Yugoslav monitor Sava The Yugoslav monitor " Sava was a river monitor built for the Austro - Hungarian Navy as Bodrog " . During World War I she was part of the Danube Flotilla , and fought the Serbian and the Romanian Army . After World War I she was provided to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs , Croats and Slovenes ( later Yugoslavia ) . , and renamed " Sava " During the German - led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 , she was scuttled by her crew . She was subsequently raised by the navy of the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia and continued in service as " Sava " until 8 / 9 September 1944 when she was again scuttled . Description and construction . The " Sava " was built for the Austro - Hungarian Navy by H . Schönichen as " Bodrog " , and was laid down at Neupest . She had an overall length of , a beam of , and a normal draught of . Her displacement was , and her crew consisted of 79 officers and enlisted men . The ship was powered using steam generated by Yarrow water - tube boilers , and carried of coal . The propulsion system was rated at and she was designed to reach a top speed of . " Bodrog " was armed with one double gun turret of guns and a single howitzer , a single gun , and three machine gun s . Her armour consisted of belt and bulkheads thick , deck armour thick , and her conning tower and gun turret s were thick . " Bodrog " was completed in March 1904 . Career . Commissioning and World War I . " Bodrog " was commissioned into the Danube Flotilla , and at the start of World War I she was based at Zemun , just upstream from Belgrade on the Danube , with another three monitors and three patrol boats . Austria - Hungary declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia on 28 July 1914 , and that night " Bodrog " and two other monitors fired the first shots of the war against fortifications at the Zemun - Belgrade railway bridge over the Sava . After a brief evacuation of the base at Zemun in September due to a Serbian counterattack , she continued in action against Serbian forces at Belgrade until December , when her base was withdrawn to Petrovaradin for the winter . This continued until October 1915 when the Serbs evacuated Belgrade in the face of an Austro - Hungarian assault . During the final river crossing and support of the resulting bridgehead , " Bodrog " provided close support . Following the capture of Belgrade , the Flotilla sailed downstream to Orșova near the Hungarian - Romanian border and waited for the lower Danube to be swept for mines . They then escorted a series of munitions convoys down the Danube to Lom where they were transferred to the Bulgarian railway system for shipment to their ally Turkey . In November 1915 , " Bodrog " and the other monitors were assembled at Rustschuk , Bulgaria . The position of Romania was uncertain , with the Central Powers being aware that the Romanians were negotiating to enter the war on the side of the Entente . To protect the long Danubian border between Romania and Bulgaria , the Flotilla established a sheltered base in the Belene Canal . When the Romanians entered the war on 27 August 1916 , the monitors were again at Rustschuk , and were immediately attacked by three improvised torpedo boats operating out of the Romanian river port of Giurgiu . The torpedoes that were fired missed the monitors but struck a lighter loaded with fuel . The Second Monitor Division , consisting of " Bodrog " and three other monitors , was tasked with shelling Giurgiu , and subsequently set fire to oil storage tanks , the railway station and magazines , and sank several Romanian lighters . While the attack was underway , the First Monitor Division escorted supply ships back to the Belene anchorage . The " Bodrog " and her companions then destroyed two Romanian patrol boats and an improvised minelayer on their way back to Belene . This was followed by forays of the monitors both east and west of Belene , during which both Turnu Măgurele and Zimnicea were shelled . At the conclusion of World War I , " Bodrog " was captured by the Serbian Army . Interwar period and World War II . " Bodrog " was temporarily manned by the Yugoslavs in 1918 – 19 , but in 1920 she was officially handed over to the Royal Yugoslav Navy and renamed " Sava " . " Sava " was scuttled by her crew on 11 / 12 April 1941 during the German - led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia . She was subsequently raised and repaired by the navy of the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia , and served until 8 / 9 September 1944 when she was once again scuttled .