Since 1939, Italian Navy Day has been celebrated on June 10, the anniversary of the sinking of the Austrian battleship Szent István during the First World War. This event, which forced the command of the Austrian fleet to cancel the planned large-scale operation and return to base, is the subject of this article.
After commissioning in November-December 1915, the battleship Szent István repeatedly went to sea for firing practice and sea trials. During the latter, going at maximum speed (less than twenty knots), after a sharp shift of the rudder to 35 degrees from neutral, the dreadnought heeled more than 19 degrees. In the same conditions, the roll of three ships of the same type reached maximum values from 8 degrees and 20 minutes to 11 degrees and 20 minutes. Since the shields of medium-caliber guns in the casemates had not yet been installed, water poured into the ship unhindered. The first commander of the ship, Captain 1st Rank E. Grassberger, considered that such a significant heel was caused by the unsuccessful shape of the platform for searchlights, but after the size of this platform was reduced, it was found that the metacentric height of the ship of the line increased by only 18 millimeters. Obviously, in this case, the influence of the unsuccessful shape of the propeller shaft brackets also affected, therefore it was henceforth forbidden to shift the rudder at high speed to an angle greater than 10 degrees. During firing practice, insufficient tightness of riveted joints was discovered, which was both a consequence of haste during construction and the lack of experience in building large warships from the Ganz-Danubius company, at whose shipyard in Fiume the Szent István was built. All four battleships of the Viribus Unitis class also had insufficient stability caused by deviations in the design of the ships from the original design, and at full displacement the Austrian dreadnoughts had a bow trim equal to 24 centimeters. On December 23, the ship was officially entered into the 1st Squadron (1. Geschwader).
March 15, 1916 "Szent István" for the first time left the waters of Pola and, accompanied by three destroyers, headed towards the middle Adriatic, where it was supposed to conduct shooting practice in the area of Pago Island. The ships sailed at a speed of 12 knots, periodically increasing their speed to 16 knots. Due to the bad weather, they did not conduct practice shooting, and only the next day, the main caliber artillery and anti-aircraft artillery could fire.
At the end of August 1916, the Szent István entered the Fazana Canal for torpedo firing, and a month later the ship's motor launch, armed with an amphibious cannon, took part in the refloating of the Italian submarine Gialito Pullino. On November 23, 1916, the crew of the battleship was present at the coronation of the new emperor Charles I. In 1917, the Szent István, along with ships of the same type, accompanied by air raid signals, undertook a number of short-term exits to the Phezan Canal for training. The most powerful air raid, lasting almost a day, took place on December 12, 1917, when the German emperor Wilhelm II visited the German submarine base in Pole.
In January and February 1918, uprisings and riots of sailors took place in the arsenals of Paula and Cattaro, the suppression of which was accompanied by relatively small casualties. An Erzherzog Karl-class battleship division was sent to Cattaro to suppress the protests, as dreadnoughts were not used to suppress the protests.
Out of 937 days in service, Szent István spent 54 days at sea, while only once the ship participated in a cruising operation that lasted two days. At other exits to the sea, the dreadnought did not move too far from Paula. "Szent István" has never been docked since it was commissioned, and due to the previously mentioned drawbacks of the propeller brackets it never went full speed.
After the riots in Cattaro, the entire leadership of the fleet was replaced on the floating base "Gäa" and the armored cruisers "Sankt Georg" and "Kaiser Karl VI", which raised red flags, and ships that were no longer of value were withdrawn from the fleet. At the same time, almost all the old admirals, including the commander of the fleet, Admiral Maximilian Niegovan, were retired. On February 27, 1918, a young dynamic Rear Admiral Miklos Horthy was appointed to the place of commander on February 27, 1918, bypassing many high-ranking officers of the fleet, which aroused the optimism of Admiral Reinhard Scheer, commander of the German High Seas Fleet. To raise the morale of the crews, the new leadership of the fleet decided to start a large naval operation in the southern part of the Adriatic Sea, where the ships of the Entente countries established the Otran barrier, which made it difficult for submarines of Austria-Hungary and Germany to enter the Mediterranean Sea. A year earlier, in May 1917, the three Austrian light cruisers Novara, Saida and Helgoland, disguised as large British destroyers, attacked enemy drifters under the command of Horthy, sinking or seriously damaging fourteen of the forty-seven.
Now the new commander-in-chief wanted to repeat his action, but this time with the support of the dreadnoughts, which were to attack the allied covering forces of the Otran barrage. Sea mines and nets were the main target of the two strike groups, since they seriously impeded the exit of Austrian and German submarines into the Mediterranean, although their losses on this obstacle were relatively small.
The idea of the combined attack of the Otransky barrage did not belong to Admiral Horthy, but to the commander of the III heavy division (battleships of the Erzherzog Karl type), Captain 1st Rank E. Heisler. The latter proposed to attack the Otransky barrier using his division. At the same time, the fast cruisers (Rapidkreuzer) had to strike at the actual obstacle. The old battleships were powerful enough to repel possible counterattacks by the Entente cruisers based in Brindisi. Admiral Horthy ignored this proposal, as he wanted to bring inexperienced dreadnought crews out of their "lethargic sleep". This operation was to be accompanied by an offensive by the Austro-Hungarian ground forces on the Italian front, which was planned to begin on June 11, 1918. Due to poor supplies and fatigue of army units, the start of the offensive had to be postponed to 15 June. However, the date on which the naval operation was set remained the same. In case the enemy ships attacked by the Austrians were supported by the British battlecruisers, the admiral was going to oppose them with his dreadnoughts. In the final form, the plan provided for the simultaneous achievement of several goals, therefore, the forces involved for the operation were divided into separate groups, in which the following ships were previously included.
Attacking groups (Angriffsgruppe "a" - "b"):
"A". Light cruisers Novara and Helgoland, fighters Tátra, Csepel and Triglav.
"B". Light cruisers "Admiral Spaun" and "Saida", destroyers 84, 92, 98 and 99.
Covering forces consisted of the following tactical support groups (Rückhaltgruppe "a" - "g"):
"A". Battleship Viribus Unitis, fighters Balaton and Orjen, destroyers 86, 90, 96 and 97;
"B". Battleship Prinz Eugen, fighters Dukla and Uzsok, destroyers 82, 89, 91 and 95;
"C". Battleship Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, fighter Turul, destroyers 61, 66, 52, 56 and 50;
"D". Battleship Erzherzog Karl, fighters Huszár and Pandúr, destroyers 75, 94 and 57;
"E". Battleship Erzherzog Friedrich, fighters Csikós and Uskoke, destroyers 53, 58 and one Kaiman-class destroyer:
"F" The battleship Tegetthoff, the Velebit fighter, the 81 destroyer and three Kaiman-class destroyers.
"G". The battleship "Szent István", destroyers 76, 77, 78 and 80.
It was decided to send battleships of the Tegetthoff class to sea from Pola in two groups, which, leaving the base, were to head south. The first group, carrying the dreadnoughts Viribus Unitis (flag of the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Admiral Horthy) and Prinz Eugen, accompanied by seven ships, set out on 2 June, heading for Slano, north of Dubrovnik.
Another group with dreadnoughts "Tegetthoff" and "Szent István", whose commander, Captain 1st Rank H. von Treffen, was also the commander of the entire group of ships, was to leave Pola on the evening of June 9 and go at a speed of 15 knots in the direction Thayer bays. They were escorted by the Velebit fighter, as well as the Tb 76, 77, 78, 79, 81 and 87 destroyers. so that on June 11, together with other groups of ships, take part in the action.
The operation began under an unlucky star: when both battleships with flags lowered to half their masts were heating up steam boilers, a shell on the Velebit fighter exploded, killing several crew members, and a fatal organizational mistake was made earlier. For reasons of secrecy, the boom personnel were not notified in advance of the withdrawal of the compound, as a result of which the ships awaiting the release of the booms after giving a verbal order, instead of 21:00, left to sea only at 22:15. The fighter Velebit was the first, followed by the Szent István and Tegetthoff in the wake.
On the sides, the compound was guarded by destroyers: Tb 79, 87 and 78 were on the left, Tb 77, 76 and 81 on the right.
We decided to make up for the time lost when leaving Pula by increasing the connection speed to 17.5 nodes. Shortly after midnight, the connection speed was temporarily reduced to 12 knots due to overheating of the turbine bearing on the starboard side of the flagship, but by 03:30, about nine miles southwest of Premuda Island, they were already at 14 knots. With the increase in speed, due to the poor quality of the coal and the lack of experience of the stokers, many of whom went to sea for the first time, thick smoke poured from the chimneys of both dreadnoughts and sparks flew.
At the same time, a pair of Italian torpedo boats were in the sea under the general command of Captain 3rd Rank L. Rizzo, who commanded the IV flotilla of MAS torpedo boats based in Ancona and had the battleship Wien, which he sunk on the MAS 9 torpedo boat in Trieste. Both boats, MAS 15 and MAS 21, were towed the day before to the Dalmatian islands by the Italian destroyers 18 O. S. and 15 O. S.
The tasks of the boats included the search for Austrian steamers heading south, as well as anti-submarine minefields set up by the Austro-Hungarian fleet. Although no enemy mines were found and not a single enemy vessel was encountered, the squadron commander at 02:05 decided to return to the designated meeting point with his destroyers, but before that he decided to wait another half hour and then leave the patrol area. At 03:15, the Italians on the right side noticed a thick cloud of smoke approaching from the north. The torpedo boats headed towards the enemy formation at a minimum speed, missed both lead ships (the Velebit fighter and the Tb 77 destroyer), after which they passed between the Tb 77 and Tb 76 destroyers, and then, increasing their speed from nine to twelve knots, fired torpedoes (probably A115 / 450, warhead weight 115 kg or A145).
The torpedoes of the boat MAS 21, fired at Tegetthoff from a distance of 450-500 meters, failed. The trail of one of them (apparently drowned) was seen on the dreadnought five hundred meters away and disappeared, according to the ship's commander, about one hundred and fifty meters from the ship. On the dreadnought and escort ships, it was believed that they were attacked by an Italian submarine, after which fire was opened on a suspicious object taken by the observers for the periscope.
At Szent István, both MAS 15 torpedoes were fired from a distance of approximately 600 meters (Rizzo indicated in a report that they were fired from a distance of approximately 300 meters). The launch was seen from the Tb 76 destroyer, after which the latter began to pursue the torpedo boat, firing from a distance of 100-150 meters. For a short time, the destroyer Tb 81 joined the pursuit of the boats, but then, having lost sight of the Italians, returned to his warrant. To break away from the chase, the boat MAS 15 dropped two depth charges into the wake jet, the second of which exploded, then the Italians made several sharp turns at 90 degrees, after which the Austrian destroyer disappeared from sight.
The flagship of the Szent István formation received a double torpedo hit at the lower edge of the main armor belt.
According to Austrian reports, the target time for nearly simultaneous torpedo hits is 03:30 or so. According to Italian data, torpedoes (speed 20 meters per second) were fired by MAS 15 at 03:25, heading 220 degrees.
The first explosion occurred in the midsection area, in the immediate vicinity of the transverse watertight bulkhead between boiler rooms No. 1 and No. 2, seriously damaging it. The epicenter of the second explosion was located closer to the stern, in the area of the front of the engine room.
Through the holes formed, a large amount of water began to flow inside, the rear boiler room was soon flooded, in a short time the roll to the starboard side reached 10 degrees.
The dreadnought managed to turn to the port side in order to avoid possible further torpedo hits on the injured starboard side. The command “Stop the machine” was received from the wheelhouse so that the generated steam could be directed to the needs of drainage facilities. Counter-flooding of the compartments on the port side and the cellars of 152-mm guns reduced the roll to 7 degrees, the pumps were started, steam was supplied to them from the still operating six boilers of the front boiler room.
Soon the turbines were launched, and the dreadnought, heading 100 degrees at a speed of four and a half knots, sailed to nearby Brgulje Bay on Molat Island, hoping to run aground on the flat coastline.
There was a hope that "Szent István" could still be saved, but the bulkhead between the front and rear boiler rooms, being damaged by the explosion, began to hand over. The heads of the rivets popped out one after the other, and more and more masses of water entered the front boiler room from the rear through the slots and numerous holes designed for the passage of pipelines, air ducts and electric cables. In the aft cellars of the main caliber guns, water penetrated through the shaft seals of the right propeller; inside the hull, many rivets passed water into the adjacent compartments. In a desperate struggle for the survivability of the ship, the emergency crews tried to seal up the cracks with tarred ropes and strengthen the bulkhead deformed by the explosion with beams and beams.
The turbines had to be stopped again, since the steam generated by the four still functioning boilers was necessary for the pumps that pumped out the water.
At 04:15 it began to dawn, an attempt to start the tarpaulin plasters (four by four meters) was greatly hampered by both the significant roll of the ship and the stuck ropes of the plasters.
At 04:45, Tegetthoff approached the flagship in distress with an anti-submarine zigzag. The signal "Prepare for towing" was given to him from "Szent István" ten minutes after the torpedo hit, later "Urgent" was added, but due to the long distance the signals were not understood. The request to come to the rescue was sorted out only at 04:20, 55 minutes after the torpedo attack of the Italians, it took the dreadnought another 25 minutes to come up to provide assistance.
At about 05:00 in the front boiler room, the lights went out, and work continued with the dim light of the hand lamps. Meanwhile, the towers of the main caliber (weight with weapons and armor 652, 9 tons) were turned with their trunks to the port side (the work took 20 minutes) to use the gun barrels as a counterweight, and their ammunition was thrown into the sea.
Tegetthoff tried several times to take the sinking Szent István in tow, but only at 05:45, when the roll reached about 18 degrees, they managed to feed the tow rope to Tegetthoff, however, due to the danger of overturning, the end from the bollard soon had to be turned off …
In the meantime, the pressure in the last two steam boilers in operation decreased, as a result of which the pumps and electric generators stopped. Water began to flow into the turbine compartments, and the crew members who were there were ordered to go up to the upper deck. When the right side of the deck began to sink under the water, the commander of the ship, through Lieutenant Reich, gave the order to abandon the ship. As soon as the bulk of the crew left the ship, at 6:05, with a roll of about 36 degrees, the battleship began to slowly heel to starboard and capsized when the roll reached 53.5 degrees. The ship's commander and staff officers (Captain 1st Rank Masyon, Lieutenant Niemann), who were on the bridge, were thrown into the water. At 06:12 Szent István disappeared under water.
The escort and Tegetthoff ships that started rescue operations picked up 1,005 people. The loss of the crew of the deceased ship was 4 officers (one dead and three missing) and 85 lower ranks (13 dead, 72 missing), 29 people were injured.
After the loss of one of the four dreadnoughts, the fleet commander, considering the surprise factor lost, gave the order to curtail the operation.
Afterword
Luigi Rizzo, being nominated for the sinking of the battleship "Szent István" for the gold medal "Medaglia d'oro al valor militare" and already having such a gold medal for the sinking of the battleship "Wien", as well as three silver medals "Medaglia d'argento al valor militare ", received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order (Croce di Cavaliere Ordine militare di Savoia), because, according to law No. 753 of May 25, 1915, it was forbidden to award more than three gold and / or silver medals to the same person. Luigi received his second gold medal only on May 27, 1923, after the repeal of the above law on June 15, 1922.
By order of the commander of the battleship Szent István, given up shortly after the destruction of the ship, the destroyer Tb 78 brought on board the dreadnought crew, who had succumbed to panic and jumped overboard immediately after the torpedo explosion. Later they will be brought to justice.
The commander of the battleship "Tegetthoff" Captain 1st Rank H. von Perglas was removed from his post.
During the First World War, 97 Italian torpedoes were lost along with the ships in whose ammunition they were, forty-five were lost in firing practice, seven were lost for various reasons, fifty-six were used in unsuccessful military attacks, the exact results of firing of twelve are unknown, forty-four were hit to the target.
In 2003, the first (of three) official Italian expedition took place, which included twelve instructors and divers of the IANTD association, who spent a total of 98 hours underwater at a depth of 67 meters. Among other things, it was found that, contrary to the widespread belief that "the three-gun towers, which were held by gravity on their shoulder straps, immediately fell out of the ship and went to the bottom" (S. E. Vinogradov. Battleships of the Viribus Unitis type), the main caliber towers the dreadnought remained in place.
The results of the investigation of the remains of "Szent István" gave reason to put forward an educated guess that this dreadnought was also attacked by the MAS 21.
Sources of
Special issue # 8 of "Marine-Arsenal" magazine (translated from German by NF68 colleague).
Report of the commander of the battleship "Szent István" Captain 1st Rank H. von Treffen.
Report of the commander of the battleship "Szent István" Captain 1st Rank H. von Perglas.
Report of Captain 3rd Rank L. Rizzo.
A number of Internet resources.
