was named after the new governor.
Lastly, a new class of destroyers was designed and six hulls were laid down. Utilizing the newly allowed displacement of 700 tons and new 5 inch guns, the Brün-class destroyers (Brün, Olmütz, Iglau, Trebitsch, Karlsbad and Pardubitz; named after Czech and Moravian cities) are a relatively new and untried concept - a destroyer relying on its gun armament instead of torpedoes. They have a short range, but an unprecedented speed of 30 knots and sport four 5 inch guns, giving them firepower able to pierce belts of many light cruisers and even some lightly armored parts of heavier ships.
Finally, a modification of the Brün-class was made to have destroyers fit for colonial duties as an escort to Freiherr Musil. While essentially the same as the Brün-class, Kairo-class (two hulls laid down - Kairo and Adwa) have significantly longer range and additional armament in four 3 inch light guns (since colonial ships are more expected to fight light ships) at the cost of smaller and less powerful engines, cutting Kairo's max speed to 28 knots.
No cheers for the K.u.K. Marine for delivering such a clear victory? 
Part 9 - Rest in peace, legacy fleet (April 1907 - November 190
With the end of the war, things go back to normal. Marinekommandant Mansfeld is no longer looking to the horizon, wondering whether this or that ship is going to return; instead he can focus on more mundane things - like sending spies all over Europe. Just now, the k.u.k. Evidenzbureau (A-H military intelligence) has sent him a copy of stolen blueprints of the newest French dreadnought Brennus. He cannot help but wonder whether the French somehow managed to get their hands on the plans of Kaiser Maximilian as the French ship is pretty much the same in most aspects.
With better and better guns being employed throughout the world (not the Monarchy, though, as our guns are pure garbage), it became apparent to the Admiralty that the support role of destroyers is coming to an end. With better radiotelegraphy and larger ranges on heavy artillery, the place of destroyers is no longer right next to its battleship but in front of the large battle line, chasing away enemy destroyers and denying them of vital intelligence as well as preventing torpedo attacks on our capital ships. Several field exercises were organized to give our destroyer commanders a grasp of the new role of their weapon.
And these are indeed golden times for the Monarchy. With flow of goods coming from Eritrea and renewed trade with Italy, as well as due to rapidly expanding industrial base in Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian companies are doing better than ever before. In fact, the Finanzministerium has never in history experienced such an income into the state treasury. Feeling a chance to turn Austria-Hungary into a global power after the acquisition of its first colony, the Delegations authorized an increase in naval budget according to the economic growth. At the moment, Austrian naval budget is almost twice as large as the Italian one and for the first time in history exceeded the French one.
While the Brün-class destroyers had successfully passed all the trials, their long-range sisters, the Kairo-class, was found to be lacking speed in the trials. While initially thought to be caused by larger coal bunkers and their increased weight, subsequent investigation concluded that slightly different position of coal bunkers and machinery was not taken into account and thus the ship, with the hull being essentially copied from the Brün-class is not balanced and the ship tends to dive its bow into the waves a little more, causing increased drag. Luckily, only two destroyers of Kairo-class were built so this construction error will not have an impact on the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine's fighting ability.
When half of the world started to develop superimposed turrets, our scientists were silent, attracting sever critique from the Admiralty and Vienna. But today, they have revealed a product of their fruitful work - triple turrets. This crowning achievement makes Austria-Hungary the first country in the world capable of building triple turrets. Triple turrets enable a ship to have one more gun in an armoured turret, thus saving weight as the heaviest parts of fighting ships are their armoured turrets. The downside of this ambitious design is that due to more cramped turrets, triple-turreted guns usually do not achieve the same rate of fire as guns housed in more spacious double turrets. Also, since triple turrets are moreover heavier than comparable double turrets, their traverse mechanisms tend to jam more often.
The unprecedented industrial expansion in the Monarchy has forced our arms manufacturers to search for new markets. Given the quite incomprehensible amount of nations hating each other in the Balkans, a cartel of companies including Steyer, Mannlicher and Škoda decided to increase their profits by supplying all the sides with high-quality Austrian weaponry. While such dealings may be seen as immoral by a bystander from western countries, the Austrian know that there is no way to fix the Balkans anyway, and that the additional profits will be of great use to the monarchy.
With future funds for new ships seemingly secured, Mansfeld decided that older ships are no longer needed. He would have sent the obsolete battleships Kaiser and Monarch to Eritrea but their cramped accommodations and short range prevented them from operating that far from reach of our bases in Croatia. In the end, the two ships were ordered to be scrapped, along with old heavy cruisers and the budget destroyers of the Luchs-class. This of course put the navy into a rather unfortunate positions - while Erzherzog Karl-class pre-dreadnoughts were still formidable ships and Kaiser maximilian was to be delivered soon, the Navy was at the moment very weak. Mansfeld had to rely on Vienna not to make any hasty moves until new generations of ships are commissioned.
In August 1908, Admiral Mansfeld is interviewed by a newspaperman from the Wiener Zeitung. The interviewer was primarily interested in the Marinekommandant's view on the strength of the Navy now that half of the fleet was scrapped due to obsoleteness while having no immediate replacement, with only Kaiser Maximilian as a capital ship currently in construction. Mansfeld answered that the question is irrelevant as Austria is a peaceful country and no war is foreseen in the future, but he must have admitted that the reporter had a point. Kaiser Maximilian was a single ship and no further were planned in the near future due to lacking technology for being able to produce worthy ships domestically. The interviewer was not, however, persuaded by Mansfeld's reply and asked a very impolite and direct question: "Herr Marinekommandant, but let's think for a moment that there indeed will be a war. In that case, who do you think is the most probable enemy of our fine country?"
"Well, I cannot speak as a politician - I simply don't know what will happen, you would have to ask in both Parliaments and also at the Imperial Court to get an answer. I can, however, say that from a military point of view, the only considerable opponent at this point would be France. After von Keil secured victory over Italians at Malta, Italy is - due to its concessions to us - no longer able to keep a parity of forces due to our enormous industrial growth. France, on the other hand - they have a very impressive fleet of pre-dreadnoughts, they are building a modern battleship and they consider themselves the rulers of the Mediterranean. I fear that the next war will be fought with France - they will not allow the Monarchy to outbuild their fleets and will force a war sooner as the time plays against them. We will need every Kröne available to win the naval arming race with them. But should the unthinkable happen - war with France, that is - it is my utmost conviction that our navy would walk victoriously. We proved ourselves at Lissa and at Malta and we will do the same everywhere else. The Mediterranean belongs to Austria-Hungary. Gott erhalte Franz Josef."
A month later, Mansfeld was approached by the captains of the industry. Having read the newspapers, they felt that it is the right time to push the politics into giving even more money to the Navy. Which would bring them considerable profits, of course. They asked for Mansfeld's recommendation that increased construction is indeed needed. And Mansfeld, having the wellbeing of the Monarchy at heart, happily obliged.
Kaiser Maximilian escorted by destroyers Cisepei and light cruisers Linz and Novara makes its way across the Atlantic
In October, Kaiser Maximilian was launched in the shipyard in New Ark. After being inspected by its Austrian crew, it made its way across the Atlantic ocean and arriving to Pula in early November. Immediately after arrival, the ship was docked and Austrian ship engineers and scientists were allowed on board to inspect the ship in hoping of learning the secrets of American shipbuilding. This effort proved successful as Kaiser Maximilian's turret bearings were very similar to some of our unused ideas. Kaiser Maximilian thus confirmed what some of our engineers were thinking and they thus decided to make a real use of these ideas. Improved turret traverse mechanisms and ammunition elevators concepts should allow us to build ships with more than 2 centerline turrets.
Part 9 - Rest in peace, legacy fleet (April 1907 - November 190
With the end of the war, things go back to normal. Marinekommandant Mansfeld is no longer looking to the horizon, wondering whether this or that ship is going to return; instead he can focus on more mundane things - like sending spies all over Europe. Just now, the k.u.k. Evidenzbureau (A-H military intelligence) has sent him a copy of stolen blueprints of the newest French dreadnought Brennus. He cannot help but wonder whether the French somehow managed to get their hands on the plans of Kaiser Maximilian as the French ship is pretty much the same in most aspects.
With better and better guns being employed throughout the world (not the Monarchy, though, as our guns are pure garbage), it became apparent to the Admiralty that the support role of destroyers is coming to an end. With better radiotelegraphy and larger ranges on heavy artillery, the place of destroyers is no longer right next to its battleship but in front of the large battle line, chasing away enemy destroyers and denying them of vital intelligence as well as preventing torpedo attacks on our capital ships. Several field exercises were organized to give our destroyer commanders a grasp of the new role of their weapon.
And these are indeed golden times for the Monarchy. With flow of goods coming from Eritrea and renewed trade with Italy, as well as due to rapidly expanding industrial base in Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian companies are doing better than ever before. In fact, the Finanzministerium has never in history experienced such an income into the state treasury. Feeling a chance to turn Austria-Hungary into a global power after the acquisition of its first colony, the Delegations authorized an increase in naval budget according to the economic growth. At the moment, Austrian naval budget is almost twice as large as the Italian one and for the first time in history exceeded the French one.
While the Brün-class destroyers had successfully passed all the trials, their long-range sisters, the Kairo-class, was found to be lacking speed in the trials. While initially thought to be caused by larger coal bunkers and their increased weight, subsequent investigation concluded that slightly different position of coal bunkers and machinery was not taken into account and thus the ship, with the hull being essentially copied from the Brün-class is not balanced and the ship tends to dive its bow into the waves a little more, causing increased drag. Luckily, only two destroyers of Kairo-class were built so this construction error will not have an impact on the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine's fighting ability.
When half of the world started to develop superimposed turrets, our scientists were silent, attracting sever critique from the Admiralty and Vienna. But today, they have revealed a product of their fruitful work - triple turrets. This crowning achievement makes Austria-Hungary the first country in the world capable of building triple turrets. Triple turrets enable a ship to have one more gun in an armoured turret, thus saving weight as the heaviest parts of fighting ships are their armoured turrets. The downside of this ambitious design is that due to more cramped turrets, triple-turreted guns usually do not achieve the same rate of fire as guns housed in more spacious double turrets. Also, since triple turrets are moreover heavier than comparable double turrets, their traverse mechanisms tend to jam more often.
The unprecedented industrial expansion in the Monarchy has forced our arms manufacturers to search for new markets. Given the quite incomprehensible amount of nations hating each other in the Balkans, a cartel of companies including Steyer, Mannlicher and Škoda decided to increase their profits by supplying all the sides with high-quality Austrian weaponry. While such dealings may be seen as immoral by a bystander from western countries, the Austrian know that there is no way to fix the Balkans anyway, and that the additional profits will be of great use to the monarchy.
With future funds for new ships seemingly secured, Mansfeld decided that older ships are no longer needed. He would have sent the obsolete battleships Kaiser and Monarch to Eritrea but their cramped accommodations and short range prevented them from operating that far from reach of our bases in Croatia. In the end, the two ships were ordered to be scrapped, along with old heavy cruisers and the budget destroyers of the Luchs-class. This of course put the navy into a rather unfortunate positions - while Erzherzog Karl-class pre-dreadnoughts were still formidable ships and Kaiser maximilian was to be delivered soon, the Navy was at the moment very weak. Mansfeld had to rely on Vienna not to make any hasty moves until new generations of ships are commissioned.
In August 1908, Admiral Mansfeld is interviewed by a newspaperman from the Wiener Zeitung. The interviewer was primarily interested in the Marinekommandant's view on the strength of the Navy now that half of the fleet was scrapped due to obsoleteness while having no immediate replacement, with only Kaiser Maximilian as a capital ship currently in construction. Mansfeld answered that the question is irrelevant as Austria is a peaceful country and no war is foreseen in the future, but he must have admitted that the reporter had a point. Kaiser Maximilian was a single ship and no further were planned in the near future due to lacking technology for being able to produce worthy ships domestically. The interviewer was not, however, persuaded by Mansfeld's reply and asked a very impolite and direct question: "Herr Marinekommandant, but let's think for a moment that there indeed will be a war. In that case, who do you think is the most probable enemy of our fine country?"
"Well, I cannot speak as a politician - I simply don't know what will happen, you would have to ask in both Parliaments and also at the Imperial Court to get an answer. I can, however, say that from a military point of view, the only considerable opponent at this point would be France. After von Keil secured victory over Italians at Malta, Italy is - due to its concessions to us - no longer able to keep a parity of forces due to our enormous industrial growth. France, on the other hand - they have a very impressive fleet of pre-dreadnoughts, they are building a modern battleship and they consider themselves the rulers of the Mediterranean. I fear that the next war will be fought with France - they will not allow the Monarchy to outbuild their fleets and will force a war sooner as the time plays against them. We will need every Kröne available to win the naval arming race with them. But should the unthinkable happen - war with France, that is - it is my utmost conviction that our navy would walk victoriously. We proved ourselves at Lissa and at Malta and we will do the same everywhere else. The Mediterranean belongs to Austria-Hungary. Gott erhalte Franz Josef."
A month later, Mansfeld was approached by the captains of the industry. Having read the newspapers, they felt that it is the right time to push the politics into giving even more money to the Navy. Which would bring them considerable profits, of course. They asked for Mansfeld's recommendation that increased construction is indeed needed. And Mansfeld, having the wellbeing of the Monarchy at heart, happily obliged.
Kaiser Maximilian escorted by destroyers Cisepei and light cruisers Linz and Novara makes its way across the Atlantic
In October, Kaiser Maximilian was launched in the shipyard in New Ark. After being inspected by its Austrian crew, it made its way across the Atlantic ocean and arriving to Pula in early November. Immediately after arrival, the ship was docked and Austrian ship engineers and scientists were allowed on board to inspect the ship in hoping of learning the secrets of American shipbuilding. This effort proved successful as Kaiser Maximilian's turret bearings were very similar to some of our unused ideas. Kaiser Maximilian thus confirmed what some of our engineers were thinking and they thus decided to make a real use of these ideas. Improved turret traverse mechanisms and ammunition elevators concepts should allow us to build ships with more than 2 centerline turrets.
*Looks at warmongering headlines in our newspapers*
"Franz, are we the baddies?"
"Franz, are we the baddies?"
Part 10 - Guns, guns, guns (December 1908 - March 1910)
Tests and trials of Kaiser Maximilian continued. Austrian shipmakers were shocked by the quality of American craftsmanship and their technological expertise. Soon, Austrian construction teams finally developed a superimposed turret, albeit only limited to aft turrets. The secrets of front superimposed turrets still eludes us. Similarly, the experts from Škodawerke were able to reverse-engineer US 12-inch cannons, however, the Škoda gun was behind in quality as the precise composition of American alloys was not known to our engineers and our new gun performed significantly worse during prolonged fire.
While the new gun finally allowed the Monarchy to build dreadnoughts, it was still not good enough. In the future, a decision will have to be made as in whether we will need to once again use the services of a foreign shipyard to overcome our backward engineering. But fortune favoured Austria at that hour - a spy managed to steal the entire documentation to a new French 14 inch gun. After two test guns were made by Škoda and tested by the Naval Inspection Group, the verdict was clear - while no technological marvel, this gun, thanks to its sheer size, has enough penetration to be installed in our heavy ships.
And there was even more technological progress - introduction of standardized plotting tables increased our accuracy. At this point, Mansfeld was sure that Austrian fire control systems and drills are the best in the whole world.
And at this very moment, the decision to build new capital ships was made. Since the last war has shown that battleships can very rarely force engagements, what was needed was a faster design. But while other nations were building battlecruisers, cautious Austrian admiralty was looking at foreign designs rather sceptically due to their insufficient armor. Lastly, if the ships are not to age quickly, they need to mount the 14 inch cannons as it is the best gun currently available. In the end, the design was structured along these demands:
- Speed at least 26 knots
- Armor comparable to Kaiser Maximilian
- At least 6 14-inch guns as primary armament
Trieste shipyards came with a design that managed to satisfy all these three conditions. The downside, of course, being its ruinous cost. With a cost of 101.000.000, the proposed 28000tons fast battleship (classified as battlecruiser by the game) was almost 30 percent more expensive than Kaiser Maximilian. Since the ship was designed for long range engagements and was thus more prone to hits by plunging fire, the T.S.S. saved a lot of weight by relatively lightly armouring the belt (10,5 inches of armor) and also making the belt narrow, with large parts of the ship being only very lightly armour (2 inches). The saved weight was used to reinforce deck and especially the turrets. Lastly, for the first time in Austrian shipmaking, secondary batteries were almost completely scrapped - partly to save weight, partly because at longer ranges, smaller guns are useless for the ship. Therefore, the ship was left with only a pair of 5 inch cannons and 24 small fast firing cannons as its tertiary batteries.
Even though the construction cost will bring our finances to red number, two ships were ordered - Erzherzogin Marie Valerie as a leading ship of the class and Erzherzogin Elisabeth Marie as her sister ship.
And even more news from our research teams - we can finally armour our light cruisers evenly. Previously, we could get over the small size of light cruisers only by building them with a protected cruiser armour scheme in which the armour protects a small citadel below the waterline that houses magazines and machinery and also turrets, but the rest of the ship is wholly unarmored. However, with new and lighter alloys, we are able to put armor on both the belt and the deck, resulting in an increased protection for our cruisers.
The Admiralty, following the destroyer screen doctrine, also developed a concept of a scouting force. Scouting force is a separate detachment centered around battlecruisers or fast heavy cruisers whose task is to scout ahead, chase away enemy screen and/or scouting force and secure a favourable position for the entry of a friendly battle line into the battle. With the advance of radio communication, the scout force is usually detached from the fleet flagship and operates on its own rather than being subordinated to the battle line.
And it appears that economic crisis has befallen other countries as they are far too willing to sell their patents. And Austria, with its inefficient research, is all too happy to buy them all. With those patents and our own conducted research, we are now on par with Germany as far as technology is concerned and we are inferior only to Britain and the US. As to the bought tech itself, cross deck fire will not help us much since superimposed turrets are superior to cross deck fire arrangement, Krupp cementit is a-okay (also, I should note that we have our own research as far as armor, machinery and hull are concerned, I just don't screenshot it since it is not that important tech) but what is really great is that Italy decided to sell a Fire Control tech we lack, further solidifying our lead in gun accuracy.
And once again for the research - Škodawerke managed to improve their 12-inch gun. Which is unfortunate as this gun would have been much better choice for Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class since it is lighter and completely adequate for a fast battleship at this era. Shame. Still, we have to give credit to Austrian research since these two years, we have managed to catch with the world. Hurray for Austria!
Tests and trials of Kaiser Maximilian continued. Austrian shipmakers were shocked by the quality of American craftsmanship and their technological expertise. Soon, Austrian construction teams finally developed a superimposed turret, albeit only limited to aft turrets. The secrets of front superimposed turrets still eludes us. Similarly, the experts from Škodawerke were able to reverse-engineer US 12-inch cannons, however, the Škoda gun was behind in quality as the precise composition of American alloys was not known to our engineers and our new gun performed significantly worse during prolonged fire.
While the new gun finally allowed the Monarchy to build dreadnoughts, it was still not good enough. In the future, a decision will have to be made as in whether we will need to once again use the services of a foreign shipyard to overcome our backward engineering. But fortune favoured Austria at that hour - a spy managed to steal the entire documentation to a new French 14 inch gun. After two test guns were made by Škoda and tested by the Naval Inspection Group, the verdict was clear - while no technological marvel, this gun, thanks to its sheer size, has enough penetration to be installed in our heavy ships.
And there was even more technological progress - introduction of standardized plotting tables increased our accuracy. At this point, Mansfeld was sure that Austrian fire control systems and drills are the best in the whole world.
And at this very moment, the decision to build new capital ships was made. Since the last war has shown that battleships can very rarely force engagements, what was needed was a faster design. But while other nations were building battlecruisers, cautious Austrian admiralty was looking at foreign designs rather sceptically due to their insufficient armor. Lastly, if the ships are not to age quickly, they need to mount the 14 inch cannons as it is the best gun currently available. In the end, the design was structured along these demands:
- Speed at least 26 knots
- Armor comparable to Kaiser Maximilian
- At least 6 14-inch guns as primary armament
Trieste shipyards came with a design that managed to satisfy all these three conditions. The downside, of course, being its ruinous cost. With a cost of 101.000.000, the proposed 28000tons fast battleship (classified as battlecruiser by the game) was almost 30 percent more expensive than Kaiser Maximilian. Since the ship was designed for long range engagements and was thus more prone to hits by plunging fire, the T.S.S. saved a lot of weight by relatively lightly armouring the belt (10,5 inches of armor) and also making the belt narrow, with large parts of the ship being only very lightly armour (2 inches). The saved weight was used to reinforce deck and especially the turrets. Lastly, for the first time in Austrian shipmaking, secondary batteries were almost completely scrapped - partly to save weight, partly because at longer ranges, smaller guns are useless for the ship. Therefore, the ship was left with only a pair of 5 inch cannons and 24 small fast firing cannons as its tertiary batteries.
Even though the construction cost will bring our finances to red number, two ships were ordered - Erzherzogin Marie Valerie as a leading ship of the class and Erzherzogin Elisabeth Marie as her sister ship.
And even more news from our research teams - we can finally armour our light cruisers evenly. Previously, we could get over the small size of light cruisers only by building them with a protected cruiser armour scheme in which the armour protects a small citadel below the waterline that houses magazines and machinery and also turrets, but the rest of the ship is wholly unarmored. However, with new and lighter alloys, we are able to put armor on both the belt and the deck, resulting in an increased protection for our cruisers.
The Admiralty, following the destroyer screen doctrine, also developed a concept of a scouting force. Scouting force is a separate detachment centered around battlecruisers or fast heavy cruisers whose task is to scout ahead, chase away enemy screen and/or scouting force and secure a favourable position for the entry of a friendly battle line into the battle. With the advance of radio communication, the scout force is usually detached from the fleet flagship and operates on its own rather than being subordinated to the battle line.
And it appears that economic crisis has befallen other countries as they are far too willing to sell their patents. And Austria, with its inefficient research, is all too happy to buy them all. With those patents and our own conducted research, we are now on par with Germany as far as technology is concerned and we are inferior only to Britain and the US. As to the bought tech itself, cross deck fire will not help us much since superimposed turrets are superior to cross deck fire arrangement, Krupp cementit is a-okay (also, I should note that we have our own research as far as armor, machinery and hull are concerned, I just don't screenshot it since it is not that important tech) but what is really great is that Italy decided to sell a Fire Control tech we lack, further solidifying our lead in gun accuracy.
And once again for the research - Škodawerke managed to improve their 12-inch gun. Which is unfortunate as this gun would have been much better choice for Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class since it is lighter and completely adequate for a fast battleship at this era. Shame. Still, we have to give credit to Austrian research since these two years, we have managed to catch with the world. Hurray for Austria!
Who was Archduchess Marie Valerie though? Anyone important?
Not really They are just living members of the Imperial house. I liked their names and figured that it would be nice to name battlecruisers after women for a change. Considering the next war will be with France, I was considering Königin Anna after Anne d'Autriche or Kaiserin Marie Ludovica after Marie Louise for a laugh but that would sound even more unprobable and there would be problems with naming its sister ship(s). Also, it is in line with Austrian tradition of ridiculously long names. Hell, has anyone in history ever beaten Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia?
They are just living members of the Imperial house. I liked their names and figured that it would be nice to name battlecruisers after women for a change. Considering the next war will be with France, I was considering Königin Anna after Anne d'Autriche or Kaiserin Marie Ludovica after Marie Louise for a laugh but that would sound even more unprobable and there would be problems with naming its sister ship(s). Also, it is in line with Austrian tradition of ridiculously long names. Hell, has anyone in history ever beaten Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia? Part 11 - War comes once again (April 1910 - July 1912)
Good relations with Germany resulted in the German government authorizing a sell of oil firing technology. The technology brings certain interesting traits. Oil firing boilers are slightly lighter than coal ones but the greatest advantage comes with oil being liquid, meaning that there is no longer a need for stokers and it is also possible to have the ship running at maximum speed since with no stokers, noone can become exhausted. Also, smoke resulting from oil firing is not as thick as large black clouds that come with burning coal. This mean that large formations of oil firing ships will not obscure the vision of its rear vessels with smoke as happens with ordinary ships. There are, however, also considerable disadvantages - burning oil is more expensive and - unlike coal - oil can be set afire by enemy fire. Switching to oil firing would thus end the additional protection that coal bunkers offer to ships.
Austrian Admiralty nevertheless decided to buy the patent since such an technological innovation may prove useful - we may not have all our ship burn oil but we still can have some of them do so.
Our shipbuilders finally embraced the newest designs in heavy ship building - we have developed ways to build both fore and aft superimposed turrets and it we can fit 4 turrets onto one ship, allowing us to carry even more firepower.
Long-time good relations with the US brings its fruit in mutual trades being conducted - US has bought our cross deck fire technology (which was deemed useless by our designers) and offered improved rangefinders that would further increase our ships' accuracy.
Italians laid down hull for their new Lepanto battlecruiser, the largest ship currently in construction. With its twelve 14 inch cannons, it is by far the most well armed ship to be launched soon and its speed allows it to disengage at will. There is no doubt that such a ship is going to ruin strenuous Italian finances but it is an impressive ship nevertheless.
And the boys are at it again. Disgruntles by aggressive Bulgarian policies, Romania and Serbia, both backed by France, partially mobilized their armed forces. With Bulgaria using mainly our older guns and Serbian inventory including Schwarzlose machine guns, this potential war opened new possibilities for our arms manufacturers whose sales skyrocketed. This rather pragmatic export policy is fiercely criticised by France, bringing more tensions between our countries.
Our two new battlecruisers of Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class were launched and the design proved to have even better seafaring capabilities than our shipbuilders envisioned. When at full steams, the ships are able to achieve 27 knots of speed.
As our arms manufacturers step up their exports, partly due to Balkan tensions, partly due to finding new markets in South America, this growth manifests itself also in rapid expansion of their production capabilities that in turn bring more and more Krönen into the state treasury.
With increased budgets and with a view that future battles will be fought at larger ranges, the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine adopted a new training plan for the gun crews. With additional funding enabling us to hold exponentially more firing exercises, we expect that the accuracy of our gunfire will improve. It remains that nothing can replace battle experience but peacetime drills and exercises will ensure that our soldiers will go into their first battle sufficiently prepared.
As if Austria-Hungary was not the worlds' leading nation when it comes to Fire Control, we are now able to install Directors on our ships and connect them to primary batteries. Unlike all previous fire control mechanisms, Director firing does not focus on giving the gunners the most accurate firing solutions but instead allow all guns to be fired centrally from a fire control room based on data from analogue computers located there. We still need gunners to reload the guns and even train them in a situation when the Director is hit, but this is a major breakthrough. At the moment, the only other nation capable of building Directors is USA.
To reap its benefits, all our three Erzherzog Karl-class pre-dreadnoughts and our two Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class battlecruisers were sent for a refit. The refit will take 4 months in which the Monarchy will not have a single capital ship able to take part in combat operations. But it is better to have all ships ready for war once a war comes.
But politics care little for ships sent for refits. After a diplomatic battle following French attempt to seize control of Polynesia, Vienna came to a conclusion that French warmongering and imperialist ambitions have crossed the line and that France needs to be stopped before it becomes a threat to stability in Europe. Thus, as of August 1912 both countries consider themselves in a state of war.
Good relations with Germany resulted in the German government authorizing a sell of oil firing technology. The technology brings certain interesting traits. Oil firing boilers are slightly lighter than coal ones but the greatest advantage comes with oil being liquid, meaning that there is no longer a need for stokers and it is also possible to have the ship running at maximum speed since with no stokers, noone can become exhausted. Also, smoke resulting from oil firing is not as thick as large black clouds that come with burning coal. This mean that large formations of oil firing ships will not obscure the vision of its rear vessels with smoke as happens with ordinary ships. There are, however, also considerable disadvantages - burning oil is more expensive and - unlike coal - oil can be set afire by enemy fire. Switching to oil firing would thus end the additional protection that coal bunkers offer to ships.
Austrian Admiralty nevertheless decided to buy the patent since such an technological innovation may prove useful - we may not have all our ship burn oil but we still can have some of them do so.
Our shipbuilders finally embraced the newest designs in heavy ship building - we have developed ways to build both fore and aft superimposed turrets and it we can fit 4 turrets onto one ship, allowing us to carry even more firepower.
Long-time good relations with the US brings its fruit in mutual trades being conducted - US has bought our cross deck fire technology (which was deemed useless by our designers) and offered improved rangefinders that would further increase our ships' accuracy.
Italians laid down hull for their new Lepanto battlecruiser, the largest ship currently in construction. With its twelve 14 inch cannons, it is by far the most well armed ship to be launched soon and its speed allows it to disengage at will. There is no doubt that such a ship is going to ruin strenuous Italian finances but it is an impressive ship nevertheless.
And the boys are at it again. Disgruntles by aggressive Bulgarian policies, Romania and Serbia, both backed by France, partially mobilized their armed forces. With Bulgaria using mainly our older guns and Serbian inventory including Schwarzlose machine guns, this potential war opened new possibilities for our arms manufacturers whose sales skyrocketed. This rather pragmatic export policy is fiercely criticised by France, bringing more tensions between our countries.
Our two new battlecruisers of Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class were launched and the design proved to have even better seafaring capabilities than our shipbuilders envisioned. When at full steams, the ships are able to achieve 27 knots of speed.
As our arms manufacturers step up their exports, partly due to Balkan tensions, partly due to finding new markets in South America, this growth manifests itself also in rapid expansion of their production capabilities that in turn bring more and more Krönen into the state treasury.
With increased budgets and with a view that future battles will be fought at larger ranges, the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine adopted a new training plan for the gun crews. With additional funding enabling us to hold exponentially more firing exercises, we expect that the accuracy of our gunfire will improve. It remains that nothing can replace battle experience but peacetime drills and exercises will ensure that our soldiers will go into their first battle sufficiently prepared.
As if Austria-Hungary was not the worlds' leading nation when it comes to Fire Control, we are now able to install Directors on our ships and connect them to primary batteries. Unlike all previous fire control mechanisms, Director firing does not focus on giving the gunners the most accurate firing solutions but instead allow all guns to be fired centrally from a fire control room based on data from analogue computers located there. We still need gunners to reload the guns and even train them in a situation when the Director is hit, but this is a major breakthrough. At the moment, the only other nation capable of building Directors is USA.
To reap its benefits, all our three Erzherzog Karl-class pre-dreadnoughts and our two Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class battlecruisers were sent for a refit. The refit will take 4 months in which the Monarchy will not have a single capital ship able to take part in combat operations. But it is better to have all ships ready for war once a war comes.
But politics care little for ships sent for refits. After a diplomatic battle following French attempt to seize control of Polynesia, Vienna came to a conclusion that French warmongering and imperialist ambitions have crossed the line and that France needs to be stopped before it becomes a threat to stability in Europe. Thus, as of August 1912 both countries consider themselves in a state of war.
That's quite a coincidence, since the battle of Lepanto happened on 7 October (same day as today)!BenKenobi said:Italians laid down hull for their new Lepanto battlecruiser, the largest ship currently in construction. With its twelve 14 inch cannons, it is by far the most well armed ship to be launched soon and its speed allows it to disengage at will. There is no doubt that such a ship is going to ruin strenuous Italian finances but it is an impressive ship nevertheless.
Part 12 - teasing the Frogs (August 1912 - November 1912)
Unlike with the Italians, Austrian admiralty was rather wary to engage the French head on. While the Austrians placed a lot of faith on their new Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class battlecruisers and their long range capabilities, the Admiralty was aware that numerical advantage was clearly on the side of the French. The French on the other hand feared the Austrian tactical expertise as the Austrian performance in the war with Italians was very good. Also, French ships generally had thinner armor than their Austrian counterparts so the French, unaware of the poor quality of Austrian AP shells, were afraid to enter into pitched battle. The balance of power at the start of the war looked like this:
While the main French battleline, consisting of 8 rather obsolete pre-dreadnoughts, was a formidable force, its max speed was capped to 18 knots; allowing the Austrian ships to disengage at will as the Austrian battleline was capable of 21 knots sustained speed. This led the French admiralty to a conclusion that the decisive clash will be the one between both adversaries' newest ships; in which the French advantage was not as clear. This reluctance and unsureness meant that capital ships were left safely in their bases and the first engagement of the war was thus rather banal:
Following this stunning success, Fiume Marineakademie came up with a new tactical concept. Its usefulness remains to be seen as Austrian navy does not have enough capital ships to be able to form any parallel columns at the moment.
Meanwhile, Freiherr Musil and its two destroyer escort encounters French Sfax-class light cruiser near the coast of Abyssinia.
Despite the differences in size, the French were able to put up incredible resistance. Freiherr Musil's secondary batteries were heavily damaged, as well as its machinery and hull; warranting 3 months in repairs.
In the Mediterranean, Linz light cruiser spots a French taskforce, but after a brief exchange, Linz attempts to flee as it is clearly outgunned. Despite losing one of her boilers during the battle, Linz managed to escape after the pursuing cruiser took a several hits and broke the pursuit.
Unlike with the Italians, Austrian admiralty was rather wary to engage the French head on. While the Austrians placed a lot of faith on their new Erzherzogin Marie Valerie-class battlecruisers and their long range capabilities, the Admiralty was aware that numerical advantage was clearly on the side of the French. The French on the other hand feared the Austrian tactical expertise as the Austrian performance in the war with Italians was very good. Also, French ships generally had thinner armor than their Austrian counterparts so the French, unaware of the poor quality of Austrian AP shells, were afraid to enter into pitched battle. The balance of power at the start of the war looked like this:
| Austria-Hungary | France | |
| Dreadnoughts | 1 (21000 tons) | 1 (22200 tons) |
| Battlecruisers | 2 (2 x 28000 tons) | 1 (24900tons) |
| Battleships | 3 (3 x 17000 tons) | 8 (4 x 14900tons, 2 x 15000tons, 2 x 15500tons, 1 x 18400tons) |
| Heavy cruisers | 1 (9000 tons) | 2 (2 x 12500tons) |
| Light cruisers | 4 (2 x 5000 tons, 2 x 5500 tons) | 14 (approx. 60000tons) |
| Destroyers | 35 | 33 |
While the main French battleline, consisting of 8 rather obsolete pre-dreadnoughts, was a formidable force, its max speed was capped to 18 knots; allowing the Austrian ships to disengage at will as the Austrian battleline was capable of 21 knots sustained speed. This led the French admiralty to a conclusion that the decisive clash will be the one between both adversaries' newest ships; in which the French advantage was not as clear. This reluctance and unsureness meant that capital ships were left safely in their bases and the first engagement of the war was thus rather banal:
Following this stunning success, Fiume Marineakademie came up with a new tactical concept. Its usefulness remains to be seen as Austrian navy does not have enough capital ships to be able to form any parallel columns at the moment.
Meanwhile, Freiherr Musil and its two destroyer escort encounters French Sfax-class light cruiser near the coast of Abyssinia.
Despite the differences in size, the French were able to put up incredible resistance. Freiherr Musil's secondary batteries were heavily damaged, as well as its machinery and hull; warranting 3 months in repairs.
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French officers following the declaration of war | Austrian colonial troops in front of German embassy in Eritrea awaiting officers from returned Freiherr Musil |
In the Mediterranean, Linz light cruiser spots a French taskforce, but after a brief exchange, Linz attempts to flee as it is clearly outgunned. Despite losing one of her boilers during the battle, Linz managed to escape after the pursuing cruiser took a several hits and broke the pursuit.
Wait, the French lost 10 ships while chasing a single light cruiser?
Yes and no. What happens is that there are sometimes ships of your nation that are not part of your OOB and thus are not controllable. Their kills also do show in results (which effectively mean that sometimes you just play a smaller force and see some of your best ships being sunk while controlled by AI). My OOB in this battle consisted only of Linz light cruiser and the battle was pretty much just running away. From the kills I infer that there was another Austrian light cruiser with a destroyer escort that managed to sink a French convoy escort and pretty much massacre the merchant ships there. But I had no visuals of that.
Sounds like a really silly system.
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