Austria's Navy In World War Ii: A Historical Overview

The Austrian Navy, also known as the Imperial and Royal War Navy or the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. It came into being in 1867 and ceased to exist in 1918 following the Empire's defeat and collapse at the end of World War I.

The Austrian Navy fought naval battles against the Danes, French, Italians, and British on European seas and deployed as far as the South China Sea. However, due to its landlocked position, the Austrian Navy was often neglected and underfunded, especially when compared to other European naval forces.

During World War I, the Austrian Navy was relatively ineffective and played a minor role in the fight against the Allied Powers in the Mediterranean Theatre. Hemmed in by geography and outnumbered by more powerful navies, the Austrian Navy was unable to influence the war despite possessing great warships and well-trained crews.

Following the end of World War I, the remaining ships of the Austrian Navy were handed over to France, Great Britain, the United States, and Italy, and Austria became a landlocked country.

The Austrian Navy was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

During the Great Turkish War, Prince Eugene of Savoy employed a small flotilla of ships along the Danube River to fight against the Ottoman Empire. This practice was also used during the 16th and 17th centuries by the House of Habsburg to fight against the Ottomans. These river flotillas played a significant role in transporting troops across the Danube and denying Turkish control over the strategically important river.

In the 18th century, Austria gained access to the sea through the acquisition of the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Duchy of Milan. However, Austria's control over these territories was short-lived, as they were lost to Spain during the War of Polish Succession.

Despite having access to the sea, Austria lacked a proper seagoing navy, which became apparent during the War of Spanish Succession when the French Navy bombarded the port of Trieste. This highlighted the need for a navy to protect its coastal cities and project power into the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas.

In the 19th century, Austria once again gained access to the sea through the acquisition of the Austrian Netherlands, which had several ports with easy access to the Atlantic Ocean. However, the economy of the Austrian Netherlands was disconnected from the rest of Austria, and most Habsburg rulers paid little attention to the province.

It wasn't until the establishment of the Austrian East India Company in 1775 that a more serious attempt was made to establish a naval presence. The company's first voyage was led by William Bolts, who sailed to India and established factories on the Malabar Coast, the southeastern African coast, and the Nicobar Islands. However, these ventures ultimately failed due to pressure from other colonial powers.

The Austrian Navy was officially established in 1786 by Emperor Joseph II, who purchased two cutters armed with 20 guns each and sent them to Trieste. Joseph II also introduced the Austrian Naval Ensign, which consisted of a red-white-red standard with the crown of the Archduchy of Austria.

The Austrian Navy saw action in various conflicts, including the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the Second Egyptian-Ottoman War, and the First and Second Wars of Italian Independence. However, the Navy remained relatively small and was often neglected in favour of the Army.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Austro-Hungarian Navy underwent a period of expansion and modernisation. Under the leadership of Admiral Hermann von Spaun and Emperor Franz Joseph I, the Navy began a program of naval expansion and modernisation, aiming to create a force befitting a Great Power. This included the construction of new battleships, cruisers, destroyers, torpedo boats, and submarines.

During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Navy played a limited role due to being confined to the Adriatic Sea by the Allied Powers' Otranto Barrage. The Navy was primarily tasked with defending the Empire's coastline and island seaboard. It relied on its U-boats to attack Allied shipping rather than risk the destruction of its surface vessels.

Following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, the Empire was dismantled, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy ceased to exist. The battleships and other vessels were handed over to France, Great Britain, the United States, and Italy.

The Austrian Navy was established in 1786

Emperor Joseph II also introduced Austria's Naval Ensign, which consisted of a red-white-red standard with the crown of the Archduchy of Austria on the left. Before this, Austrian ships flew the yellow and black flag of the Habsburg Monarchy.

The establishment of the Austrian Navy was part of a broader effort by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI to increase Austria's merchant marine and establish a proper navy to protect it. This included constructing a new road through the Semmering Pass to link Vienna to Trieste, and declaring Trieste and Fiume free ports in 1719.

The onset of the French Revolution in 1789 and the subsequent French Revolutionary Wars greatly changed the political landscape of Europe and resulted in the largest expansion of the Austrian Navy up to that point. Under Emperor Joseph II's successor, Emperor Leopold II, the Austrian Navy was formally located in the port of Trieste.

In 1797, with the Treaty of Campo Formio between France and Austria, Austria became the largest naval power in the Adriatic. However, the Austrian Navy at this time consisted of only a small number of cutters, armed merchant vessels, and gunboats. It was not until the early 19th century that the Austrian Navy began to expand significantly, with the acquisition of Venetian naval forces and facilities following the Treaty of Campo Formio.

By the start of the War of the Second Coalition in 1799, the Austrian Navy had grown to around 37 vessels, mostly consisting of small coastal craft. Despite this expansion, the Austrian Navy remained relatively small and was largely unable to project power beyond the Adriatic Sea.

Throughout the 19th century, the Austrian Navy continued to develop and modernize, playing a role in various conflicts such as the Greek War of Independence, the Oriental Crisis of 1840, and the First Italian War of Independence. However, the Revolutions of 1848 marked a turning point in the history of the Austrian Navy, as it led to a shift away from the dominance of Italian language, customs, and traditions within the navy.

In the latter part of the 19th century, the Austrian Navy underwent a period of modernization and expansion under the leadership of Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, who became Commander-in-Chief of the Navy in 1854. This included the construction of new drydocks, shipyards, and arsenals in Pola, Trieste, and Venice. By the 1860s, the Austrian Navy had become a significant force in the Adriatic Sea, but it faced challenges in keeping up with technological advancements and the naval arms race between European powers.

During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Navy, as it was known after the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, saw limited action and spent much of its time in its major naval base at Pola. It played a role in the Battle of the Otranto Straits in 1917 and faced mutinies within its ranks in 1918. Following the end of the war in 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Navy ceased to exist, and Austria became a landlocked country.

The Austrian Navy fought in the Second Schleswig War

The Austrian Navy was commanded by Rear Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, who led a small flotilla from the Mediterranean Sea to the North Sea. On May 9, 1864, Tegetthoff led the Austrian naval forces in the naval action off Heligoland from his flagship, the screw-driven SMS Schwarzenberg. The Danes had established a naval blockade, and the Austrian-Prussian fleet aimed to break through. The action was a tactical victory for the Danes, but the Austrian-Prussian fleet did succeed in breaking the blockade. It was the last significant naval action involving Denmark and the last significant naval action fought by squadrons of wooden ships.

The Austrian Navy's tasks in this war were to destroy or block the Prussian Navy, safeguard Danish military and merchant transports, and support army operations by direct intervention from the sea. The Navy was split into two squadrons: one in the Eastern Baltic under Rear Admiral C. E. van Dockum and the other in the Western Baltic under Commander F. Muxoll. A North Sea squadron under Commander Eduard Suenson was established later.

The Austrian Navy saw combat early in the war. On February 18, just a week after leaving Copenhagen, the armored monitor Rolf Krake fired its two rotating turrets, each with two smoothbore 60-pounders, for the first time. The ship headed up through Flensburg Fjord and fired on a bridge the Prussians had built at the mouth of Nybl Nor. Though the ship was hit approximately 100 times, it was not penetrated, and it caused disruption to the Prussian advance.

On March 17, 1864, the Prussian Navy attempted to break the Danish blockade. The Danish force, led by Rear Admiral C. E. van Dockum, included the propeller frigate Slesvig, the ship of the line Skjold, and the corvettes Thor and Hejmdal. They were soon reinforced by the propeller frigate Tordenskjold. The Prussian squadron withdrew after a fierce exchange of fire, and the blockade held.

On May 9, 1864, the Austrian-Prussian squadron, which had united with three Prussian gunboats at Texel, headed north to meet the Danish squadron. The Austrian frigate Schwarzenberg opened fire, and a fierce combat ensued. A shell exploded inside the Schwarzenberg, forcing the Austrians to break off the engagement and seek refuge on neutral English territory off Heligoland. The Danish squadron did not cut off their retreat, as the English frigate Aurora cut in between.

The Second Schleswig War ended on October 30, 1864, with the Treaty of Vienna. Denmark ceded the Duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Saxe-Lauenburg to Prussia and Austria.

The Austrian Navy was disbanded after World War I

The Austrian Navy saw action in several wars before World War I, including the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Second Egyptian-Ottoman War. The Navy was largely neglected in its early years but expanded significantly in the 19th century, becoming one of the largest navies in the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas. By 1914, the Austrian Navy had a peacetime strength of 20,000 personnel.

During World War I, the Austrian Navy was primarily tasked with defending the Empire's coastline and island seaboard, which amounted to over 3,000 nautical miles. The Navy relied mostly on its U-boats to attack Allied shipping, rather than risk the destruction of its battleships and other surface vessels.

After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was defeated and dismantled, and Austria became a landlocked country. The Empire's important ports, such as Trieste, Pola, Fiume, and Ragusa, became part of Italy and Yugoslavia. The Austrian Navy's main ships were turned over to the Allies and scrapped in the 1920s during the era of naval disarmament.

Thus, the Austrian Navy, which had a long and complex history dating back centuries, was disbanded after World War I due to geographical and political changes that left Austria without direct access to the sea.

The Austrian Navy was commanded by Admiral Horthy

The Austrian Navy was commanded by Admiral Miklós Horthy, a Hungarian statesman who was also the regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar period and most of World War II, from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy began his career as a sub-lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1896 and attained the rank of rear admiral by 1918. He participated in the Battle of the Strait of Otranto and ascended to the position of commander-in-chief of the Navy in the final year of World War I.

Horthy was born on 18 June 1868 in Kenderes to an untitled lower nobility family. He entered the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Naval Academy at Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) at age 14. As the official language of the naval academy was German, Horthy spoke Hungarian with a slight Austro-German accent for the rest of his life. He also spoke Italian, Croatian, English, and French.

Horthy's career in the Navy was swift. He started by skippering a torpedo boat and then commanded a destroyer flotilla before being given charge of the battleship Habsburg, the flagship of the fleet's Mediterranean Squadron, before World War I. When the war broke, Horthy was promoted to captain of a ship of the line. He distinguished himself as a naval commander in World War I by several times breaking the Allied Adriatic blockade.

In 1915, he earned a reputation for boldness while commanding the new light cruiser SMS Novara. He planned the 1917 attack on the Otranto Barrage, which resulted in the Battle of the Strait of Otranto, the largest naval engagement of the war in the Adriatic Sea. A consolidated British, French, and Italian fleet met the Austro-Hungarian force. Despite the numerical superiority of the Allied fleet, the Austrian force emerged victorious from the battle. The Austrian fleet remained relatively unscathed; however, Horthy was wounded.

After the Cattaro mutiny of February 1918, Emperor Charles I of Austria selected Horthy over many more senior commanders as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Fleet in March 1918. In June, Horthy planned another attack on Otranto, and in a departure from the cautious strategy of his predecessors, he committed the empire's battleships to the mission. While sailing through the night, the dreadnought SMS Szent István met Italian MAS torpedo boats and was sunk, causing Horthy to abort the mission. He managed to preserve the rest of the empire's fleet until he was ordered by Emperor Charles to surrender it to the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (the predecessor of Yugoslavia) on 31 October.

Horthy's naval career came to an end with the end of World War I. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the Treaty of Trianon, signed after the war, made Austria and Hungary landlocked, and the empire's most important ports of Trieste, Pola, Fiume and Ragusa became part of Italy and Yugoslavia.

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