SMS Radetzky (1909)
SMS Radetzky was the first of the three pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy (K.u.K. Kriegsmarine). She was named for the 19th-century Austrian field marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. Radetzky and her sisters, and , were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy—they were followed by the larger and significantly more powerful dreadnoughts. Radetzky was built by the shipbuilding company Stabilimento Tecnico in Trieste and commissioned into the fleet on 15 January 1911. The ship conducted training cruises in the Mediterranean before the outbreak of World War I in mid-1914. During the war, Radetzky operated largely as part of a fleet in being alongside the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Navy; in doing so, the ships tied down considerable naval forces from the Triple Entente. Radetzky did participate in some offensive operations, primarily shore bombardments in the Adriatic Sea against French, Montenegrin, and Italian targets. Towards the end of 1918, with the war going against the Austrians, Radetzky was prepared to be transferred to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. On 10 November 1918 — six days after the Austrian armistice — Yugoslav navy officers sailed the battleship out of Pola and surrendered it to a squadron of American submarine chasers. Under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the transfer was not recognized; instead, Radetzky was given to Italy and broken up for scrap. Construction Radetzky was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino dockyard in Trieste, the same place where her sister ships were built. She was the second ship of her class to be constructed and her kneel was laid down on 26 November 1907. The teak used on Radetzkys deck was the only material Austria-Hungary had to purchase abroad to build the ship. Radetzky was launched from the slipway on 3 July 1909, and commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian navy on 15 January 1911 and had a crew of 880 to 890 officers and men. Radetzky was 138.8 m (455 ft 4 in) long, and had a beam of 24.6 m (80 ft 8 in) and a draft of 8.1 m (26 ft 9 in). She displaced normally, and up to with a full combat load. The ship was powered by two-shaft four-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower and a top speed of . She had a maximum range of at a cruising speed of . The ship's primary armament consisted of four 30.5 cm (12 in) 45-caliber guns in two twin gun turrets. This was augmented by a heavy secondary battery of eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four wing turrets. The tertiary battery consisted of twenty 10 cm L/50 guns in casemated single mounts, two L/18 landing guns, four L/44 and one 47 mm L/33 quick-firing guns. After 1916-17 refits four Škoda 7 cm K16 anti-aircraft guns were installed. Three 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes were also carried, two on the beams and one in the stern. Service history Pre-war One of Radetzkys first duties was to attend