Category Archives: World War One

Warship Wednesday 19 November 2025: Pride of the Scouting Group

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 19 November 2025:  Pride of the Scouting Group

Photographed by A. Renard of Kiel, Germany, via the Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 45198

Above we see the Roon-class armored cruiser (panzerkreuzer) SMS Yorck of the Kaiserliche Marine, passing under the famous Levensauer Hochbrücke along the Kiel Canal prior to the Great War.

She was commissioned 120 years ago this week and, a beautiful ship, had a short but tragic peacetime career and even shorter and more tragic wartime service without ever firing a shot in anger.

The Roons

In the 1890s, the German Imperial Navy moved to field several armored cruisers, initially rebuilding old (circa 1870s) ironclads with newer and more modern guns and updated engineering plants.

Then came the majestic 11,500-ton SMS Fürst Bismarck, the country’s first purpose-built armored cruiser, laid down in 1896. Built for 18 million gold marks, Fürst Bismarck was capable of 18.7 knots and carrying a main battery of four 9.4″/40s and a secondary of 12 5.9″/40s, while clad in up to 7.9 inches of armor plate. Bismarck was followed in 1898 by the smaller (and cheaper, at 16 million marks) SMS Prinz Heinrich (9,800t, 2×9.4″/40, 10x5.9-inch SK L/40s, 20 knots, 5.9-inch armor).

Then came the twin SMS Prinz Adalbert in 1900 and Friedrich Carl in 1901, which were basically a three-funneled improvement of the preceding Prinz Heinrich, while carrying a different main armament (four 8.27-inch SK L/40 C/01s rather than 2×9.4″/40s) and thinner but better armor with the secondary armament (10×5.9″/40s) housed in a central armored citadel amidships and a 21 knot speed on a 18,500shp plant.

Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Prinz Adalbert and Friedrich Carl.

Continuing that vein, the 1902-03 Naval Program ordered a pair of essentially improved Prinz Adalbert-class cruisers, dubbed initially Ersatz (more or less “replacement”) Kaiser and Ersatz Deutschland as they were replacing the old ironclad/armored cruiser conversions on the German Navy List. The differences between the new cruisers and their Adalbert-class half-sisters came in the fact that they had four funnels rather than three, with 16 boilers rather than 14 on a more powerful 20,000 shp plant.

Ersatz Kaiser/Ersatz Deutschland, future SMS Roon/SMS Yorck, concept Brassey’s Naval Annual 1906

Armament was largely the same primary (four 8.27″40s with 380 rounds) and secondary batteries (ten 5.9″/40s with 1,600 rounds), while the tertiary battery was slightly larger (14 24-pounders with 2,100 rounds vs 12 24-pounders with 1,800 rounds). Four 17.7-inch torpedo tubes were fitted below the waterline– one each in the bow and stern, and one on each side approximately at the level of the forward twin turrets– with 11 torpedoes in the magazine.

The two new cruisers, Ersatz Kaiser and Ersatz Deutschland, entered the fleet as SMS Roon and SMS Yorck, constructed eight months apart at Kaiserliche Werft, Kiel, and Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, respectively.

Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Roon and Yorck.

Brassy’s line drawing on SMS Roon and Yorck.

A 1917 ONI publication on the armament and armor of Roon.

For reference, the Germans liked the design of Roon and Yorck so much that they ordered another pair of armored cruisers in 1904 to an improved design, the larger (and 25 percent more expensive, at 20-million marks each) Scharnhorst and Gneisenau of later Maximillian Von Spee fame.

Jane’s 1914 entry for the armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. These were just bigger Roon-class cruisers with more speed and range but roughly the same armament and armor.

Following Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the Germans in 1906 ordered their last armored cruiser, the huge 15,000-ton 12x 8.4″/45 gunned SMS Blücher (which cost 28.5 million marks), then shifted gears to battlecruisers with the 21,000-ton 11-inch gunned SMS Von der Tann (36.5 million marks) in 1907.

With that…

Meet Yorck 

Our subject carries the name of Johann David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, a Prussian feldmarschall and statesman of the early 19th century.

An ardent patriot, Yorck resented Prussia’s subservience to Napoleon and, in 1812, defied the orders of Wilhelm Friedrich III by initially refusing to join the French emperor’s great invasion of Russia. With Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, Yorck seized the opportunity for liberation and negotiated a separate peace treaty (the Convention of Tauroggen) for his Corps with Russian General Ivan Ivanovich Dibich-Zabalkansky over the Christmas holiday of 1812 without the consent of their respective monarchs. He went on to fight Napoleon for the next three years and retired from the Prussian Army in 1821, passing nine years later.

Yorck, a thorn in Napoleon’s side, later became a favorite icon of the newly unified Germany.

Laid down as Ersatz Deutschland (Baunummer 167) at the Blohm & Voss in Hamburg on 25 April 1903, the hull of the future SMS Yorck was launched into the water on a warm 14 May 1904, christened by Josephine Yorck von Wartenburg, the 45-year-old granddaughter of the famous field marshal. Speaking of field marshals, the 71-year-old Gen. Wilhelm Gustav Karl Bernhard von Hahnke, then the Oberkommando in den Marken over state functions, read the dedication to the new cruiser.

Yorck, launched. Note her ram bow

Yorck, despite being laid down eight months later, managed to be completed six months earlier than her sister Roon, commissioning on 21 November 1905, while the class leader entered service on 5 April 1906.

Yorck’s construction costs were 16,241,000 goldmarks, while Roon came in at a comparatively cheaper 15,345,000 goldmarks. Still, they both came in cheaper than the previous twins, the 16.4 million mark Prinz Adalbert and the 15.7 million mark Friedrich Carl. Roon is listed as costing £875,733 (£660,469 hull and machinery, £195,695 guns, £19,569 torpedo armament) in a British journal.

She and her sister joined the fleet’s reconnaissance force (Aufklärungsstreitkräfte), with Yorck taking over the task of flagship from Friedrich Carl. The flagship role would remain with Yorck until May 1908, then again from March 1909 to April 1910, and intermittently in 1912 and 1913. Whenever she wasn’t the direct flagship, she typically carried the recon force’s second or third commander and staff.

Yorck Mai 1910 Hansestadt Bremisches Amt Bremerhaven, Bild-Nr. S1 F 22-1

She spent the next several years in a series of fleet maneuvers and squadron cruises into the Atlantic, ranging as far as Spain and Norway.

Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.

Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.

Roon and Yorck with the Aufklärungsstreitkräfte in Puddefjorden, Bergen, Norway, between 1907 and 1911.

She not only looked good but could shoot as well. Yorck won the Emperor’s Shooting Prize (Kaiser Preis) for large cruisers in both 1908 and 1910.

Meanwhile, sister Roon, unburdened by flagship roles, even managed a sortie to escort ships to the far east and attend the 1907 Jamestown Exhibition naval parade in New York City along with the protected cruiser SMS Kaiserin Augusta.

SMS Roon 1907 Jamestown Exhibition, NYC. LOC ggbain 28287

S.178

While practicing counter-torpedo boat operations on the night of 4 March 1913, just northeast of Heligoland, Yorck inadvertently rammed the low-lying and fast-moving S.178, driving the 800-ton ship under the waves, and sending 69 men with her to the bottom. Just 15 survivors were saved through the combined efforts of fellow torpedo boat S.177, Yorck, and the battleship SMS Oldenburg.

The 242-foot S.138-class torpedoboot S.178 was cut in half by Yorck in March 1913 but was salvaged (during which one of the salvage vessels, Unterlebe, capsized in heavy seas, carrying another seven men to the bottom). Her two pieces reconstructed, she survived the Great War and was surrendered to the British, who scrapped her in Dordrecht in 1922.

Doldrums

As the Kaiser built out his shiny new High Seas Fleet and a fresh batch of battlecruisers joined it, the still young but smaller, weaker, and slower armored cruisers were put to pasture to free up their crews for reassignment. Prinz Heinrich was laid up from 1906 to 1908 and then put into limited service as a training ship. Likewise, in 1909, Friedrich Carl was withdrawn from front-line service and re-tasked as a torpedo training ship. Prinz Adalbert became a gunnery school and test ship in 1912.

Roon was laid up in September 1911 after just five years of service, while Yorck soon followed her sister and was laid up on 21 May 1913, having completed less than eight years of service. It probably didn’t help that the high-profile ramming of S.178 had occurred just ten weeks prior. Most of Yorck’s crew, including the skipper, transferred to the newly completed battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz.

Yup, that Seydlitz.

SMS-Seydlitz seeing what hell looks like at Jutland, by Carl Becker

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were only on active service in 1914 due to their overseas assignment with the East Asian Squadron, while Blucher was, well, a proto if under-gunned battlecruiser. If you ask me, it’s likely that on a long enough timeline, the Germans would have replaced von Spee’s armored cruisers with battlecruisers in the same way that the Moltke-class BC SMS Goeben was stationed in the Mediterranean from 1912 onward.

Anyhow…

War!

Yorck, photographed in 1914. Courtesy of Master Sergeant Donald L.R. Shake, USAF, 1981. NH 92713

When the lights went out across Europe in August 1914, Yorck and Roon were pulled out of reserve and rushed back into service, both attached to the III. Aufklärungsgruppe, with Roon, made the group flag.

The squadron initially operated in the Baltic Sea, then later shifted to the North Sea.

On 2 November, the 3rd Scouting Group helped cover the first offensive operation of the High Seas Fleet– the bombardment by the battlecruisers of the 1st Scouting Group of Yarmouth, the first attack on British soil in 250 years. While no casualties were suffered on either side and the Germans retired in good order, Yorck would upend that empty victory.

While wrapped in fog in the inner Jade estuary on the morning of 4 November, Yorck’s skipper, KzS Waldemar Pieper– a skilled professional officer who had signed up in 1887 as a cadet and had commanded both the armored cruisers Prinz Adalbert and Blucher before the war– had reason to believe his ship’s water supply was contaminated and ordered her to weigh anchor and proceed to Wilhelmshaven without pilots. The pilot had refused to take over the conn due to the poor visibility and the considerable risk of German defensive minefields, which were known but subject to tidal drifting.

At 0410, Yorck struck a mine, then turned away to escape the field and hit a second one, soon capsizing and turning turtle, entombing fully half of her crew. If not for the efforts of the old Siegfried-class coastal defense ship (küstenpanzerschiffen) SMS Hagen rushing out to her rescue despite the mines, the other half (the chagrined Pieper among them) would surely have succumbed to hypothermia.

SMS Yorck mined near Wilhelmshaven, on return from Yarmouth, 4th November 1914. The ship is on her side. Reichs Marine Sammlung Collection, IWM (Q 48420)

The German armored cruiser SMS Friedrich Carl was sunk by a pair of Russian mines in the Baltic Sea almost a year to the day later, in November 1915

Yorck and Friedrich Carl were in the club of over a dozen cruisers claimed by mine warfare between 1904 and 1942, including the British cruisers HMS Cassandra, Amphion, Hampshire, and Neptune; the Japanese cruisers Miyako, Saien, and Takasago; the Italian cruisers Carlo Alberto Racchia, Carlo Mirabello, and Cesare Rossarol; the Russian cruisers Boyarin, Peresvet, and Ladgoda; USS San Diego (ACR-6), the French cruiser Kléber, and the Ottoman cruiser Mecidiye.

Yorck’s sister Roon was decommissioned in Kiel on 4 February 1916 and, after being disarmed and used as a training hulk for U-boat crews, was slated for conversion to a seaplane carrier.

Roon’s planned seaplane carrier conversion which never completed. Found at Kiel after the war in poor condition, she was scrapped by 1921. Drawing by Dr Dan Saranga, Blueprints.com

Epilogue

Lost in shallow water with some elements of her wrecked hull at the time just 10 feet below the surface, between 1926 and stretching to 1983, Yorck was slowly blasted and salvaged, then later broken up in place on the seabed as a navigational hazard, finally being dredged under to effectively bury what remained.

These days, about the only relics of Yorck that endure are period postcards.

The Germans may have tried to recycle the name of our cruiser in the lead ship of the nascent Ersatz (replacement) Yorck-class of battlecruisers, whose two sisters would have, at least initially, been named Ersatz Gneisenau and Ersatz Scharnhorst. Big 38,000-ton beasts with a planned 90,000shp on tap from a suite that included 32 boilers and four geared steam turbines, the Ersatz Yorcks were a sort of Super Mackensen type that would have made 27 knots while still carrying eight 15″/45 guns (as opposed to SMS Mackensen’s eight 13.8″/45s) and as much as 10 inches of armor plate. Ersatz Yorck had her keel laid at AG Vulcan in Hamburg in July 1916, but with production resources pivoting to U-boats, she never stood a chance and was eventually abandoned and broken up on the ways after the war. Her design did reportedly prove a starting point for the Kriegsmarine’s later Scharnhorst-class battleships, however.

Drawing of proposed Ersatz Yorck-class (1916), the German Imperial Navy’s final battlecruiser design, which never saw the water.

Our Yorck’s captain’s cabin was an important stepping stone for several future German admirals.

Her first skipper, KzS Leo Jacobson, by 1918 was a vice admiral and the fortress commander of Wilhelmshaven.

Her second commander, KzS Arthur Tapken, went on to head the Navy’s intelligence section, led a scouting squadron early in the Great War from the bridge of the battlecruiser SMS Von der Tann, and ended the war as a vice admiral and the fortress commander of Kiel.

Her fourth commander, KzS Ludwig von Reuter, went on to be the ignoble final commander of the High Seas Fleet, interned at Scapa Flow, and would order it to scuttle in June 1919.

KzS Max Köthner, Yorck’s fifth skipper, was director of the torpedo department at the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, retiring in 1919 as a rear admiral.

Our cruiser’s sixth skipper, KzS Moritz von Egidy, famously commanded the Swiss-cheesed battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz at Jutland and ended the war as commandant of the Mürwik Naval Academy.

As for her seventh and final skipper, Waldemar Pieper was court-martialed in Wilhelmshaven for the sinking of the Yorck and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a fortress for disobeying orders and negligence. However, requested by name by Admiral Wilhelm Souchon as an artillery expert, he was paroled and seconded in February 1915 to Ottoman Turkey on probation, where he later distinguished himself to such an extent that Kaiser Willy commuted his sentence in December 1915. An Ottoman Pasha and major general, by 1916, he was the head inspector of the Turkish ordnance plants (Türk Silah Dairesi ve fabrikalari komutani) clustered around Constantinople, with 700 German experts supervising 14,000 local munitions workers. He returned to Germany in July 1917 to serve in the weapons bureau, and Pieper was later retired as a rear admiral (Konteradmiral) in 1919. He passed in early 1945, aged 73.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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109 years on: bottle mail set for delivery

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This interesting piece out of Australia.

Beachcombers along Wharton Beach, southeast of Perth, came across an old bottle. Sealed, it contained two yellowed and deteriorating pencil-written letters.

Carefully retrieved, they were addressed from “somewhere at sea” and detailed an outward-bound leg on the troopship HMAT Ballarat, which departed Adelaide in August 1916, bound for the Great War in Europe.

It turned out they belonged to ANZAC privates Malcolm Alexander Neville (48th Australian Infantry Battalion) and William Kirk Harley (4th Australian Light Horse).

Sadly, Neville would be killed months later in France and remains there with a white cross over his grave. Harley survived and returned home, but passed having never seen his letter again.

The families have been found and are finally set to receive their long-lost sea mail.

The beachcombers are keeping the bottle, though.

Why looky there…

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I spent the week at the Guns.com Vault in Minnesota filming podcasts with guests and friends, so you know I had to go poring through the thousands of firearms in “the stacks” of the warehouse.

I give you a 1916-marked lP08 “Lange” Luger made by DWM (Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken). The 8-inch barreled lP08 was adopted in 1913 to replace the thoroughly obsolete Reichsrevolver in use by the German field artillery.

Widely thought of as rare, they aren’t really that hard to find, as something approaching 200,000 examples were made during the Great War (~175,000 by DWM, 23,000 by the Royal Arsenal at Erfurt).

A prized trophy that was often retrieved at the last minute from piles of munitions headed to the scrap yard, I wouldn’t doubt most are still floating around out there, somewhere.

The guys in the warehouse say they see three or four a year pass through there.

And if you wish hard enough and your heart is pure, one will surely find you.

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 October 2025: End of the Line

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 October 2025: End of the Line

IWM (Q 48273)

Above we see the Italian Conte di Cavour-class dreadnought Giulio Cesare, in a very clean state while at Taranto during the Great War, on 3 June 1917. Note her interesting original five-turret (A-B-Q-X-Y), 13-barrel (3-2-3-2-3) main battery of 12″/46 Model 1909 Elswick pattern guns. She also wears a bow eagle with the Caesarian motto, “Veni. Vis. Vita.”

Following her second world war, she would go on to be the final battleship lost while in active service, under very controversial circumstances, some 70 years ago this week.

The Cavour class

The three-pack of Conte di Cavour–class battleships was designed in 1908 by RADM Engineer Edoardo Masdea, Chief Constructor of the Regia Marina, in the immediate spell after HMS Dreadnought and the French Courbet-class battlewagons. They followed in the wake of Italy’s first dreadnought, Dante Alighieri (19,500t, 551 ft. oal, 22 knots, 12×12″ guns, 10 inch armor plate), but were much heavier, at 24,500 tons.

As built, they carried the previously mentioned 13 12″/46s as well as 18 casemated 4.7″/50s, three torpedo tubes, and assorted tertiary light guns. Their Parsons turbines on 20 Yarrow boilers allowed Cavour to hit 22 knots on trials, but Cesare, even with 21 Babcock boilers installed (later 24), was only able to hit 21.7 knots. Even this came by whittling down the armor belt to where it was only 9.8 inches at its thickest, tapering to as thin as 3 inches near the bow, while the front forward tower and front turret faces were only 11 inches. Still, they were triple bottomed and had 23 watertight sections. While Terni made the armor for Cavour, Cesare’s and Da Vinci’s was imported from Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.

Plan, via the 1914 Jane’s

The three sisters, Cavour, Cesare, and Leonardo da Vinci, were laid down within weeks of each other in the summer of 1910 at three different yards (La Spezia, Gio. Ansaldo, and Odero) to be finished in 1913, one that would slip slightly due to Italy’s war with the Ottoman Empire and a diversion of resources during that period.

Hail, Cesare!

Our subject was named after the legendary Roman general and statesman of Et Tu Brute fame. Laid down at Ansaldo in Genoa on 24 June 1910, she launched on 15 October 1911 to much fanfare, one day after Da Vinci slid down the ways at Odero.

15 October 1911, Sestri-Ponente & Launch of Giulio Cesare, Bain News Service, LC DIG ggbain-09800-09879u

Fitting out would take nearly three full years, but she entered service on 14 May 1914, just 10 weeks before the “lights went out across Europe.”

Placing a 305 mm/12″ gun within Turret 2 of the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare, Genoa, 1912

Battleship Giulio Cesare during sea trials, 9 January 1913.

She was the first of her class commissioned, three days before Da Vinci and a full 11 months ahead of Cavour, which had been delayed due to Terni developing their cemented armor, while Ceasare and Da Vinci benefited from American imports.

Cesare compared to her contemporaries. Imagerie d Epinal Les Flotte de Guerre 

Great War

While the potential of a clash with the British and French loomed at the beginning of WWI, as Italy was officially an ally of Germany and Austria, the country’s quick declaration of neutrality, migrating to a polar shift to join the fight against Berlin and Vienna by May 1915, changed the orientation of the Italian battle fleet.

The Cavours were assigned to RADM Corsi’s 1st Battleship Division and left on seemingly eternal alert, ready to weigh anchor and sortie out within three hours.

Italian battleships of the Cesare Class, showing triple gun turrets, Great War. NH 111474 and IWM Q 19095

With the German Mediterranean Squadron chased to the Black Sea and the Austrian fleet effectively bottled up in the Adriatic, the naval war in the region devolved into four years of small craft and submarine operations as the respective battleships lay in wait for a decisive Tsushima/Battle of Yalu River/Manila Bay/Santiago style sea clash.

This led to a boring war for the Italian battleships as the Austrians decided to ride out the war safely at anchor rather than tempt a Jutland.

Sadly, Da Vinci would be lost to an unexplained magazine explosion while moored at Taranto in August 1916, taking a full quarter of her crew with her.

Da Vinci turned turtle at Taranto, August 1916.

In all, Cesare only spent 418 hours at sea during Italy’s war, 31 hours on combat missions (supporting operations in the islands of the Ionian archipelago in May 1917), and 387 hours in training/exercises, without ever encountering an enemy during the conflict in which her country suffered over 650,000 dead.

Interwar

The remaining sisters saw more sea time in the months just after Versailles than during the entire war, with Cavour heading to the Americas for a flag-waving cruise while Cesare toured the Eastern Med and stood by the Greek-Turkish conflict.

Cesare photographed at Constantinople, Turkey, in August 1919. Note that the ship is flying a Greek National Flag at the mainmast top. NH 47786

Jane’s 1921, with Da Vinci missing.

Following this, she had her first modernization, landing some small guns and her bow crest, picking up some AAA pieces, and changing her mast arrangements.

She also engaged in a bit of battleship diplomacy, being used in the seizure of Corfu in August 1923.

Italian battleship Giulio Cesare in La Spezia, 1925

A 1925 upgrade saw her pick up a Macchi M.18 seaplane over the stern along with a catapult and crane to retrieve it, and, after two years in ordinary, by 1928, she was relegated to use as a gunnery training ship, with the country soon after moving to build four new 40,000-ton Littorio-class battleships.

Jane’s 1929.

Great Rebuild

It was decided by the Italian admiralty in the early 1930s to not only keep on with the construction of a planned quartet of new Littorio-class 30-knot fast battleships, with their impressive 15-inch guns, but also to extensively modernize the two Cavours and the two similar yet slightly younger Andrea Doria-class battleships, giving Mussolini eight battleships in a decade. At least that was the plan, anyway.

Following the design by Gen. Francesco Rotundi, the Cavours and Dorias were rearming with more capable 12.6″/44 Model 1934 guns on upgraded mounts, with the middle Q mount deleted, giving them 10 new guns in place of 13 older ones, with a modern fire control house atop the conning tower.

Naples during the great 5 May 1938 naval review, showing the modernized Cavour followed by the similarly modernized Cesare and a heavy cruiser. NH 86147

The modernization also added armor, replaced the boilers and machinery, and deleted the casemate guns for more modern  3.9″/47 M1928 twin AA guns in high-angle turrets.

Cesare carried 12 of these 100 mm/47 (3.9″) Model 1928 AA guns in six twin turrets. These art deco-looking mounts were also used on the Trento, Zara, and Condotteri class cruisers.

They also picked up an assortment of twin Breda 37mm and Breda M31 13.2mm guns, landed the circa 1914 torpedo tubes, and lengthened the hull for added stability. Powered by eight more efficient Yarrow boilers and with 75,000shp on tap compared to the old 30,000shp, the class could make 27 knots, making them, at age 20, the fastest they had ever been.

Cesare underwent modernization at the Cantieri del Tirreno shipyard in Genoa from 25 October 1933 to 1 October 1937. Tellingly, the rebuild was one month longer than her original construction.

The U.S. Navy’s ONI, with war on the horizon, made sure to get several nice images of her in the late 1930s, essentially a new ship built around the upcycled bones of a circa 1914 dreadnought.

Cesare photographed during the late 1930s after her 1933-37 reconstruction. NH 86124

Cesare was photographed in 1938 following her 1933-37 reconstruction. NH 86127

Cesare photographed before World War II. The photograph has been retouched. NH 86590

Cesare at sea, 1938, photographed before World War II. NH 86588

Many shots endure from the epic May 1938 Naples Naval Review.

Italian battleship, either Cavour or Cesare, probably photographed during the 5 May 1938 naval review off Naples. Cant Z.501 flying boats be seen overhead. NH 86141

Cesare, 5 May 1938, at the Naval review off Naples. The torpedo boats Spica and Aldebaran appear in the background, NH 86142

Italian battleships Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples. NH 86153

Italian battleships Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples, followed by two Zara class cruisers. NH 86154

Cavour and Cesare seen in column at the May 1938 Naval review off Naples. NH 86151

5 May 1938, battleships Cavour and Cesare as seen from the fantail of a destroyer-type ship. Two cruisers appear in the right background, and a paravane for minesweeping can be seen on the ship’s stern in the foreground. NH 86148

Late 1930s, two Italian battleships and about nine or ten torpedo boats, the Cavour and Cesare, appear in the foreground, and the torpedo boat Altair can be identified in the background by her hull letters “AT.” NH 86140

A Second War

Cavour-class battleships as rebuilt, circa 1939. Luce archives via NHHC NH 111400

Giulio Cesare – San Giorgio, NH 111420

ONI 202 sheet on Cavour and Cesare.

Soon after Italy joined Germany in World War II, Cavour and Cesare, as the 5th Battleship Division, were part of a 14-cruiser/16 destroyer covering force running a convoy from Taranto across the Med to the country’s Libyan colony under the overall command of ADM Ingio Pola.

On the return trip, they crashed into a trio of Royal Navy task groups, Force A (five cruisers), Force B (battleship HMS Warspite and six destroyers), and Force C (battleships HMS Malaya and Royal Sovereign, carrier Eagle, 10 destroyers) on 9 July 1940, and the Battle of Calabria/Battle of Punta Stilo ensued.

During that clash, in which no ships were ultimately sunk on either side, Cesare opened fire on Warspite at an impressive 29,000 yards and, while her shells fell long, damaged two of the British battlewagon’s escorting destroyers. In return, the closing Warspite fired at and eventually hit Cesare with a 15-inch shell from 26,000 yards, exploding one of the Italian ship’s funnels and damaging four boilers, causing her to fall out of the battle line and reduce speed as Cavour took over. Cesare made it to Messina safely and took a month to repair.

Italian battleships at the Battle of Punta Stilo, July 9, 1940. Cavour opens fire with her 12.6-inch main battery during the battle. Photograph taken from aboard her sister ship Cesare. NH 86586

Italian battleship Giulio Cesare, seen from her sister Conte di Cavour, firing at HMS Warspite with her 320 mm guns, waters off Punta Stilo (Calabria), around 1555 h, 9 July 1940

Warspite hit on Cesare

Warspite hit on Cesare

Warspite hit on Cesare

Italian battleship Giulio Cesare after a hit from the HMS Warspite during the Battle of Calabria, 9 July 1940. The 15-inch shell hit the Italian ship from around 13nm. IWM HU 52333.

Then came the dramatic pre-Pearl Harbor night attack by a handful of British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish torpedo bombers from the carrier HMS Illustrious on the Italian battleship anchorage of Taranto on 11 November 1940.

Cobb, Charles David; Taranto Harbour, Swordfish from ‘Illustrious’ Cripple the Italian Fleet, 11 November 1940; National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/taranto-harbour-swordfish-from-illustrious-cripple-the-italian-fleet-11-november-1940-116445

While Cesare was spared damage, one torpedo sank sister Conte di Cavour in shallow water and effectively took her out of the war.

Cesare would strike out against the British again at the Battle of Cape Spartivento/Cape Teulada in November, without giving or receiving much damage, and in convoy work, including what is remembered by the Brits as the First Battle of Sirte off Malta in December 1941.

With the Med becoming less and less friendly to Italian capital ships due to British submarines and land-based bombers, Cesare was largely port-bound by 1942 and was eventually withdrawn up the Adriatic to a safer anchorage at Pola (Pula) and reduced to training status. It would seem her war was effectively over.

During the 1940–1943 campaign, Cesare made 38 combat sorties, covering 16,947 miles in 912 sailing hours, and consumed 12,697 tons of oil in the process.

Russia-bound

Spared the indignity suffered by most other post-1942 Axis capital ships, which were sunk at their moorings by Allied bombers, when Italy switched sides on 8 September 1943, Cesare overcame a small mutiny by Mussolini-inclined crew and made it safely to Malta by the interned under British guns. She fought off German air attacks along the way and managed not to be sunk by her former allies, such as the Littorio-class battlewagon Roma, which was sunk by German Fritz X radio-controlled bombs launched by Do 217s on 9 September, taking over 1,300 of her crew to the bottom.

Cesare was the last Italian capital ship to arrive at Malta.

As the invasion of Italy pushed the Germans and the rump of the Italian socialist republic further and further up the country’s “boot,” Cesare and the two Dorias were released to return to Taranto in June 1944, where they languished in ordinary.

Post VE-Day, Cesare was one of a list of ex-Italian vessels held by an Allied commission to be handed out as trophies.

Cesare in the 1946 Jane’s.

This process dragged on for years as Stalin’s iron curtain descended across Eastern Europe and the Western Allies were in no hurry to keep giving his war machine new toys. It was only in December 1948 that she was moved to Sicily and finally removed from the Italian naval list, ending her 34 years of service to Rome.

Ex-Cesare was turned over to the very happy Soviets under ADM Gordey Ivanovich Levchenko on 6 February 1949.

While Stalin wanted the newer Littoros, Cesare was arguably the nicest battleship the Russians had at the time, despite her age and the fact that she had basically been in reserve for six years and had not been dry-docked in eight.

Soviet battleship Novorossiysk, formerly Italian Giulio Cesare, from Vlorë (Albania) to the Black Sea in late February 1949.

After Cesare departed for a Soviet port, the loaned Arkhangelsk (HMS Royal Sovereign) was returned to England for scrapping.

Dubbed originally Z11 and moved to Communist allied Albania for a quick two-week refit with an Italian adviser crew aboard, then departed for Sevastopol. By order of the Black Sea Fleet dated 5 March 1949, the Italian battleship was renamed Novorossiysk.

Reportedly in extremely poor condition, with inoperable diesel generators, leaking pipes, broken fittings, and suffering signs of purposeful Italian neglect and sabotage, the Russians spent the next several years trying to reshoe their gift horse.

Although the Italians had delivered a library of technical manuals and books on the ship’s systems, a handful of Russian Italian translators on hand lacked experience in the specialized terminology used in the tomes, particularly when it came to handwritten notes and abbreviations, and the books ultimately proved an alien language.

Soviet battleship Novorossiysk (the former Royal Italian Navy Giulio Cesare

After six weeks in dry dock at Sevastopol, Cesare/Novorossiysk sailed (briefly) as Black Sea Fleet flagship on maneuvers in July 1949. Over the next five years, she had five shipyard overhauls (July 1950, April-June 1951, June 1952, November 1954, and February-March 1955) in an attempt to bring old systems back online and add new ones.

Battleship Novorossiysk (Giulio Cesare) April 13, 1955

The Soviets added several new AAA batteries (24 twin 37mm V-11 guns, six 37mm 70-K automatic cannons) and a Zalp-M radar.

It was planned to put the elderly battlewagon into her second rebuild (first Russian), which would include new Soviet-made turbine engines and Russian Obukhovskii 12″/52 Pattern 1907 guns left over from the Tsarist Gangut, Imperatritsa Maria, and Imperator Nikolai I battleship classes.

She never made that grand overhaul.

Tragedy in Sevastopol

On the night of 28 October 1955, the 41-year-old Cesare/Novorossiysk returned from a cruise marking the 100th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol and tied up at Buoy No. 3 near the Naval Hospital.

At 0131 on 29 October 29, a massive explosion under the ship’s starboard bow pierced the battleship’s hull, blew out part of the forecastle deck, and created a cavernous 1,600 sq. ft underwater hole.

Within a minute, a second explosion on the port side created what was later found to be a 2,000 sq. ft. hole in her hull.

The warship didn’t stand a chance and was settling on the harbor floor in minutes, and began to list, eventually turning turtle by the following evening.

At least 557 of the battleship’s crew were lost, along with some 60 men from the rest of the fleet who were lost in the attempt to save the ship and rescue trapped sailors.

We won’t get into the myriad of theories as to what killed Cesare/Novorossiysk, but suggestions have ranged from the far-fetched, such as Italian frogmen of the long-disbanded Xª MAS and long-dormant scuttling charges left aboard in 1948, to German bottom mines left over in the harbor’s silty bottom from their occupation of the port in WWII and assorted internal magazine explosions. Lingering mines seem the most likely cause, as extensive sweeps later found 32 mines on the bottom of Sevastopol’s harbor, some dating to the Great War.

In the end, with Stalin long gone and the Red Banner Fleet moving towards a more submarine and missile-borne strategy, the age of the Russian battleship came to an end as Cesare/Novorossiysk was raised over the course of the next 18 months and scrapped.

The final Soviet dreadnought, the circa 1911 Gangut/Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, was stricken on 17 February 1956 and slowly scrapped over the next two years.

After that, the handful of Turkish, French, British, and American battleships still on naval lists in NATO were soon taken out of service, with the Iowas staging a return in the 1980s-90s.

But gratefully, Cesare/Novorossiysk was the last one to go down with her flags flying.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Kongos a Cruising

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It happened 110 years ago this week.

War games, south of the Bungo Straits between the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, 25 October 1915. The Japanese “Blue” Navy’s 3rd Squadron, exercising its brand new quartet of Kongo-class battlecruisers, showing their teeth against the “Red” Navy’s 2nd Squadron. The photo was taken from the deck of the Haruna, with the Hiei, Kirishima, and Kongo in the foreground.

When built, the Kongos weighed 27,000 tons and were scary to just about every other fleet in the world. Powered by 36 good English Yarrow boilers driving two steam turbines, they could make 27.5 knots, carried as much as 10 inches of armor, and were equipped with an eight-pack of Vickers 14″/45s (or “41st Year Guns” in Japan).

Class leader Kongo herself was built at Vickers in England (Barrow-in-Furness) and delivered in August 1913, while Hiei, Kirishima, and Haruna were constructed at Yokosuka Navy Yard, and the private yards of Mitsubishi and Kawasaki, respectively.

Japanese Battlecruiser Haruna fitting out at Kawasaki’s Kobe shipyard, Japan, in October 1914, with one of her 14-inch Vickers being installed. 

The four sisters were united in squadron service by August 1915, just weeks before the above image was snapped.

All would be lost in the inferno of the Pacific War.

Japanese Battleship Haruna sunk in shallow water near Kure, September 1945 LIFE George Silk

Bluejacket Cavalry!

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The first Navy ship named for the capital of the state of Maryland and the location of the U.S. Naval Academy, USS Annapolis (Gunboat No. 10), was laid down on 18 April 1896 at Elizabethport, New Jersey, by Lewis Nixon and commissioned at New York on 20 July 1897.

U.S. Navy gunboat, USS Annapolis (PG-10), port view. Detroit Publishing Company, 1890-1912. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Lot 3000-K-20

She was a class leader of gunboats with three sisters (Vicksburg, Newport, and Princeton) built during the transition period of the maritime world: sail to steam and wood to steel. They used a composite hull construction of steel keel and frames, steel shell plating from main deck to waterline, and wood planking with copper sheathing to the keel.

She was designed by RADM Phillip Hichborn, chief constructor of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, with RADM George Wallace Melville, chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, designing her power plant– the latter a triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, better known as an “Up‐n‐Downer,” using steam supplied by two early water tube boilers at 180 psi.

The 203-foot steel-hulled barkentine-rigged three-masted steam gunboat carried a wallop in the form of six 4-inch breechloading guns, four QF 6-pounders, and two 1-pounders, plus, with a crew of 130 bluejackets, she could send a platoon-sized force ashore as light infantry (which we shall see) and still fight the ship. Best yet, she could float in just 13 feet of water, which allowed her to own a coastal littoral, when needed.

The 12-gun (6×4″, 4x6pdr, 2x1pdr) Composite gunboat USS Annapolis, 1895 plan NARA 19-N-12-17-4

Within a year, she was in service out of Key West enforcing the blockade on Cuba, helping to capture an enemy merchant ship and a British steamer with Spanish contraband. She also tag-teamed the Spanish gunboat Don Jorge Juan and sank same. She then sailed for the Far East and spent four years in those waters, primarily in the Philippine Islands.

Rebuilt at Mare Island from 1904-07, she would serve as the station ship in American Samoa until December 1911, when, returning to Mare Island, she was once again placed out of service.

Gunboat USS Annapolis off of San Francisco in 1912.

Then came a mission to Nicaragua, spending 11 months on a very muscular deployment to Central America, where her men logged one of the 136 instances of individual groups of bluejackets operating ashore as infantry (from squad to brigade level) between 1901 and May 1929. The spark that Annapolis was sent to contain was the coup d’état of General Luis Mena, Minister of War under President Alfonso Diaz, who thought he could do a better job than Diaz.

Amazingly, the gunboat landed a light company-sized force of Bluejackets, consisting of five officers and 90 men, under the command of LT James A. Campbell, Jr., U.S. Navy, at Corinto, which proceeded 90 miles by rail to Managua, Nicaragua, to serve as a legation guard and to protect American interests. They spent three months detached and were soon reinforced by other naval landing forces along with Major Smedly Butler’s Marine battalion, the latter consisting of 13 officers and 341 men. LCDR William Daniel Leahy (USNA 97), the battleship USS California’s gunnery officer, became the chief of staff of the expeditionary force and the commander of the small garrison at Corinto.

Expeditionary Force “Bluejackets” disembarking at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr.

Expeditionary Force, “Bluejackets” at Leon, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr. NMUSN-P-D-2015-1-9

Expeditionary Force, “Bluejacket Calvary [sic]” at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr. NMUSN-P-D-2015-1-11

“Insurrectos – Barricading Street, note the automatic, which seems to be a Vickers gun, at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr.

As further detailed by DANFS:

Annapolis remained at Mare Island until recommissioned on 1 May 1912, Cmdr. Warren J. Terhune in command.

Sometime in May, the warship moved south to San Diego, whence she departed on the 21st and headed for the coast of Central America. She arrived off the coast of Nicaragua, at Corinto, on 13 June. Conditions in that Central American republic had been unstable throughout the first decade of the 20th century, but after 1910, became increasingly worse as three factions vied with each other for power. By the summer of 1912, General Estrada, more or less democratically elected under American auspices, had been forced out of office. His vice president, Adolfq Diaz, took over his duties, but by the end of July, full-scale civil war raged in Nicaragua. Annapolis returned to the Corinto area on 1 August following a six-week cruise along the coasts of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

The gunboat remained at Corinto for the following four months, periodically sending landing parties ashore to protect Americans’ lives and property and to restore order in areas where Americans were located. On 9 December, she departed Nicaraguan waters to return to San Francisco, where, after stops at Acajutla, El Salvador, and at San Diego, Calif., she arrived on 30 December. That same day, the warship entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs.

She completed repairs late in January 1913 and returned to sea on the 20th. The gunboat made a 16-day stop at San Diego before resuming her voyage to Central American waters on 7 February. Annapolis arrived at Amapala, Honduras, on 17 February and remained there until 9 March. After a short cruise to the Gulf of Fonseca and to Petosi in Nicaragua on 9 and 10 March, she returned to Amapala on the 10th and remained there until 23 April.

Annapolis would spend the next several years poking around Mexican waters during the cyclical series of revolutions and civil wars between 1914 and 1918, after which she served in the American Patrol during the Great War.

Annapolis was placed out of commission at Mare Island in 1919, and the next year was towed via the Panama Canal to Philadelphia, where she was turned over to the Pennsylvania State Nautical School as a floating school ship, on a loan basis, for the next 20 years.

ex-USS Annapolis, Pennsylvania’s ‘schoolship’, as she looked in 1922 while anchored in the Delaware River

When WWII came, she was turned over to the Maritime Commission for disposal in 1940 and, in poor condition, was later scrapped.

By that time, a second Annapolis had joined the fleet.

But that is another story.

So long, Mighty U

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Some 80 years ago today, one of the longest-serving yet oft-forgotten vessels in American maritime service was finally retired.

On 10 October 1945, the 190-foot Miami-class cruising cutter Unalga (WPG-53) was decommissioned, capping 33 years of unbroken service that began in 1912 with the old Revenue Cutter Service.

Serving with the Navy directly during the Great War, she went back to walking the beat and rejoined the Navy for WWII, first in conducting antisubmarine patrols under the auspices of the Commandant, 10th Naval District, then as a floating target ship for the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island.

Former crewman Merle L. Harbourt, in a 15 May 1992 letter to the USCG Historian’s Office, wrote about Unalga during the cutter’s second world war:

She never sank a submarine nor shot down a plane, but there is one old ship that I served in that should get some mention simply because she survived. The former Revenue Cutter Unalga, or ‘Mighty U’ as she was not too affectionately referred to by her crew, is a case study in unpreparedness.

As memory serves, the Unalga was commissioned in 1912 as a vessel of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. I joined her in June of 1941 when she was home ported in San Juan, P.R. She was powered by a four-cylinder triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, which Lt. L. M. Thayer (later to be RADM Thayer), our engineering officer, was intent upon her maintenance since she was forever snapping piston rings.

Shortly before the outbreak of WWII, we painted her gray and limbered up our armament, one three-inch twenty-three caliber mount on the fore deck. We were tied up in San Juan, at the still-existing buoy depot, when December 7th became a day of infamy.

We served as Harbor Entrance Control Vessel for San Juan for a period and then were pressed into service to haul aviation gasoline from Puerto Rico (Ponce) to Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, in 55-gallon drums stacked all over the main deck, to provide fuel for the Marine air station. The small tanker that had formerly provided that service was shelled and sunk by a sub earlier. Later, without the benefit of radar or sonar, we assisted in the escort of ships between Trinidad and Cuba, convoys that sometimes got away from us during darkness or heavy rains.

My humorous tales of life on that old ship are endless. Like the time when we thought we might be facing a German Q boat, or raider, and .30 caliber rifles were issued to a few crewmembers. And us with one snub-nose three-inch cannon! Or the time when, after sonar installation, we thought we had a sub contact, dropped a pattern of depth charges, and the main engine stopped. The vacuum had been lost. If we were in the vicinity of a sub, he probably thought we wouldn’t make it back to port anyway and didn’t waste a fish.”

She wasn’t quite finished, though.

Sold on 19 July 1946 for her value as floating scrap, she was renamed Ulua and then participated in the immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine, past the British naval blockade.

Blockade-runner Ulua (former Unalga) tied up pier side at Marseille, France, December 1946

Warship Wednesday, October 1, 2025: Small Ship, Big Heroes

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, October 1, 2025: Small Ship, Big Heroes

Courtesy of the International Naval Research Organization, via the Naval Historical and Heritage Command. NH 87370

Above we see the gleaming S. M. Schiffes Zenta, the class leader of a trio of third-class protected cruisers in the Austro-Hungarian Navy, the Kuk Kriegsmarine, early in her career.

Some 125 years ago, she helped carve out a piece of China for Kaiser Franz Josef, then went on to make a heroic footnote in the history of naval warfare.

The Zentas

Our subject was the lead ship of the Zenta-class cruisers, which included the follow-on half sisters SMS Aspern and SMS Szigetvar. I say “half sisters” as all three ships in the class, while they were built successively by the Austrian Marinearsenal in Pola, were evolutionarily different. For instance, whereas Zenta’s displacement was 2,500 tons (full), Aspern ran 2,625 tons, and Szigetvar 2,562. Zenta was 10 feet shorter than her sisters and had a different rigging and mast arrangement, carrying a topmast on her fore as she was rigged for auxiliary sails.

Brassey’s plans for “Kreuzer A” or “Ersatz Grief,” which became Zenta. Note the sail rig and ram bow.

A more fleshed-out version.

Zenta was also the slowest of her class, capable of 19.5 knots on 7,200 shp, while her sisters could hit 20.8 knots, with the latter pair running 8,160 shp. They used eight coal-fed Yarrow boilers to feed two 4-cylinder VTE engines made by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, the Austrian navy’s chief machinery firm and maker of a dozen battleships for the dual monarchy.

Armament consisted of an eight-gun main battery of Skoda-made 4.7″ L/40 SC.96 guns (six in casemates, two open mounts on the main deck) backed up by a secondary anti-boat battery of 10  Hotchkiss/Skoda 47mm 33/44 3-pounders and a couple of Skoda M1893 8mm machine guns. As an anti-ship armament, they carried two above-water 17.7-inch torpedo tubes on the beam, using domestically produced Whitehead torpedoes.

SMS Zenta, Schiessübungen, 1903, with one of her 4.7″ L/40 Skodas in action. Note the “SMS Zenta” stencil on the life ring attached to the bridge wing.

47 mm S.F.K. L/44 gun. Image from Škoda Catalog ca. 1900 courtesy of András Hatala, via Navweaps.

Two of Zenta’s sailors pose by one of her Salvator-Dormus (Skoda) M1893 8mm machine guns. Designed by no less than Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria, they used a delayed blowback action and could fire about 180 rounds per minute from a top-mounted 20 or 30-round fixed magazine. These guns could be dismounted and, heavy at 65 pounds, could be married up to a stored landing carriage and shield for use ashore.

Armor was very thin, even for a light cruiser, ranging from 35mm at the casemates to 50mm over the conning tower.

It was estimated that the cost of these ships was £150,000 each.

Jane’s 1914 listing for the class.

Meet Zenta

All three ships of the class were named after famous battles in Austro-Hungary’s past. Our subject remembered the 1697 Battle of Zenta (Senta) with the Habsburg forces under Prince Eugene of Savoy, crushing an Ottoman force twice its size. The official state seal of Grand Sultan Mustafa II, humiliatingly captured along with over 9,000 Ottoman baggage carts full of supplies and bounty after the battle, can be viewed today in the Museum of Military History (Heeresgeschichtliches) in Vienna.

Depiction of the Battle of Senta 1697 by Jan van Huchtenburgh c. 1725.

Our ship was laid down at Pola on 8 August 1896 and launched into the Adriatic the following summer on 18 August 1897.

The future protected cruiser SMS Zenta during her launch (Stapellauf) at Pola.

Fitting out took nearly two further years, and she was commissioned on 15 May 1899. Her sisters joined her in 1900 and 1901, respectively.

Zenta. Courtesy of the International Naval Research Organization. NH 87372

Zenta. Courtesy of the International Naval Research Organization. NH 87371

Far Eastern Service

The Austrian fleet had dispatched units overseas to protect its interests during the Spanish-American War in 1898. For instance, the 6,000-ton armored cruiser SMS Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia was dispatched to Cuba and came close enough to American battle lines that she was almost engaged twice.

Kuk armored cruiser SMS KAISERIN und KÖNIGIN MARIA THERESIA sails past Morro Castle, Havana, 1898, by August Ramberg

With growing tensions in the Far East after the Japanese humiliation of the Manchu Chinese Dynasty in 1895 and the U.S. fighting for control of the former Spanish colony of the Philippines, the newly completed Zenta, under Fregattenkapitän (Commander) Eduard Thomann von Montalmar, was almost immediately dispatched to the Pacific after shakedowns.

Zenta in Hong Kong, taken by Friedrich Carl Peetz, Duke University Repository

By March 1900, Zenta had arrived at China station in the Yellow Sea. Pier side at Sasebo, Japan, on 30 May, von Montalmar received orders via the Austrian legation in Tokyo to return to China and provide a detachment of armed sailors to protect the threatened legation in Peking, which was being increasingly threatened by Boxers. After confirming the orders with the admiralty, she left on 31 May at close to maximum speed, arriving at the Taku Forts on the morning of 2 June.

SMS Zenta at the Taku Anchorage (Taku-Rhede) by Alex Kircher

As the Austrian charge d’ affaires in Peking, Arthur von Rosthorn, wanted to speak directly to the ship’s skipper personally, von Montalmar, four junior officers (two dressed in mufti so as not to surpass the number of “military” personnel allowed to travel into the interior by Chinese officials) and 25 armed sailors landed and went by train in company with a force of 51 German marines and sailors to Peking, arriving on 3 June. In addition to protecting the Austrian legation, a midshipman and eight sailors were loaned to protect the Belgian envoy, who had no guards of his own.

Austrian Marines (armed sailors), likely from Zenta, marching in Tientsin (Tianjin), after their arrival, 1900. National Archives, Kew NA03-08.

Well prepared, each of Zenta’s armed sailors carried a Steyr-Mannlicher bolt-action rifle and 500 rounds, along with eight days of “iron” rations. On 5 June, the rail line from Teinstein to Peking was cut, and soon the assembled 400~ members of the eight international forces would defend the legations from Boxers and Chinese soldiers during a 55-day siege (20 June 20 through 14 August) with von Montalmar killed by an enemy grenade on 8 July. Three of Zenta’s crew were also killed in action in the Quarter: Josef Dettan (on 25 June), Marcus Badurina-Peric (26 June), and Afred Tavagna (29 June).

One happy coincidence was that it was found that some of the Chinese troops used Mannlicher rifles of the same caliber, and their captured cartridges could easily be put to use. This also allowed the Austrian sailors to loan rifles to the ammunition-strapped Russian contingent, who had only marched to Peking with 60 cartridges in their pouches.

Supporting the so-called Seymour Expedition led by by British VADM Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, a lieutenant and two midshipmen from Zenta, along with 73 additional sailors (keep in mind Zenta only had a 300-man crew!) joined Seymour’s 2,127-strong force drawn from the assorted ships crowding under the Taku forts, with the idea to force the way to Peking via Tientsin and relieve the Legation Quarter.

Seymour’s expedition, 1900 Boxer rebellion

In the resulting land combat along the road and railways, one of Zenta’s sailors, Josef Deste, was killed in action on 22 June while storming the Great Hsi-Ku Arsenal eight miles northwest of Tientsin.

While Zenta had detachments fighting for their lives in Peking and on the roads outside of Tientsin, she coughed up even more men for service ashore in storming the Taku Forts, where 40 modern guns threatened the growing Western flotilla should the Chinese navy enter the fray.

A detachment of 21 Austrian sailors, under Midshipman Stenner and joined by a young 20-year-old Midshipman 2cl Georg von Trapp, joined a larger German force under Capt. Pohl to seize the Northwest Taku fort on the morning of 17 June. The force also wound up capturing the South Fort, where the Austrian flag was raised.

Erstürmung von taku by Fritz Neumann, Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection

Erstürmung der Takuforts durch österr kuk Austrian SMS Zenta

While the two other landing parties from Zenta had suffered deaths, the Taku Fort group survived its battle without a loss.

The Zenta men of the failed Seymour Expedition and the Taku group then assembled a 55-man platoon to join the 14,000-strong Russian/Japanese-led relief force that ultimately lifted the Peking Siege in August. They carried with them the ship’s two Skoda machine guns.

Skoda M1893 machine guns on carriage and limber. Zenta’s crew used two of these in their work ashore during the taking of the Taku forts. This image, from a circa 1902 U.S. Army report, may actually be of our cruiser’s guns seen in China.

A week after the siege was broken, a 160-strong force from the Austrian cruisers SMS Aspern and Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, arrived in Peking on 20 August, relieving the Zenta men, who returned to the coast to rejoin their ship. In late July 1901, she departed Chefu (Zhifu) to the sounds of the Radetzky march being played.

She finally arrived back in Pola on 1 October 1901 and was awarded a silk flag of honor for her Chinese actions.

Von Trapp, promoted to a Midshipman 1c, received the Silberne Tapferkeitsmedaille II. Klasse and the War Medal before he was commissioned as a Fregattenleutnant (frigate lieutenant, equivalent to sub-lieutenant) in May 1903. He soon transferred into the budding Austrian submarine corps.

The late von Montalmar was regarded as a hero back home.

Zenta in her dark grey livery. Photographed at Pola on 1 October 1901 upon her return from East Asia. Courtesy of the International Naval Research Organization. NH 87366

Zenta in her dark grey livery. Photographed at Pola on 1 October 1901 upon her return from East Asia. Courtesy of the International Naval Research Organization. NH 87367

Zenta in her dark grey livery. Courtesy of the International Naval Research Organization. NH 87368

Salad Days

After a refit, Zenta spent the next 12 years in a series of fleet maneuvers, yard periods, and flag-waiving cruises, including a 12-month trip along the coasts of Africa and South America in 1902-03.

Austro-Hungarian light cruiser SMS Zenta in November 1902 off Zanzibar

SMS Zenta Aquatortaufe, 1903 crossing equator shellback ceremony

SMS Zenta Aquatortaufe, 1903 crossing equator shellback ceremony

SMS Zenta Aquatortaufe, 1903 crossing equator shellback ceremony

By 1905, she was relegated increasingly to a role as a torpedo boat flotilla leader, receiving a wireless set for that purpose. She also joined a series of international naval demonstrations in the Mediterranean as the region descended into a swirling series of wars in North Africa and the Balkans.

Zenta, with her laundry aloft. Courtesy of the International Naval Research Organization. NH 87369

A (Short) Great War service

Under the command of Fregattenkapitän Paul Pachner, when August 1914 came, Zenta was the leader of six Austrian torpedo boats tasked with blockading the rocky Montenegrin coast, in particular the Montenegrin port of Antivari (now Bar). In support were Zenta’s sister Szigetvar, the old 5,000-ton coast-defense ship SMS Monarch, the equally old 1,500-ton torpedo cruiser SMS Panther, and three destroyers.

On the morning of 16 August, just over two weeks into the war, a combined Anglo-French squadron of two 25,000-ton Courbet class dreadnoughts, each packing a dozen 12-inch guns, joined by 10 smaller pre-dreadnoughts, seven cruisers, and more than 20 destroyers, swooped down on Zenta, cruising alongside the humble Austrian destroyer Ulan.

While Pachner, whose trapped ship was outgunned by almost any of the British or French ships in the squadron save for the destroyer, cleared his decks for action and turned into the fray– ordering her companion Ulan to flee northward and alert the rest of the Austrian fleet.

It was over in less than 20 minutes, with Courbet smothering the attacking Austrian cruiser with 12-inch shells, sending her to the bottom some four miles off the coast of Castellastua, reportedly with her flags still flying. At least 173 of her crew perished, while none of Zenta’s shells were observed to land within 400 yards of the closest French ship. However, the French did have three of their guns burst during the exchange, leaving a sour taste in the mouths of the French Admiralty.

As noted by French VADM Amedee Bienaime

The destruction of this small cruiser of 2,500 tons, which stood unprotected for twenty minutes under the scattered fire of our entire fleet, cost 500 large-caliber shells and the loss of two 24-centimeter and one 19-centimeter guns. The same result could have been achieved by a single armored cruiser in five minutes, with a few well-aimed shots. I must say that, compared with the efforts made to achieve it, this result is not at all satisfactory.

After about six hours of swimming, 139 battered and waterlogged survivors reached the Sveta Neđelja reef just off the Montenegro coast and were rounded up that afternoon by local troops sent in by boat. Austrian propaganda at the time claimed that they were initially pushed back into the water with bayonet charges by the Montenegrins and drowned.

Celebrity status

The battle was celebrated in Austria during the war, with a number of heroic portrayals circulated widely in periodicals and postcards.

Arthur Thiele, Zenta

Der Heldenkampf der Zenta J Huemesser 10CB2B93

Der Heldenkampf der Zenta Ulan J Huemesser Sammlung 39240_2 1-2

Painting showing SMS Zenta and SMS Ulan in action on 16 August 1914, by Harry Heusser via Illustrirte Zeitung 1915, wiki

Wien Museum Online Sammlung 39742_3

“Im Heizraum der Zenta vor dem Untergang.” (in the boiler room of the ‘Zenta’ before the sinking). By Harry Heusser, Kriegspostkarte, 1915. Wien Museum

Zenta postcard Arthur Thiele

Zenta and Ulan by Ákos Bánfalvy

Wien Museum Online Sammlung 39755_8 1-2

There was even a popular song, “The Bold Heroes of the Zenta” (Die kuhnen helden der Zenta), by Greiffenstein and Bunnieitner, Vienna, that was circulated.

The phrase “Pflichtgetreu bis in den Tod” means “Faithful to duty until death,”

The rough translation:
The waves in the blue sea, roaring and cheering…
The wondrous brave heroes of the “Zenta”!
A small cross marks the “Zenta” now, but look in the future…
The brave heroes of the “Zenta.”
The French fleet came into sight, but no one’s face turned pale,
The brave heroes of the “Zenta.”
They landed the anchors so fresh and bold,
That it seemed and hailed hostile…
The brave heroes of the “Zenta.”
The Frenchman then stood up in horror:
“Such brave heroes we have never seen!”
Those were the men of the “Zenta.”
But one thing was certain: That is the end;
The cruiser thundered in defiance,
But never the men of the “Zenta.”
They sank down deep from the flood,
Their banner still shines in the sun’s glow;
The men of the “Zenta” cheer.
We sing and cheer in God’s name:
To the Emperor, to the Reich a thunderous
The brave heroes of the “Zenta.” Hurrah!”

Lock up

At the same time, our lost cruiser and her crew were celebrated in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; her surviving 139 marooned officers and men were cooling their heels in a Montenegrin prison camp in Podgorica.

When that Balkan country was overrun by the Central Powers in January 1916, knocking it out of the war, the Zenta men were liberated.

Officers of the small cruiser SMS Zenta with two KuK flight officers after their release from the Montenegrin prisoner of war. (HM Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum)

“Der Kommandant S. M. Schiffes Zenta nach Befreiung aus montenegrinischer Gefangenschaft” (The Commander of S. M. Ship “Zenta” after liberation from Montenegrin captivity) 1922 Pola postcard. Wien Museum

“Stab S. M. S. Zenta nach Befreiung aus montenegrinischer Gefangenschaft.” (Staff of S. M. S. Zenta after liberation from Montenegrin captivity) 1922 Pola postcard. Wien Museum

The 139 survivors returned to their old homeport of Pola aboard the 250-ton T-class torpedo boat, SMS 81T, one of Zenta’s old flotilla mates.

Austrian Torpedo Boat SMS 81T photographed returning to Pola with the freed crew of the sunken cruiser Zenta. In the background is a Battleship of the Habsburg class. NH 87683

Epilogue

Zenta’s survivors went back out to the Austrian fleet.

Pachner was never trusted by the Austrian Kriegsmarine with another seagoing command despite his “hero” status. He finished the war as a rear admiral manning a desk. After the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy, he went into merchant service and sailed on Yugoslav, Spanish, and Egyptian vessels, among others.

He moved back to his native Maribor (then in Yugoslavia) in poverty and died there in 1937, aged 66. His grave is simply marked “Fremder Seemann” (foreign sailor).

After the war, a group of her 1914 survivors returned to Montenegro in 1923 and paid for a chapel to be built on top of a cliff near the shore in the Bay of Kotor, to commemorate their escape.

Von Trapp, of course, became the most celebrated Austrian U-boat “ace” in history and is immortalized in The Sound of Music.

Zenta was discovered off the coast of Montenegro in 1996. The largest artificial reef in that country’s waters, she rests on a mud bottom at 240 feet, making her a destination for deep divers in touch with their decompression tables. 

A pair of ornately decorated Chinese-made bronze cannon, with bores of 13.7 cm and 12.5 cm, respectively, dating to the Qing Dynasty, were captured during the Boxer Rebellion by the Austrian naval detachment (including von Trapp and the men of the Zenta) during the taking of the Taku Forts.

Looted from the Pei tang fortress, they were transported back to Europe as trophies and are currently on display at the HM Hadtörteneti Intezet es Muzeum in Budapest.

They were recently refurbished and given new mounts.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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War Pigeons on the Marne

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110 years ago this week. 31 August 1915, along the Marne.

A French Brillié Schneider P3 model bus has been converted into a mobile pigeon coop (pigeonnier mobile) for the Army

Réf. : SPA 29 M 467. Albert Moreau/ECPAD/Défense

Pigeonnier militaire aménagé dans un bus Berliet à impériale

The French military’s use of pigeons for communication dates back to the War of 1870, after the Prussians besieged Paris, and citizens volunteered 300 of their birds.

The program reached its zenith during the Great War, with upwards of 30,000 pigeons used by the French alone.

Proving especially adept at avoiding “the Boche” during the country’s German occupation in WWII, the Resistance used another 16,500 SOE-supplied birds— which had been parachuted in as part of Operation Columbia! As the birds had been bred in England, once released by French underground cells, they quickly winged their way back home across the Channel to their coops, carrying brief but vital intel.

The French only officially ended their pigeon program in 1961 after the Algerian War.

However, since 2014, the 8th Signal Regiment (8e Régiment de Transmissions, 8e RT) has maintained a small in-house pigeon breeding program as a hedge on potential electromagnetic attacks that could disrupt other communication methods.

“La relève de nos pigeons voyageurs est assurée!”

Schlieffen, adjacent

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Lt. Gen. Friedrich Von Boettcher, the new German military attaché to Washington, is seen reviewing the horse soldiers of the 14th U.S. Cavalry during his visit to the World’s Fair, Chicago, in August 1933. These troops were stationed at Camp John Whistler in the Fair Grounds.

Signal Corps photo 111-SC-99762. National Archives Identifier 329583324.

A former artillery officer in the Royal Saxon Army (Königlich Sächsische Armee), during the Great War, Von Boetticher transferred to the German General Staff and ended the war as a major, with two Iron Crosses and the Hohenzollern Ritterkreuz. A buddy of Von Seeckt, he served on numerous disarmament commissions and was the German military plenipotentiary to the League of Nations during the Weimar era, then as head of the German Army’s Artillery School at Jüterbog, before being transferred to D.C. in April 1933.

He remained in Washington as something of a terribly ineffective attaché until he and the remainder of the German legation were shown the door in early 1942– leaving his adult children in America. Arriving back in Germany, he served a series of quiet roles on the OKW, earning a Kriegsverdienstkreuz and a Ritterkreuz during WWII. Captured in 1945, he cooled his heels in a POW camp in Luxembourg in Bad Mondorf in the former Palace Hotel with many other high-ranking German military officers for two years, then retired.

Meanwhile, his son Friedrich joined the U.S. Army in 1944, went to Japan with the Occupation forces, and became a U.S. citizen in 1946. His youngest daughter, Hildegard, later married the British officer Captain Horace Marsden, and the couple emigrated to Canada in 1951. Ironically, his New York-born grandson, from his physician daughter Adelheid, became a U.S. Army doctor who served as a physician in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam.

Post-war, Herr Von Boetticher rekindled relations with assorted American officers and worked on compiling historical resources. Assigned to the U.S. Army’s Military Foreign Studies Program until 1952, he undertook lecture tours to the States.

Von Boetticher was a noted author who wrote at least seven volumes of military history and theory. He was also a super fan of the late, great Prussian Field Marshal Alfred Graf von Schlieffen, besides penning three books on the man, going so far as to marry the man’s second granddaughter, Anna Josepha von Hanke, 25 years his junior, in 1953.

General der Artillerie von Boetticher died on 28 September 1967 in Bielefeld-Schildesche, aged 85.

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