Tátra class
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|---|---|
| Tátra class | |
| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| units | 10 |
| Shipyard | |
| Order | 1911, 1916 |
| Keel laying | 1911/12, 1916 |
| Launch | 1912/13, 1917 |
| delivery | 1913/14, 1917 |
| Namesake | Names of mountains, lakes and islands of the Danube Monarchy |
| period of service |
1913 to 1939 |
| Whereabouts | 2 war losses, 8 extradited, five singled out to Italy by 1939, one singled out from France in 1936   |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
850 to 1050 ts |
| length |
85 m |
| width |
7.8 m |
| Draft |
2.6 m |
| crew |
105 to 114 men |
| drive |
6 Yarrow boilers |
| speed |
32.5 kn , 2 screws |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
104 t coal a. 125 tons of oil |
| Driving range |
1600 nm at 12 kn |
The Tátra class was a destroyer class of the Austro-Hungarian Navy . The destroyers ordered in 1911 were officially designated as torpedo vehicles and, in terms of size, armament and use, corresponded to the early large destroyers of other navies. The first six units were taken over by the kuk Kriegsmarine between October 1913 and August 1914. The torpedo vehicles and the rapid cruisers were the most active units of the kuk Kriegsmarine in the First World War . In 1915 two units were lost.
During the war four more units were procured, which are also known as the replacement Triglav class . In 1918 the existing units had to be handed over to the victorious powers. The Italian Navy used five and the French Navy one unit until the 1930s.
History of the class
The Tátra class arose from a tender by the Austrian naval administration for six 800 t turbine-powered destroyers and a maximum speed of 32.5 knots (kn). In addition to the local shipyards in Trieste and Fiume, AG Vulcan in Stettin was also invited to submit an offer. The construction contract was then awarded to the Danubius shipyard in Fiume in the Hungarian half of the empire. Political reasons were probably also the reason for this choice, in order to win more benevolence for the naval budget in Hungary. The destroyers were built on the operation in Porto Ré (Kraljevica) a little south of Fiume.
Construction of the new destroyer began in October 1911 and on November 4, 1912 the Tátra was launched as the first unit of the new class, which was also taken over by the Austro-Hungarian Navy on October 12, 1913. It was followed by Balaton , Czepel , Lika , Triglav and Orjen (building numbers 38 to 43) into service by mid-August 1914 , with the commissioning of the last three units being accelerated by the start of the war.
On May 28, 1914, six more destroyers of the Tátra class were approved with the 1914/15 naval budget. However, the award of the contract was postponed for the time being because of the outbreak of war with Serbia. It was not until 1916 that the contract was awarded to the Danubius shipyard for four replicas because of the losses incurred and the urgent need for modern destroyers. The buildings of Triglav (2), Lika (2), Dukla and Uzsok (building number 73 to 76), which began in August 1916, were completed between July 1917 and January 1918 and were only used to a limited extent by the Austro-Hungarian Navy .
Technical specifications
The destroyers of the Tátra class displaced 870 t and 1050 t at maximum load with normal equipment, and 890 t and 1040 t with the 2nd series. The hull of the class was 84 m long in the waterline (83.5 pp.), Up to 7.8 m wide and had a draft of 3.0 m. The 2nd series was slightly longer. The destroyers were powered by two sets of AEG Curtis turbines with an output of up to 20,600 hp. The steam required for this was supplied by six Yarrow boilers . Two of the boilers could be operated with coal or oil, four only with oil. The propulsion system enabled a maximum speed of 32.5 knots (kn) over two shafts . The first boats had 104 t of coal and 125 t of oil as fuel, the second assembly 108 t of 143 t. This enabled the destroyers to cover 1,600 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 12 knots. The destroyers had four funnels. The raised forecastle was relatively short and the bridge house stood on its end. The chimneys behind were on the main deck in a small structure that did not extend beyond the width of the deck.
Armament
The Tátra-class destroyers were armed with two 10 cm L / 47 and six 6.6 cm L / 47 Škoda cannons as well as two 45 cm twin torpedo tubes. The 10 cm guns stood on the center line on the forecastle and the quarterdeck. The six 6.6 cm guns were near the ship's side at the level of the 2nd and 4th funnels and further back between the two torpedo sets built behind the funnels on the center line.
Mission history
The destroyers of the Tátra class formed the 1st torpedo vehicle division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the First World War. Her tasks included escorting capital ships, hunting submarines, shelling the coast and multiple attacks on the blockade forces in Otranto Strait.
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No longer surprised by the entry of the former ally Italy on the side of the Entente , the Austro-Hungarian Navy attacked the Italian coast immediately. On May 24, 1915, the rapid cruiser Helgoland cleared up the coast of Apulia with the destroyers Tatra , Lika and Csepel and was supposed to bombard Barletta . When the cruiser opened fire, it was spotted by the Italian destroyer Aquilone , who immediately tried to get into an attack position. When the cruiser spotted the attacker, it changed its target. Aquilone tried to dodge the fire and escape. The sister ship Turbine started at high speed from the north, but was discovered early and triggered another change of destination for the Heligoland . The turbine tried to escape to the north, which at first partly succeeded thanks to the higher speed. However, the Italian destroyer was then pursued by the destroyers Tátra and Csepel , who caught up and opened fire. At the height of Vieste , the Kuk destroyer Lika came towards
the fleeing turbine and scored hits that put the Italian destroyer's machine out of action. The severely damaged turbine was abandoned by the crew and sank. On the part of the Kuk-Kriegsmarine only the Czepel was hit lightly. On the march back, the Orjen of the Heligoland and the sister ships joined.
At the same time, the Balaton and Triglav of the Tátra class in the Pedaso area cleared the Italian coast with the cruisers Saida and Szigétvàr without encountering Italian units.
On July 28th, the rapid cruisers Saida and Helgoland shelled the island of Pelagosa, which was occupied by Italian troops, with many destroyers, including Tatra and Csepel . The attempt to land your own troops failed.
In order to disrupt the support of the Serbs by the Entente, the Helgoland and five destroyers of the Tátra class ran from Cattaro to Durazzo in December 1915 , where U 15 and two older destroyers were already patrolling. On the march out on December 28th, the Austrians discovered the French submarine Monge , which was taken under fire from the Balaton and then rammed. The monge sank with its commander Roland Morillot .
In the early morning of the following day, the Heligoland began the bombardment and sank a freighter and two schooners. Then the Lika ran into a mine as it dodged artillery fire from land and sank. The Triglav was badly damaged by another mine hit. Csepel damaged a screw while trying to tow the Triglav . The Tatra Mountains , which had rescued the Lika survivors, then took over the towing of the heavily damaged sister ship and the formation withdrew, which was only possible slowly when closed. The base in Cattaro was informed to support the ailing association.
The message of the attack led to the leakage of two British light cruisers of the Town-class , two Italian esploratori and five French and four Italian destroyers. At sea they formed two formations with two cruisers and one destroyer group each. In the afternoon the group found the opposing formation with Dartmouth , Nino Bixio and the five French destroyers. When the destroyers attacked the tow, the Austrians gave up the badly damaged Triglav . The remaining three destroyers tried to escape near the coast to Cattaro. The cruisers tried to make the Helgoland and pursued it, but it managed to keep largely outside the artillery range of Dartmouth . The attempt to use the nominally faster French destroyers against the cruiser failed because they had considerable drive problems and could not even catch up with their own cruisers. So the Helgoland and the three remaining Tátra destroyers escaped in what was known as the 1st naval battle off Durazzo . Tátra also received hits and a turbine failed. The second formation with Weymouth , Quatro and four Pilo-class destroyers reached the combat area too late to be able to intervene.
Another attack planned for February 26, 1916 by Helgoland , Balaton , Csepel and Orjen on Durazzo was canceled because the Entente powers had meanwhile evacuated the city.
On April 4, 1916, the French submarine Bernouilli attacked the Austro- Hungarian base Cattaro again and torpedoed the Csepel . Despite the heavy hit on the stern, the destroyer was saved. However, the necessary repairs took a long time.
A first attack on the Otranto barrier at Helgoland , Balaton , Orjen and three torpedo boats on May 31 was unsuccessful. Only one of the guard boats was sunk. Another attack on July 3rd, in which Tatra , Orjen and Balaton also took part, was canceled because it was discovered prematurely. The attempt on 28./29. August 1916 to lure Italian units in the Adriatic to positions of deployed submarines, failed due to thick fog.
In the spring of 1917, the Navy planned a new attack on the Otranto barrier with three cruisers. As a diversion, three Tatra-class destroyers were supposed to attack ships on the Albanian coast at the same time. When the planned attack took place on March 15, 1917, only Csepel and Balaton were available, who attacked an Italian supply convoy escorted by the destroyer Borea and sank the destroyer and an ammunition ship, as well as setting fire to another transporter.
The units hurrying to support under the command of Dartmouth on the news of the attack on the Otranto barrier from Brindisi discovered the retreating Csepel and Balaton . But they didn't immediately realize that they were only destroyers. A high-speed chase developed in which the allied cruisers no longer took part. Balaton was hit early, but then scored a hit on the flotilla leader Aquila , who put his machine out of service. The supporting three Indomito-class destroyers secured their maneuverable leader and gave up the chase. The Austrian destroyers thus safely reached the protection of the coastal batteries at Durazzo. Because of the overall course
On October 19, 1917, there was yet another unsuccessful battle between an association of the Austro-Hungarian Navy and a superior association of the Entente. a. the destroyers Czepel , Tátra and the new Lika (2) and Triglav (2) were involved. On November 28, 1917, the
new Triglav fired at railroad facilities and telegraph lines in the area of the Metauro estuary with the destroyers Reka and Dinara and the torpedo boats Tb 78, Tb 79, Tb 86 and Tb 90 .
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On 22./23. April 1918 pushed the four replicas Triglav II , Uzsok , Dukla , Lika II and the older Csepel of the Tátra class against the shipping traffic of the Entente between Italy and Valona (now Vlorë ) in southern Albania. To secure this traffic and the Otranto barrier, the British destroyers Hornet, Jackal , Alarm, Comet , the Australian HMAS Torrens and the French Cimeterre were in pairs at sea. The three groups were about 10 miles apart. Jackal and Hornet discovered the Austrians, gave the alarm and ran towards the attackers. When the Austrians had approached 1.5 nm, they opened fire and focused it on the Hornet . The British destroyers turned and fogged themselves up. They wanted to pull the attackers south. Hornet received a hit in the front magazine that started a fire and then an explosion. The Hornet received further hits in the bridge and steering gear. The rudder jammed hard to starboard so that the Hornet went in circles. Jackal then ran east to pull the attackers off the Hornet . After a short time the Austrians broke off the pursuit, as the commander Herkner on the Triglav assumed that reinforcements would soon arrive. Jackal followed them, but lost visual contact soon after midnight. When Alert , Torrens and Cimeterre caught up with the Jackal almost half an hour later , the four put the five Tátra destroyers for almost another hour before breaking off their chase.
Hornet was very badly damaged, but could be imported. Four crew members lost their lives in battle. Before the end of the war in November, the destroyer was operational again. Also Jackal had received hits and lost its main mast. Two crew members died on it. In addition, 25 more men were wounded on the two destroyers.
The Austro-Hungarian destroyers failed to destroy their two opponents. Although they had suffered no damage and no reinforcements could be seen, they withdrew.
The British saw the battle as confirmation of their superiority over their opponents. Although they were the only ones who had suffered losses, they regarded the expulsion of the five most modern destroyers of the enemy by two of their pre-war destroyers as a great success.
Planned further advances in the summer of 1918, in which the Tátra destroyers were to be used alongside the battleships, did not take place after the sinking of the battleship Szent Istvan on June 10, 1918.
Units of class
| Surname | Keel laying | Launch | in service | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tátra | 10.1911 | November 4, 1912 | 10/12/1913 | 1920 to Italy: Fasana , spare parts donor, sorted out in 1923 |
| Balaton | 11.1911 | 11/16/1912 | 10/28/1913 | 1920 to Italy: Zenson , spare parts donor, sorted out in 1923. |
| Czepel | 1.1912 | 12/30/1912 | December 29, 1913 | 1920 to Italy: Muggia sunk on March 25, 1929 |
| Lika | 4.1912 | 03/15/1913 | 08/08/1914 | Sank on December 29, 1915 after being hit by mines off Durazzo. |
| Triglav | 8.1912 | 12/22/1913 | 08/08/1914 | Sank on December 29, 1915 after being hit by mines off Durazzo |
| Orjen | 9.1912 | 08/26/1913 | 08/11/1914 | to Italy 1920: Pola / from April 1931 Zenson , May 1937 deleted |
| Triglav (2) | 8.1916 | 02/24/1917 | 06/16/1917 | to Italy 1920: Grado , September 1937 deleted. |
| Lika (2) | 8.1916 | May 8, 1917 | September 5, 1917 | to Italy 1920: Cortelazzo , January 1939 deleted. |
| Dukla | 9.1916 | 07/18/1917 | November 7, 1917 | to France 1920: Matelot Leblanc , deleted in 1936. |
| Uzsok | 9.1916 | 09/26/1917 | 12/22/1917 | to Italy 1920: Monfalcone , January 1939 deleted. |
In the service of the victorious powers
At the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Navy was disbanded. All surviving boats of the Tátra class had to be handed over to the victorious powers. In 1919 the destroyers, like all modern units of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, were transferred to Italy and in 1920 distributed among the victorious powers. Italy received seven , one went to France .
The destroyer Dukla , which was delivered to the French Navy, was named Matelot Leblanc . He was used at the torpedo school. From 1931 the destroyer was only used as a residential ship and was finally decommissioned in 1936. The scrapping took place until 1941.
Fasana ex Tátra and Zenson ex Balaton were only used by Italy as spare parts donors and were scrapped in 1923. The destroyers were designated as Fasana or Grado class in the Italian Navy .
The Muggia ex Czepel had the shortest period of service in the Italian Navy . The ship was overhauled and put into service in 1923. First the destroyer served in the Aegean Sea , Constantinople , the Black Sea and the Dodecanese . In 1926 the Muggia was relocated to the Far East and reached Shanghai on March 10, 1927, where civil war raged. To monitor the situation and the further development, the destroyer cruised between Hong Kong and Dairen and also on the rivers. On the night of March 26, 1929, the boat was on the march from Amoy to Shanghai when it ran aground and capsized in fog in the Taichow archipelago . The crew managed to escape to Hea Chu Island. The 112 men were picked up by the Japanese steamer Matsumoto Maru , which took them to Wusung , the international port of Shanghai, where they were taken over by the cruiser Libia .
The destroyer Triglav (2) was renamed Grado and prepared for service in the Italian Navy, as well as Lika (2) as Cortellazzo , Uszok as Monfalcone and Orjen , who - like others - briefly led the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918 before she came to the Italian Navy and came on September 26, 1920 as Pola in Italian service. These ships were primarily used for school purposes from Taranto and Venice and carried out their voyages in the Adriatic and the central Mediterranean as far as Italian North Africa . In October 1929, the four remaining Fasana-class destroyers were then classified as torpedo boats.
On April 9, 1931, Pola was renamed Zenson (2) because a new heavy cruiser of the Zara class was to be named Pola . From July 1, 1932, the Zenson made a longer cruise to ports on the Adriatic, Albania, Greece and Italian North Africa as part of the machinist's training with the former German cruiser Taranto . The following year, accompanied Cortellazzo the Taranto on a similar training voyage to Libyan ports to Greece and the Dodecanese.
On May 1, 1937, the Zenson (ex Orjen ) was finally decommissioned and then scrapped; the same fate met the Grado (ex Triglav II) from September 1937. As the last boats of the class, the Cortellazzo (ex Lika II) and Monfalcone (ex Uszok ) were separated and then scrapped.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Loss of the turbine in 1915
- ↑ Loss of the Monge (Q-67) 1915
- ^ Fall of the Lika in 1915
- ↑ The Triglav submerged itself in 1915
- ^ Sinking of the Muggia in 1929
literature
- Norman F: riedman: British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War , Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley 2009, ISBN 978-1-84832-049-9 .
- Robert Gardiner, Randal Gray: Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921 , Conway Maritime Press, London 1985, ISBN 0-85177-245-5
- Paul G. Halpern: A Naval History of World War I , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1995, ISBN 1-55750-352-4 .
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