SMS Radetzky SMS " Radetzky " was the first of the three pre - dreadnought battleship s built for the Austro - Hungarian Navy ( K . u . K . Kriegsmarine ) . She was named for the 19th century Austrian Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz . " Radetzky " and her sisters , and , were the last pre - dreadnoughts built by the Austro - Hungarian Navy — they were followed by the larger and significantly more powerful dreadnought s . " Radetzky " was built by the shipbuilding company " Stabilimento Tecnico " in Trieste and commissioned into the fleet on 15 January 1911 . The ship conducted training cruises in the Mediterranean before the outbreak of World War I in mid - 1914 . During the war , " Radetzky " operated largely as part of a fleet in being alongside the rest of the Austro - Hungarian Navy ; in doing so , the ships tied down considerable naval forces from the Triple Entente . " Radetzky " did participate in some offensive operations , primarily shore bombardments in the Adriatic Sea against French , Montenegrin , and Italian targets . Towards the end of 1918 , with the war going against the Austrians , " Radetzky " was prepared to be transferred to the State of Slovenes , Croats and Serbs . On 10 November 1918 — six days after the Austrian armistice — Yugoslav navy officers sailed the battleship out of Pola and surrendered it to a squadron of American submarine chaser s . Under the terms of the Treaty of Saint - Germain - en - Laye , the transfer was not recognized ; instead , " Radetzky " was given to Italy and broken up for scrap . Construction . " Radetzky " was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino dockyard in Trieste , the same place where her sister ships were built . She was the second ship of her class to be constructed and her kneel was laid down on 26 November 1907 . The teak used on " Radetzky " s deck was the only material Austria - Hungary had to purchase abroad to build the ship . " Radetzky " was launched from the slipway on 3 July 1909 , and commissioned into the Austro - Hungarian navy on 15 January 1911 and had a crew of 880 to 890 officers and men . " Radetzky " was 138 . 8 m ( 455 ft 4 in ) long , and had a beam of 24 . 6 m ( 80 ft 8 in ) and a draft of 8 . 1 m ( 26 ft 9 in ) . She displaced normally , and up to with a full combat load . The ship was powered by two - shaft four - cylinder vertical triple expansion engines rated at 19 , 800 indicated horsepower and a top speed of . She had a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . The ship ' s primary armament consisted of four 30 . 5 cm ( 12 in ) 45 - caliber guns in two twin gun turret s . This was augmented by a heavy secondary battery of eight 24 cm ( 9 . 4 in ) guns in four wing turrets . The tertiary battery consisted of twenty 10 cm L / 50 guns in casemate d single mounts , two 66 mm ( 2 . 6 in ) landing guns , four 47 mm ( 1 . 85 in ) L / 44 and one 47 mm L / 33 quick - firing guns . Three 45 cm ( 17 . 7 in ) torpedo tubes were also carried , two on the beams and one in the stern . Service history . Pre - war . One of " Radetzky " s first duties was to attend the British Coronation Review for King George V in Spithead in June 1911 . Following her return to the Austro - Hungarian fleet , she conducted several training cruises in the eastern Mediterranean with her two sisters in 1912 . Later that year , " Radetzky " and her sisters , under the command of Vice Admiral Maximilian Njegovan , took part in an international fleet demonstration in the Ionian Sea to protest the Balkan Wars . Among the ships from other navies were the British pre - dreadnought , the Italian pre - dreadnought , the French armored cruiser , and the German light cruiser . The combined flotilla , under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney , proceeded to blockade the Montenegrin coast to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at Scutari . During the operation , the first seaplane s to be used in combat were operated from " Radetzky " and her two sisters . This proved unsatisfactory , however , because the ships lacked cranes with which to lift the planes onto the deck , as well as the fact that the deck was too small to accommodate the aircraft . As a result of the pressure from the international blockade , Serbia withdrew its army from Scutari , which was then occupied by a joint Allied ground force . By 1913 , the new dreadnoughts of the were coming into active service , and so " Radetzky " and her sisters were shifted from the 1st Division to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron . World War I . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , the German battlecruiser s and " Breslau " were coaling in Messina ; British warships had begun to assemble outside the port in an attempt to trap the German ships . The German navy called upon its Austro - Hungarian allies to come to their aid ; the Austro - Hungarian high command was initially hesitant , as they wished to avoid initiating hostilities with the British . However , when the Germans made clear they wanted the Austro - Hungarian fleet to steam only as far as Brindisi , the high command relented and sent the portion of the fleet that had by that time been mobilized , which included " Radetzky " , on the operation . The fleet sailed to the designated latitude , under strict orders to only actively assist the German ships while they were in Austro - Hungarian waters . After the German ships successfully broke out into the Mediterranean , the Austro - Hungarian fleet returned to port . In October 1914 , the French army established artillery batteries on Mount Lovčen to support the Army of Montenegro against the Austrian army at Cattaro . By the time they were operational , on 15 October , the Austro - Hungarians were ready with the pre - dreadnoughts of the . However , their 24 cm guns were insufficient to dislodge the French artillery batteries , and so " Radetzky " was sent to assist them . On 21 October , the ship arrived , and the gunfire from her 30 . 5 cm guns forced the French to abandon the position . On 23 May 1915 , between two and four hours after the Italian declaration of war reached the main Austro - Hungarian naval base at Pola , " Radetzky " and the rest of the fleet departed to bombard the Italian and Montenegrin coast . Their focus was on the important naval base at Ancona , and later the coast of Montenegro . The bombardment of Montenegro was part of the larger Austro - Hungarian campaign against the Kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia , who were members of the Entente , during the first half of 1915 . During the attack on Ancona and the surrounding coastline , " Radetzky " , as well as the cruisers and , and the destroyers , , and traveled south to cover the ships attacking Ancona . Upon finding no enemy ships in the region , the group bombarded the Termiti Islands , Viests , Manfredonia , and Barletta . After leaving the Gulf of Manfredonia " Radetzky " and the rest of the ships accompanying her sighted the first enemy ships of the day , two Italian destroyers . During the encounter , one Italian destroyer managed to escape the Austrian ships but the other , , was severely damaged . Only when a larger Italian force appeared did " Radetzky " and her accompanying ships abandon their attempts to capture the damaged destroyer . Aside from the encounter with " Turbine " , " Radetzky " managed to destroy a railroad bridge near the town of Fermo , severely hampering the movement of troops and supplies in the region . Sixty - three Italian civilians and military personnel were killed in the bombardment . By the time Italian ships from Taranto and Brindisi arrived on the scene , the Austro - Hungarians were safely back in Pola . The attack on Ancona was an immense success , and the Austro - Hungarian ships were largely unopposed during the entire operation . The objective of the bombardment was to delay the Italian Army from deploying its forces along the border with Austria - Hungary by destroying critical transportation systems . The surprise attack on Ancona succeeded in delaying the Italian deployment to the Alps for two weeks . This delay gave Austria - Hungary valuable time to strengthen its Italian border and re - deploy some of its troops from the Eastern and Balkan fronts . Aside from the attack on Ancona , the Austro - Hungarian battleships were confined to Pola for the duration of the war . Their operations were limited by Admiral Anton Haus , the commander of the Austro - Hungarian Navy , who believed that he would need to husband his ships to counter any Italian attempt to seize the Dalmatian coast . Since coal was diverted to the newer " Tegetthoff " - class battleships , the remainder of the war saw " Radetzky " and the rest of the Austro - Hungarian Navy acting as a fleet in being . This resulted in the Allied blockade of the Otranto Strait . With his fleet blockaded in the Adriatic Sea , and facing a shortage of coal , Haus attempted to use mines and submarines , rather than battleships , to reduce the numerical superiority of the Allied navies . End of the war . By October 1918 , Austria prepared to transfer her entire fleet to the newly created State of Slovenes , Croats and Serbs ( later to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) in order to keep it out of Italian hands . On 10 November 1918 , one day before the Allied Armistice with Germany , and six days after the Austrians and Italians agreed to the Armistice of Villa Giusti , Yugoslav officers with scratch crews sailed " Radetzky " and " Zrínyi " out of Pola . Once outside Pola , the ships spotted heavy units of the Italian fleet ; the two battleships hoisted American flags and sailed south to escape . A squadron of US Navy submarine chasers operating off the city of Spalato accepted the surrender of " Radetzky " and " Zrínyi " . However , under the subsequent peace treaty , the Allied powers ignored the transfer of the Austro - Hungarian ships to the Yugoslav navy which had already taken place ; instead , the ships were ceded to Italy . " Radetzky " was broken up in Italy between 1920 and 1921 . Notes . Footnotes Citations