page_title: SMS Balaton
section_title: 1st Battle of Durazzo
hierarchical_section_title: SMS Balaton / Construction and career / 1st Battle of Durazzo
caption_attribution_description: English: Three Tátra-class destroyers returning after the 1st Battle of Durazzo; Csepel on the right, followed by Balaton and Tátra
context_page_description: SMS Balaton was one of six Tátra-class destroyers built for the kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine shortly before the First World War. Completed in 1913, she did not participate in the attacks on the Italian mainland after Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915. Two months later the ship bombarded a small island in the Central Adriatic Sea during an unsuccessful attempt to recapture it from the Italians. In November and early December Balaton was one of the ships conducting raids off the Albanian coast to interdict the supply lines between Italy and Albania. She played a minor role in the 1st Battle of Durazzo in late December. Balaton participated in several unsuccessful raids on the Otranto Barrage in 1917, although she sank an ammunition ship during the Battle of the Strait of Otranto. She was transferred to Italy in 1920 in accordance with the peace treaties ending the war and renamed Zenson. The Regia Marina used her for spare parts; she was discarded in 1923 and subsequently scrapped.
context_section_description: Austro-Hungarian aircraft spotted a pair of Italian destroyers in Durazzo harbor on 28 December and Haus dispatched Seitz to take Helgoland, Balaton, Csepel, Tátra and their sisters SMS Triglav and SMS Lika south and search the area between Durazzo and Brindisi for them. If they were not found he was to arrive at Durazzo at dawn and destroy any ships found there. Seitz's ships sailed later that day and Balaton sank the French submarine Monge at 02:35, rescuing two officers and 18 seamen afterwards. He was unable to find the destroyers and dutifully arrived off Durazzo at dawn. At 07:30 he ordered four of his destroyers into the harbor to sink the cargo ship and two schooners anchored there while Helgoland engaged the coastal artillery defending the port and Balaton patrolled the seaward flank. A well-camouflaged 75-millimeter (3 in) artillery battery opened fire at 08:00 at point-blank range. While maneuvering to avoid its fire, Lika and Triglav entered a minefield. After striking two mines in quick succession, Lika sank at 08:03 and Triglav was crippled when her boiler rooms flooded after hitting one mine.Tátra was finally successful in securing a tow on Triglav at 09:30, but was limited to a speed of six knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph) when Seitz led his ships northwards. He radioed for assistance at 10:35 and was informed an hour later that the armored cruiser SMS Kaiser Karl VI and four torpedo boats were en route to support him.
  Italian observers had spotted Seitz's ships at 07:00 and the Allied quick-reaction force of the British light cruiser HMS Dartmouth and the Italian scout cruiser Quarto, escorted by five French destroyers, sortied in an attempt to cut off the Austro-Hungarian ships from their base at Cattaro. These were followed two hours later by the Italian scout cruiser Nino Bixio, the British light cruiser HMS Weymouth and four Italian destroyers. Seitz had ordered Triglav's crew taken off before any of the columns of smoke from these ships were spotted by his ships and he ordered Tátra to drop her tow at 13:15 and abandon Triglav. Five minutes later the Austro-Hungarian ships were spotted and the French destroyers were ordered to deal with Triglav at 13:38 while the cruisers pursued Seitz's ships.
   
  Seitz turned southwest at 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph) to put as much distance between his ships and their pursuers although Darmouth opened fire at her maximum range of 13,000 meters (14,000 yd) at 13:43 and scored her first hit on Helgoland twelve minutes later. The destroyers were generally not engaged during this battle, being further away, although Csepel was hit once with little effect. Despite further hits on the cruiser which reduced her speed to 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph) the Austro-Hungarians were able to disengage before reaching the Italian coast when darkness fell around 17:30 and they reached Sebenico safely.
  Balaton was refitting in Pola from 1 January to 11 February 1916. On the night of 31 May/1 June, Balaton and her sister SMS Orjen, together with three torpedo boats, attacked the Otranto Barrage and sank one of the drifters maintaining it with a torpedo. On 4 July Helgoland, Balaton, Orjen and Tátra raided the barrage, but could not find any targets in the poor visibility. Helgoland and Novara, escorted by Balaton and Orjen, comprised one of two bombardment groups that Haus planned to bombard the Italian coast on 29 August to provoke a reaction by Allied ships that would be ambushed by waiting U-boats. The weather did not cooperate and it was too foggy to see the coast and all the ships involved returned to harbor without incident. On the night of 11/12 March 1917, Balaton, Orjen, Csepel and Tátra swept through the Strait of Otranto, but failed to sink the French cargo ship SS Gorgone that they encountered.
caption: Csepel on the right, followed by Balaton and Tátra, returning after the 1st Battle of Durazzo, 30 December 1915
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