At the outbreak of the war, "Kaiserin Elisabeth" was stationed in China and participated in the defense of the German-held Kiautschou Bay concession against Japan and the United Kingdom. Her guns were removed during the Siege of Tsingtao for use as a shoreline battery. She was scuttled by her crew in November 1914 shortly before the surrender of the port of Tsingtao to Anglo-Japanese forces. "Kaiser Franz Joseph I" was a member of the Fifth Battle Division at the onset of war and was stationed at the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro. Obsolete by the start of the war, "Kaiser Franz Joseph I" saw little action during most of the conflict, and rarely left the Bocche di Cattaro. In late 1914, she participated in shelling Franco-Montenegrin artillery batteries located on the slopes of Mount Lovćen, which overshadowed the Bocche. In January 1916, when the Austria-Hungary began an invasion of Montenegro, "Kaiser Franz Joseph I" assisted in again silencing the Montenegrin batteries on Mount Lovćen in support of the Austro-Hungarian Army, which seized the mountain and subsequently captured the Montenegrin capital of Cetinje, knocking the country out of the war.