Rapid cruiser

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rapidkreuzer was a warship type of the Austro-Hungarian Navy , which was comparable to the reconnaissance cruiser of other fleets. Four units were put into service: SMS Admiral Spaun (1910), SMS Saida , SMS Helgoland (1914) and SMS Novara (1915). They carried a main armament of 10 cm cannons and torpedo tubes and had light armor. For their time, they were quite fast at 27 knots.

These ships turned out to be ideally suited for naval warfare in the Adriatic and, together with the destroyers of the Tátra- class, carried the brunt of the fighting. They made numerous rapid forays into Italian ports. The most spectacular action was the successful attack by Novara , Helgoland and Saida on the Otranto barrier on May 15, 1917.

The only major weakness of the rapid cruisers was their too light main artillery, which is why there were considerations about rearmament with guns of the caliber 12 or 15 cm. Because of the war situation it did not come to that. To this end, the number of torpedo tubes was increased to six ( Admiral Spaun : eight).

Three other ships with a stronger main armament with 12 cm cannons and a maximum speed of 30 kn, the replacement Zenta class , were planned, but did not get beyond the planning stage.

After the war, the rapid cruisers had to be delivered to the victorious powers. Admiral Spaun came to Great Britain and was scrapped in 1922. France added Novara to its fleet under the name Thionville . The ship was canceled in 1932. Italy took over Helgoland and Saida as Brindisi and Venezia , which were decommissioned in 1937.

literature

Web links