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SMSViribus Unitis

Coordinates:44°52′9″N13°49′9″E/ 44.86917°N 13.81917°E/44.86917; 13.81917
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SMSViribus Unitis
SMSViribus Unitisin 1912
History
Austria-Hungary
NameViribus Unitis
Ordered1908
BuilderStabilimento Tecnico Triestino,Trieste
Laid down24 July 1910
Launched24 June 1911
Sponsored byArchduchess Maria Annunciata of Austria
Commissioned5 December 1912
FateHanded over to theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbson 31 October 1918.
State of Slovenes, Croats and SerbsState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
NameJugoslavija
Acquired31 October 1918
FateSunk, 1 November 1918
General characteristics
Class and typeTegetthoff-classbattleship
Displacement20,000 t (19,684long tons) (standard)
Length152 m (498 ft 8 in)
Beam27.9 m (91 ft 6 in)
Draught8.7 m (28 ft 7 in)
Installed power
Propulsion4 shafts; 4steam turbines
Speed20.4knots(37.8 km/h; 23.5 mph)
Range4,200nmi(7,800 km; 4,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement1,042 men (1,087 max)
Armament
Armour

SMSViribus Unitis [a]was anAustro-Hungariandreadnoughtbattleship,the first of theTegetthoffclass."Viribus Unitis",meaning" With United Forces ", was thepersonal motto of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Viribus Unitiswas ordered by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1908 and was laid down inStabilimento Tecnico TriestinoshipyardinTriesteon 24 July 1910.Viribus Unitiswas launched from the shipyard on 24 June 1911 and was formally commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 December 1912. She spent her early career performing training missions and making trips to foreign ports. In June 1914, she carriedArchduke Franz Ferdinandon a trip to Bosnia with his wifeSophie.During his visit toSarajevo,he was assassinated byGavrilo Principin the event that caused the beginning ofWorld War I.

During World War I,Viribus Unitistook part in the flight of the GermanbattlecruiserSMSGoebenandlight cruiserBreslau.In May 1915, she also took part in thebombardment of the Italian port city of Ancona.Viribus Unitiswas sunk while at anchor bylimpet minesemplaced by Italian sailors on 1 November 1918.[1]

Construction and design

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Main article:Tegetthoff-class battleship
Launch ofViribus Unitisin Trieste, 24 July 1910

Construction

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Viribus Unitiswas ordered in 1908 as the first of a class of four, the firstdreadnoughtsto be built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Initially intended to be namedTegetthoff,she was renamed on the personal order ofEmperor Franz Josef;following this, the second ship of the class was namedTegetthoff.The ship waslaid downin the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste on 24 July 1910. Following eleven months of construction,Viribus Unitiswaslaunchedon 24 June 1911. Following herfitting out,she wascommissionedinto the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 December 1912.[2]

Characteristics

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Schematics for this type of battleship; the ships mount four gun turrets, two forward and two aft
A line drawing ofViribus Unitis,lead ship of theTegetthoffclass
Model ofViribus Unitisin the Museum of Military History, Vienna

Viribus Unitishad anoverall lengthof 152 metres (498 ft 8 in), abeamof 27.9 metres (91 ft 6 in), and adraughtof 8.7 metres (28 ft 7 in) at deep load. She displaced 20,000 tonnes (19,684 long tons) at load and 21,689 tonnes (21,346 long tons) at deep load.[3]

Viribus Unitishad four Parsonssteam turbines,each of which was housed in a separate engine-room. The turbines were powered by twelveBabcock & Wilcoxboilers. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 27,000shaft horsepower(20,134 kW), which was theoretically enough to attain her designed speed of 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h), but no figures from her speed trials are known to exist.[4]She carried 1,844.5 tonnes (1,815.4 long tons) of coal, and an additional 267.2 tonnes (263.0 long tons) offuel oilthat was to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate.[3]At full capacity, she could steam for 4,200 nautical miles (7,800 km) at a speed of 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h).[5]

Viribus Unitismounted twelve30.5-centimetre (12 in) Škoda 30.5 cm K10 gunsin four tripleturrets.Her secondary armament consisted of a dozen15-centimetre (5.9 in) Škoda 15 cm K10 gunsmounted incasematesamidships.Twelve7-centimetre (2.8 in) Škoda K10 gunswere mounted on openpivot mountson the upper deck, above the casemates. Three more 7 cm K10 guns were mounted on the upper turrets foranti-aircraftduties. Four 21-inch (530 mm) submergedtorpedo tubeswere fitted, one each in the bow, stern and on eachbroadside;twelve torpedoes were carried.[3]

Service history

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand's visit to Sarajevo

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austriatravelled aboardViribus Unitisin late June 1914 en route toBosniato observe military manoeuvres. On 25 June, he boarded the ship in Trieste Harbour and travelled to the mouth of theNeretvaRiver, where he transferred to another vessel. On 30 June, two days after Ferdinand and his wife wereassassinatedbyGavrilo Principin the Bosnian city ofSarajevo,Viribus Unitistransported their bodies back to Trieste.[6]

World War I

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Prior to the war,Viribus Unitiswas assigned to the 1st Battleship Division of Austro-Hungarian Navy. During World War I, the battleship saw limited service due to theOtranto Barragewhich prohibited Austro-Hungarian battleships from leaving the Adriatic sea. As a result, she hardly ever left Pola.[5]

Viribus Unitis,along with hersister shipsTegetthoff,Prinz Eugenand the remainder of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was mobilized on the eve of World War I to support the flight ofSMSGoebenandBreslau.The two German ships were stationed in the Mediterranean and were attempting to break out of thestrait of Messina,which was surrounded by enemy troops and vessels and make their way to Turkey. After the Germans successfully broke out of Messina, the navy was recalled. The fleet had by that time advanced as far south asBrindisiin south eastern Italy.Viribus Unitisalso participated in thebombardment of the Italian city of Anconain May 1915. Following these operationsViribus Unitisremained in Pola for most of the remainder of the war.[7]

A large battleship sits motionless in the water with smoke coming out of its funnels and three small boats moving beside her in the foreground.
Viribus Unitisin 1914

Her tenure in Pola was livened up by a visit from the new EmperorCharles Ion 15 December 1916 and another byKaiser Wilhelm IIon 12 December 1917 during his inspection of the German submarine base there. The Italians conducted eighty air raids on Pola between 1915 and 1917.[8]

The Otranto Raid

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By 1918, the new commander of the Austrian fleet,KonteradmiralMiklós Horthy,decided to conduct another attack on theOtranto Barrageto allow more German and Austro-Hungarian U-boats to safely get through the heavily defended strait. During the night of 8 June, Horthy left the naval base of Pola withViribus UnitisandPrinz Eugen.[9]The other two dreadnoughts,Szent IstvánandTegetthoff,along with onedestroyerand sixtorpedo boatsdeparted Pola on 9 June. At about 3:15 on the morning of 10 June, twoItalianMAS boats,MAS 15andMAS 21,spotted the Austrian fleet. The MAS platoon was commanded byCapitano di fregataLuigi Rizzowhile the individual boats were commanded byCapo timoniereArmando Gori andGuardiamarina di complementoGiuseppe Aonzorespectively. Both boats successfully penetrated the escort screen and split to engage each of the dreadnoughts.MAS 21attackedTegetthoff,but her torpedoes failed.MAS 15managed to hitSzent Istvánwith her torpedoes at about 3:25 am. Both boats were then chased away from the scene by the Austrian escort vessels.[10]

Despite attempts to take the crippledSzent Istváninto tow byTegetthoff,the ship continued to sink and the attempt was abandoned. A few minutes after 6:00 amSzent Istvánsank. Admiral Horthy, commander of the proposed attack, soon canceled the attack because he thought that the Italians had discovered his plan and ordered the ships to return to Pola. On the contrary, the Italians did not even discover that the Austrian dreadnoughts had departed Pola until later on 10 June when aerial reconnaissance photos revealed that they were no longer there.[11]This was the last military operation that theViribus Unitiswas to take part in and she spent the rest of her career at port in Pola.[12][13]

Italian attack and sinking

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Main article:Raid on Pula

By October 1918 it had become clear that Austria-Hungary was facing defeat in the war. The Austrian government decided to giveViribus Unitis,along with much of the fleet, to the newly formedState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.This was considered preferential to handing the fleet to theAllies,as the new state had declared its neutrality. The transfer to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs took place in the evening of 31 October, andViribus Unitiswas renamedJugoslavija.[14]

Jugoslavija(the formerViribus Unitis) sinking in Pola harbour after being mined

On 1 November 1918, two men of theItalian Navy,Raffaele PaolucciandRaffaele Rossetti,rode a primitivemanned torpedo(nicknamedMignattaor "leech" ) into the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola. They had sailed from an Italian port some time before, and were unaware of the transfer of the Austro-Hungarian fleet the previous day.[15][16]

Travelling down the rows of Austrian battleships, the two men encounteredJugoslavijaat around 4:40 am. Rossetti placed onecanister of TNTon the hull of the battleship, timed to explode at 6:30 am. He then flooded the second canister, sinking it on the harbour floor close to the ship. The men had nobreathing sets,and therefore had to keep their heads above water. They were discovered and taken prisoner just after placing the explosives under the battleship's hull. Taken aboardJugoslavija,they informed the new captain of the battleship of what they had done but did not reveal the exact position of the explosives.[17]AdmiralJanko Vukovićarranged for the two prisoners to be taken toTegetthoff,and orderedJugoslavijato be evacuated. The explosion did not happen at 6:30 as predicted and Vuković returned to the ship with many sailors, mistakenly believing that the Italians had lied. The mines exploded at 6:44, sinkingJugoslavijain 15 minutes.[17]Vuković and 300–400 of her crew were killed in the sinking. The explosion of the second canister also sank the Austrian freighterWien.[17]

Paolucci and Rossetti were interned until the end of the war a few days later, and were honoured by theKingdom of Italywith theGold Medal of Military Valor.[18][19]

Commemorations

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Bow ofViribus Unitison display at theVenetian Arsenal

SMSViribus Unitiswas selected as the main motif of a high value collectors' coin: the AustrianSMSViribus Unitiscommemorative coin,minted on 13 September 2006. The obverse side shows the flagshipViribus Unitisas seen from the deck of an accompanying ship in the fleet. Two other ships of an older class can be seen in the background. The reverse of the coin is a tribute to the old Austro-Hungarian Imperial Navy, showing SMSViribus Unitisfrom a front angle. A naval biplane circles overhead and a submarine surfaces in the foreground. The coin commemorates not only the shipViribus Unitis,but also the three main arms of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the First World War. The coin was the last of the series "Austria on the High Seas".[20]

There is a cutaway model ofViribus Unitisin theMuseum of Military Historyin Vienna. The model is at a scale of 1:25 and has a total length of 6 metres. It was built between 1913 and 1917 by eight craftsmen of the shipyard Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino.[citation needed]

Her bow is on display at theVenetian Arsenal.

References

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Explanatory notes

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  1. ^"SMS" stands for "Seiner Majestät Schiff  ", or" His Majesty's Ship "in German.

Citations

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  1. ^"Trenches on the Web – Special Feature: Assault on the Viribus Unitis".Worldwar1.RetrievedDecember 6,2019.
  2. ^ Myszor, Oskar."Battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy".Austria-Hungary: Major Warships.Historical Handbook of World Navies. Archived fromthe originalon 5 August 2009.Retrieved1 May2010.
  3. ^abcSieche 1991,p. 133.
  4. ^Sieche 1991,pp. 133, 140.
  5. ^abSieche 1985,p. 334.
  6. ^Morton,p. 238.
  7. ^Halpern,p. 54.
  8. ^Sieche 1991,pp. 120, 122–123.
  9. ^Sokol,p. 134.
  10. ^Sieche 1991,pp. 127, 131.
  11. ^Sieche 1991,p. 135.
  12. ^Sokol,p. 135.
  13. ^Sieche 1991,p. 131.
  14. ^Sokol,p. 139.
  15. ^"Trenches on the Web - Special: Assault on the Viribus Unitis".Retrieved29 May2016.
  16. ^Franco Favre,La Marina nella Grande Guerra. Le operazioni navali, aeree, subacquee e terrestri in Adriatico,page 262-264.
  17. ^abc Warhola, Brian (January 1998)."Assault on the Viribus Unitis".Old News.Retrieved23 April2010.
  18. ^ "Gold Medal for Rossetti".Magggiore G.N.(in Italian). marina.difesa.it. Archived fromthe originalon 24 June 2007.Retrieved29 June2010.
  19. ^ "Gold Medal for Paolucci".Tenente medico(in Italian). marina.difesa.it. Archived fromthe originalon 24 June 2007.Retrieved29 June2010.
  20. ^ "S.M.S.Viribus Unitiscoin ".Commemorative coin.Austrian Mint. Archived fromthe originalon 31 May 2011.Retrieved23 April2010.

Bibliography

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  • Halpern, Paul G. (1995).A Naval History of World War I.Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.ISBN978-1-55750-352-7.OCLC57447525.
  • Morton, Frederic (2001).Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913–1914.Da Capo Press.ISBN978-0-306-81021-3.
  • Sieche, Erwin F. (1985). "Austria-Hungary". In Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal (eds.).Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921.Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.ISBN978-0-85177-245-5.
  • Sieche, Erwin F. (1991). "S.M.S. Szent István: Hungaria's Only and Ill-Fated Dreadnought".Warship International.XXVII(2). Toledo, OH: International Warship Research Organization: 112–146.ISSN0043-0374.
  • Sokol, Anthony (1968).The Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy.Annapolis: United States Naval Institute.OCLC462208412.
  • Sondhaus, Lawrence (2018). "The BattleshipViribus Unitis(1911) ". In Taylor, Bruce (ed.).The World of the Battleship: The Lives and Careers of Twenty-One Capital Ships of the World's Navies, 1880–1990.Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing.ISBN978-0870219061.
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