Pre-war One of
Radetzkys first duties was to attend the British
Coronation Review for
King George V in
Spithead in June 1911. Following her return to the Austro-Hungarian fleet, she conducted several training cruises in the eastern Mediterranean with her two sisters in 1912. Later that year,
Radetzky and her sisters, under the command of Vice Admiral
Maximilian Njegovan, took part in an international fleet demonstration in the
Ionian Sea to protest the
Balkan Wars. Among the ships from other navies were the British pre-dreadnought , the Italian pre-dreadnought , the French armored cruiser , and the German light cruiser . The combined flotilla, under the command of British Admiral
Cecil Burney, proceeded to
blockade the Montenegrin coast to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at
Scutari. During the operation, the first
seaplanes to be used in combat were operated from
Radetzky and her two sisters. This proved unsatisfactory, however, because the ships lacked cranes with which to lift the planes onto the deck, as well as the fact that the deck was too small to accommodate the aircraft. As a result of the pressure from the international blockade, Serbia withdrew its army from Scutari, which was then occupied by a joint Allied ground force. By 1913, the new dreadnoughts of the were coming into active service, and so
Radetzky and her sisters were shifted from the 1st Division to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.
World War I At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the German
battlecruiser and light cruiser
Breslau were coaling in
Messina; British warships had begun to assemble outside the port in an attempt to trap the German ships. The German navy called upon its Austro-Hungarian allies to come to their aid; the Austro-Hungarian high command was initially hesitant, as they wished to avoid initiating hostilities with the British. However, when the Germans made clear they wanted the Austro-Hungarian fleet to steam only as far as
Brindisi, the high command relented and sent the portion of the fleet that had by that time been mobilized, which included
Radetzky, on the operation. The fleet sailed to the designated latitude, under strict orders to only actively assist the German ships while they were in Austro-Hungarian waters. After the German ships successfully broke out into the Mediterranean, the Austro-Hungarian fleet returned to port. In October 1914, the French army established artillery batteries on
Mount Lovčen to support the Army of
Montenegro against the Austrian army at
Cattaro. By the time they were operational, on 15 October, the Austro-Hungarians were ready with the pre-dreadnoughts of the . However, their 24 cm guns were insufficient to dislodge the French artillery batteries, and so
Radetzky was sent to assist them. On 21 October, the ship arrived, and the gunfire from her 30.5 cm guns forced the French to abandon the position. On 23 May 1915, between two and four hours after the Italian declaration of war reached the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola,
Radetzky and the rest of the fleet departed to bombard the Italian and Montenegrin coast. Their focus was on the important naval base at
Ancona, and later the coast of Montenegro. The bombardment of Montenegro was part of the larger Austro-Hungarian
campaign against the Kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia, who were
members of the Entente, during the first half of 1915. During the
attack on Ancona and the surrounding coastline,
Radetzky, as well as the cruisers and , and the destroyers , , and traveled south to cover the ships attacking Ancona. Upon finding no enemy ships in the region, the group bombarded the Termiti Islands, Viests, Manfredonia, and Barletta. After leaving the Gulf of Manfredonia
Radetzky and the rest of the ships accompanying her sighted the first enemy ships of the day, two Italian destroyers. During the encounter, one Italian destroyer managed to escape the Austrian ships but the other, , was severely damaged. Only when a larger Italian force appeared did
Radetzky and her accompanying ships abandon their attempts to capture the damaged destroyer. Aside from the encounter with
Turbine,
Radetzky managed to destroy a railroad bridge near the town of
Fermo, severely hampering the movement of troops and supplies in the region. Sixty-three Italian civilians and military personnel were killed in the bombardment. By the time Italian ships from Taranto and Brindisi arrived on the scene, the Austro-Hungarians were safely back in Pola. The attack on Ancona was an immense success, and the Austro-Hungarian ships were largely unopposed during the entire operation. The objective of the bombardment was to delay the Italian Army from deploying its forces along the border with Austria-Hungary by destroying critical transportation systems. The surprise attack on Ancona succeeded in delaying the Italian deployment to the
Alps for two weeks. This delay gave Austria-Hungary valuable time to strengthen its Italian border and re-deploy some of its troops from the Eastern and Balkan fronts. Aside from the attack on Ancona, most of the Austro-Hungarian battleships were largely confined to Pola for the duration of the war. Their operations were limited by Admiral
Anton Haus, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, who believed that he would need to husband his ships to counter any Italian attempt to seize the
Dalmatian coast. Since coal was diverted to the newer
Tegetthoff-class battleships, the remainder of the war saw
Radetzky and the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Navy acting as a
fleet in being. This resulted in the
Allied blockade of the
Otranto Strait. With his fleet blockaded in the Adriatic Sea, and facing a shortage of coal, Haus attempted to use mines and submarines, rather than battleships, to reduce the numerical superiority of the Allied navies.
End of the war By October 1918, Austria prepared to transfer her entire fleet to the newly created
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (later to become the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in order to keep it out of Italian hands. On 10 November 1918, one day before the Allied
Armistice with Germany, and six days after the Austrians and Italians agreed to the
Armistice of Villa Giusti, Yugoslav officers with scratch crews sailed
Radetzky and
Zrínyi out of Pola. Once outside Pola, the ships spotted heavy units of the Italian fleet; the two battleships hoisted American flags and sailed south to escape. A squadron of US Navy submarine chasers operating off the city of
Spalato during the allied
occupation of the eastern Adriatic accepted the surrender of
Radetzky and
Zrínyi. However, under the
subsequent peace treaty, the Allied powers ignored the transfer of the Austro-Hungarian ships to the Yugoslav navy which had already taken place; instead, the ships were ceded to Italy.
Radetzky was broken up in Italy between 1920 and 1921. == Notes ==