Svent Istavan was sunk during the war, the Italians seized Tegetthoff and Prinz Eugen became French property. The VU was sunk in port in the middle of the night by an Italian torpedo boat carrying modified torpedoes and mines, The explosion shook the ships which rolled over and sank in just 10 minutes. The VU returned to base virtually unscathed.įollowing difficult political times in what was left of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the crew mutinied on Octoand the VU transferred to the newly established Yugoslav fleet. Robbing History of another Jutlandesque naval battle.Īfter the emperors former ally, Italy, changed sides, the Viribus Unitis sailed to Italy's east coast and bombarded the port of Ancona, Since there was practically no opposition from the Italian side, the local press called the attack barbaric. The AH fleet turned around at Cape Planka and returned to Pola. However for diplomatic reasons, the Germans were sent to Turkey, where they were interned. since at that time Italy was still neutral the damaged German ships could have reached Pola without much difficulty. The fleet along with the two German ships could have easily taken on the British Mediterranean fleet. The Viribus Unitis had the sad duty of transporting Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife's body's back to Austria-Hungary after their assacination, the voyage was accompanied by the tolling of church bells as The battleship slowly made her way along the coats, flags at half mast.Īfter Great Britain joined the war the German battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau were trapped in the Mediteranean, following a German request for assistance the Austro-Hungarians assembled a massively powerful battle-fleet Which included the battleships Viribus unitis (pronounced Veer-'e'-boos Oo-neat-os) and Tegetthoff, 6 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 6 torpedo boats.

4 ships were built Tegetthoff, Viribus Unitis (The flagship of the class), Prinz Eugen and Svent Istavan. Unlike most battleships, which are crewed by some of the most experienced men in the navy, the Tagetthoff's were crewed mainly by volunteers saving the more experienced crews for their torpedo boats and destroyers which were much more active.

Today we will be looking at one of the most modern and powerful battleships of WWI, the Austro-Hungarian battleships of the Tegetthoff (pronounced tea-git-off) class.

Tegetthoff class download