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Hello, and welcome to my suggestion for the battleship SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand!
TL;DR: The last Austro-Hungarian pre-dreadnought battleships and one of the most powerful of its type, the Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, due to the death of her Namesake, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, served in many influential coastal bombardment roles throughout her service life until her untimely scrapping in 1926.
Brief History
Started under the request of Admiral Hermann von Spaun, the Radetzky-class had a convoluted design period. Preliminaries for the warship included designs that would become famous as the “all big-gun” design of HMS Dreadnought, but due to weight and cost restrictions within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, these preliminaries were never pursued in any real manner. Launched and commissioned in 1910, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand bore the name of the Archduke who helped fund her, and after a short stint in the blockade of the Montenegrin coast (wherein she became the first warship to launch an aircraft in combat), the death of her namesake plunged the Austro-Hungarian Navy into a “fleet in being” existence. Seeing good use at the Bombardment of Ancona, raising steam to help the flight of the SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau, and participating in the international blockade of Montenegro in 1912, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand nevertheless had a respectable career, up until her scrapping at the hands of the Italians in 1926.
For a more in-depth look:
In-Depth Background
Unlike most warships of the WWI-era Austro-Hungarian Navy, the Radetzky class can trace its origins most directly to right before the ascension of Rudolf Montecuccoli to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine (Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine, or the Imperial and Royal War Navy). His predecessor Admiral Hermann von Spaun, the then-Commander of the Navy, had not been handed an easy job. Lacking the folk-hero status that made Admiral Tegetthoff effective at rearming the navy, Spaun was handed a diminished coastal fleet, consisting of 2 antiquated ironclad battleships and 3 coastal battleships still under construction. Coupled with a rather frugal parliamentary system, one would have expected him to continue the lackluster trend of his predecessors. Shockingly, he did not follow this trend, and during the years of his tenure he ordered 2 more battleship types, the first seagoing battleships in Austria-Hungary’s history, as well as a small accompanying fleet of armored cruisers, protected cruisers, and torpedo cruisers.
In March 1904, under the oversight of Spaun, a conglomerate of design staff met to discuss a new battleship design. The seagoing battleship SMS Erzherzog Karl had launched just under a year earlier and, as with other battleship classes of the Empire, a design for the next generation was to be drawn up as soon as possible. Knowing that the warship could only be started after the preceding class had been finished, the team went off of a liberal estimation for Austro-Hungarian shipbuilding capacity in late 1907. The main naval architect of the Empire, Siegfried Popper, was instructed to begin basic preliminary studies on such a warship - which was completed when the design staff reconvened 2 months later, in May 1904. This meeting, taking place on the 18th of May, probably set as many design choices in stone as it could, hoping to be left with designs that would fit within the still-expanding Austro-Hungarian naval industry. Choices of main armament were either 28cm (11-inch) or 30,5cm (12-inch), nixing the 24cm (9.4-inch) caliber used on the preceding 3 battleship classes. Throughout the meeting, several armament specifics were proposed for the heavy battery:
- 2 single-gun 30,5cm turrets
- 2 twin-gun 28cm turrets
- 1 single-gun and 1 twin-gun 30,5cm turrets
- 1 twin-gun 30,5cm turret and 1 twin-gun 24cm turret
Secondary weapons, too, had to be increased in size and/or number, with the minimum required size being 19cm (7.5-inch). Armor increase was not specified, but had to be an increase from the 210mm (8.3-inch) belt of the proceeding class. The expected weight gain of these additions, at least on the basis of the Erzherzog Karl class, was an increase of 2,000 tons - a total estimation of about 12,600t.
Within a few months, the Popper-led MTK (Marinetechnische Komitee, or Naval Technical Committee) had produced 6 preliminary designs for the new battleship. All of the designs had 19cm secondary guns (in casemates), none had 24cm weapons, and all but 1 were armed with a 30,5cm main battery. All the designs produced by Popper and his team remained under 13,000 tons, either exchanging main battery or secondary weapons to do so. Armor too was uniform, with the continual standard being a 230mm belt and a 280mm turret faceplate. After a meeting in September 1904 to discuss the preliminaries, another meeting was planned for February 10, 1905. This meeting incorporated several senior ship designers, engineers, and captains, but lacked Popper, and so primarily dealt with the specifics of the main armament. Choosing the Krupp sliding breechblock over the Welin interrupted screw system, the final armament was voted for and - with 2 votes for the 28cm only and 3 votes for the 28cm if the 30,5cm found trouble - the majority voted for the 30,5cm with the Krupp system.
By June of 1905, two major troubling factors had reached the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For one, news of the Japanese victory at Tsushima had shaken almost every major naval power, as although the Russian navy was viewed as overall underwhelming, the upset of a major European power losing in such a significant fashion to a non-European navy cast worries over many previous designs, as well as extenuating the importance of many large guns. In addition, reports came to the K.u.K. of a ship being laid down in Great Britain - an 18,000 ton warship with ten 12-inch cannon, what would eventually become HMS Dreadnought. Both of these factors led to another meeting being called in late September 1905. With the designed tonnage increasing to 13,500 tons, armament was once again brought up, with Rear Admiral von Ripper insisting the ships be armed with the best of what Škoda could build. Throughout the meeting, 5 major designs were made for armament, labeled A-E:
Design A: Four (2x2) 28cm main battery, four (4x1) 24cm and eight (8x1) 19cm secondary battery
Design B: Eight (2x2, 4x1) 28cm main battery, twelve (12x1) 10cm secondary battery
Design C: Eight (4x2) 28cm main battery, sixteen (16x1) 10cm secondary battery
Design D: Six (2x2, 2x1) 30,5cm main battery, sixteen (16x1) 10cm secondary battery
Design E: Four (2x2) 30,5cm main battery, eight (4x2) 19cm secondary battery
After the basic statistics were provided, a final list of requirements was decided upon to narrow the list down. What was discussed/agreed upon was:
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Minimum main gun size of 30,5cm L/45, with high initial velocity, as heavy a shell as possible, electric power and at least one shell a minute was finalized.
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An intermediate caliber was less agreed upon, with the Commander of the Artillery School, Linienschiffskapitän Baselli, and Popper himself believing it should be avoided at all costs.
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The group unanimously agreed that the anti-torpedo boat battery should be 10.5cm (4.1-inch) L/45, but would be substituted for 10cm or 9.5cm (3.7-inch) if such a gun was unavailable. The battery would require semi-autoloading capabilities and a fire rate of 15 rounds per minute.
The designs were each preferred by several designers, with Popper specifically preferring the designs B, C, and D. Unfortunately, these were just at the very extreme of what Austro-Hungarian dockyards were able to accommodate, and most likely a new floating drydock would need to be made for such a warship. The excessive costs accompanying this finally convinced Popper to switch to an alternative design, and so Design E was chosen. Final modifications to the design included the swapping of the 19cm secondaries to an equal number of 24cm secondary cannons. The meeting ended after the final anti-torpedo boat armament was selected as a 10cm (3.9-inch) tertiary battery.
After the final design had been chosen, Popper began working on the finalized design. Initially wanting full scale test of an underwater weapon, but finding it too expensive (approximately 72,000 Kronen), Popper resorted to using tests from the ironclad SMS Kaiser Max and an explosive charge of 10kg, in an attempt to visualize a 100kg warhead on a 1:10th scale. Popper eventually came up with a formula that he believed would provide underwater protection for the warships from these. Being one of the first attempts at underwater protection from mines and torpedoes, the formula was far from perfect, but was still at least some protection to the warships it was applied to, and also provided the warships with a double-bottom hull.
With the near completion of the Erzherzog Karl class in 1905, the now Admiral Montecuccoli fully announced his new plan for naval construction. The battleships specified in it, 12 in total, numbered only 3 more than the current fleet had in commission and in construction. These 3 were planned to be ordered as the new battleships designed by Popper, known as I, II, and III. With slipways in Stabilimento Tecnico Trieste (STT) cleared after the final launching of all the Erzherzog Karls, Montecuccoli lobbied for the new warships to fill their slipways. In November 1906, Admiral Montecuccoli was finally able to unveil the near-exact tonnage and cost of the warships to the Reichsrat (Austrian Parliament) and the Diet of Hungary - 14,500 tons. Funding for the warships was soon provided, and all 3 were ordered. The standard for Austrian and German warships at this time was to name them after the vessels they were replacing - as such, the 3 battleships laid down were referred to as Ersatz Tegetthoff, Ersatz Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, and Ersatz Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, if not just as Battleships I, II, and III
The official naming of Austro-Hungarian vessels is almost always an interesting venture. Usually, Emperor Franz Joseph I would be provided with several lists of names to choose from. They would be narrowed down and by the end, 2 of the vessels would be provided with a name of Austrian origin while the third would be of Hungarian origin. The Radetzkys were a perfect example of this. The first names considered by the Emperor in 1908 had been:
- SMS Radetzky
- SMS Prinz Eugen
- SMS Hunyadi
This list was sent alongside a handwritten note suggesting that the name Hunyadi be replaced with Zrinyi. Upon suggestion from Montecuccoli, a 2nd list was once again composed, and the final names chosen were:
- SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
- SMS Radetzky
- SMS Zrinyí
Montecuccoli himself had specifically replaced the name Prinz Eugen with Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand - drawing the somewhat popular figure even closer to the navy in the eyes of the public. Franz Ferdinand was very delighted about the warship being named after him, and sent a telegram to Admiral Montecuccoli where he stated that “it gives me great joy and fills me with pride that his Majesty the Emperor had the grace to order a battleship of our beautiful Kriegsmarine that bears my name.” While Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was the name specifically suggested for Battleship I, it and Radetzky were switched, in order to not cause confusion with the preceding Erzherzog Karl class.
Even if there was no immediate conflict on the horizon for the Empire, tensions in the Balkans were an ever-present situation that had several times before demanded warships be built with great haste. SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand would be the first to see completion. Laid down on the 12th of September 1907, she was launched just over a year later, on the 30th of September 1908. Radetzky, laid down on the 26th of November 1907, would be launched a year and a half later, on the 3rd of July 1909. The last of the Radetzky-class to be finished, Zrinyi would be laid down on the 20th of January 1909, and would be launched on the 12th of April 1910. Commissioning for each of the boats would take about 2 years, with Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand being commissioned on the 5th of June 1910, Radetzky being commissioned on the 15th of January 1911, and Zrinyi being commissioned on the 15th of September 1911.
In-Depth Service History
Upon her commissioning in 1910, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was the most powerful warship in the Mediterranean. Able to make over her maximum design speed of 20.5 knots, she was made the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron. Despite the advent of HMS Dreadnought making her obsolete by 1910, she still served in a heavy fashion. Along with the other 2 ships of her class, the Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand participated in many training cruises throughout the Mediterranean up until 1912, where tensions in the area lead to the Balkan wars.
The first combat experience of any warship is almost always an interesting event - this was no different for the ships of the Radetzky class. During an international blockade around Montenegro due to the Siege of Scutari, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and her sisters became test beds for a brand new technology. Lowering them into the water via the boat cranes, the warships of the Radetzky class each launched a flying boat, the first of such to see any combat. Remaining around the coast for a significant period of time, the Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and the rest of the blockade successfully pressured the Serbians into calling off the siege.
Aside from the Balkan wars, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, one of the prime capital ships in the fleet, was offered and initially accepted the role of Austrian representative at the coronation of King George V. Historically, whenever a new British monarch had been crowned, a “coronation fleet” would be assembled at Spithead, consisting of multiple British warships plus representative warships from major navies. Planned to be attended by Archduke Franz Ferdinand himself aboard the namesake warship, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was replaced by Radetzky at the coronation - the Archduke had actually skipped out on the coronation to attend the launching of the dreadnought battleship SMS Viribus Unitis.
After these two events in 1911-1912, and a small event in 1911 where the Radetzky class was displayed on Kaiser Franz Joseph’s birthday, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand experienced very little during her lifetime up until the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand himself. Upon the outbreak of World War One, the battleship still had very little to do, however. She did mobilize with the rest of the Austro-Hungarian fleet when the warships were assigned the task of protecting the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and cruiser SMS Breslau. Despite the heavy allied fleet present, the Austro-Hungarian warships never actually encountered any combat during this sortie. The British had not officially declared war on each other, and until then, the fleets had attempted to stay away from fighting each other - despite having contrasting missions regarding the German warships. 2 days after the German ships reached the Ottoman Empire, the British declared war on Austria-Hungary. Despite this, however, she did not sortie after the battle of Antivari - a battle engineered by the combined French and British fleet to draw out and destroy the Austro-Hungarian fleet - a fact that probably saved her and the rest of the Austro-Hungarian battle fleet from demise.
On the 24th of May, 1915, Italy declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With advanced warning of the occasion, the recently promoted Admiral Haus led the entire fleet of warships out of Pola to bombard the Italian port city of Ancona. Unlike her sisters, who went off in separate directions to bombard separate targets, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand actually went into battle-line alongside the dreadnoughts SMS Viribus Unitis, Tegetthoff, and Prinz Eugen. Using her 12-inch cannon and heavy caliber secondaries, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand released 30 minutes worth of devastating fire upon vital communication lines, train tracks, water towers, and other generic military installations. When several large caliber coastal guns were identified by Haus, the battleships departed and commenced firing again, with no significant damage received by them. After the successful mission, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand gallantly returned to port at Pola and was received with immense cheering, with her only issues throughout the entire action being when she and a small destroyer accidentally collided.
Compared to the Tegetthoff-class, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was still obsolete and antiquated. This led to most of the fuel for her being diverted to the more modern dreadnoughts and fast cruisers - as most of Austria-Hungary’s coal came from sources in Britain and the other allied powers, the supply was limited across the entire fleet. Due to this fact, the Radetzkys never sortied again, at least not under the Austro-Hungarian flag. When the fleet was transferred to the newly formed Yugoslav state, Radetzky and Zrinyi managed to escape to the American port of Spalato. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was not as successful, and was commandeered by the Italian Navy while still in the port of Pola. With the remainder of her lifetime being dedicated to being dragged around Italy as a war prize, the unfortunate ship was finally scrapped in 1926. As such, the first of the Radetzky-class to be completed was also the last to be scrapped.
Specifications (1917):
Construction:
- Builder: Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, Trieste
- Ordered: 1906
- Laid down 12th September, 1907
- Launched 30th September, 1908
- Commissioned 5th June, 1910
Compliment: 890 (860 enlisted men & 30 officers)
Displacement: 14,700t Standard, 16,000t Full load
Dimensions:
- Length: 137.5m (451ft 1in)
- Beam: 24.6m (80ft 9in)
- Draft: 8.1m (26ft 7in)
Powerplant:
- 12 Yarrow water-tube boilers
- 2 four-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines, leading to 2 propeller shafts
Speed & Power: 19,800 total SHP, 20.3 knots maximum speed
Range: 4,000 nautical miles (7,400km) at 10 knots
Armor:
- Belt: 100-230mm
- Main Battery: 250mm front plate, 200mm/150mm sides/back, 60mm roof
- Secondary Battery: 200mm front plate, 150mm/125mm sides/back, 60mm roof
- Barbettes: 250mm main battery, 200mm secondary battery
- Casemates: 120mm
- Conning tower: 250-120mm, 60-40mm roof
- Deck: 48mm
- Underwater protection: Double bottom, 54mm torpedo bulkhead spaced behind belt.
- Other: Coal bunkers backing belt armor.
Armament:
- 4 (2x2) 30,5cm/45 Škoda, 75/76 rounds per gun carried (90 max), 300 rounds total (360 max).
- 8 (4x2) 24cm/45 Škoda, 100 rounds per gun, 800 rounds total.
- 20 (20x1) 10cm/50 K10 Škoda, 300 rounds per gun, 6,000 rounds total.
- 2 (2x1) 7cm/50 K10 Škoda TAG, 300 rounds per gun, 600 rounds total.
- 4 (4x1) 7cm/50 K16 Škoda BAG anti-aircraft gun, 300 rounds per gun, 1,200 rounds total.
- 3 underwater torpedo tubes, 45cm L5g Whitehead, 3 torpedoes per tube, 9 torpedoes total.
Armament Specifics
- 30,5cm/45 Škoda:
Shell diameter: 305.0mm (12-inch)
Shell types: APC, SAPC
Shell specifications:
- APC: “30,5cm bekappte Panzergranate L/4.5” - 454kg, 131.9cm long, 4.0kg TNT bursting charge.
- SAPC: “30,5cm bekappte Zündergranate L/4.5” - 450kg, 131.9cm long, 26.7kg TNT bursting charge.
Maximum range: 22,000m at 20 degrees elevation, with APC shells.
Penetration:
- APC: 605mm at 1,000m (using DeMarre), 502mm at 5,000m (using DeMarre and penetration tests).
- SAPC: 411mm at 1,000m (using DeMarre).
Velocity: 800m/s
Reload: 3 rounds per minute with 9-shell per turret “ready ammunition”, 2 rounds per minute afterwards.
Mountings: Two-gun turrets, firing angles of -4/+20 degrees.
- 24cm/45 Škoda:
Shell diameter: 240.0mm (9.45-inch)
Shell types: APC, SAPC
Shell specifications:
- APC: “24cm bekappte Panzergranate L/3.5 M08” - 215kg, 82.0cm long, 2.4kg TNT bursting charge.
- SAPC: “24cm bekappte Zündergranate L/4.1 M08” - 215kg, 90.7cm long, 17.4kg TNT bursting charge.
Maximum range: 12,000m at 12.11 degrees elevation, with AP shells (maximum elevation was 20 degrees, but range tables only went up to 12.11 degrees).
Penetration:
- AP: 501mm at 100m (using DeMarre and penetration tests), 460mm at 1,000m (using DeMarre).
- SAPC: 312mm at 1,000m (using DeMarre).
Velocity: 800m/s
Reload: 2.5 rounds per minute.
Mountings: Two-gun turrets, firing angles of -4/+20 degrees.
- 10cm/50 K10 Škoda:
Shell diameter: 100.0mm (3.9-inch)
Shell types: HE
Shell specifications:
- HE: “10cm Sprenggranate” - 13.75kg, 1.3kg TNT bursting charge.
Maximum range: 11,000m at 14 degrees elevation, with HE shells.
Penetration: N/A
Velocity: 880m/s
Reload: 10 rounds per minute.
Mountings: Single-gun casemates, firing angles of -4/+18 degrees.
- 7cm/50 K10 Škoda TAG and 7cm/50 K16 Škoda BAG
Shell diameter: 66.0mm (2.66-inch)
Shell types: HE
Shell specifications:
- HE: “7cm Sprenggranate” - 4.5kg, 264mm long, 1.6kg TNT bursting charge.
Maximum range, K10: 8,000m at 20 degrees elevation - K16: 5,000m Anti-Aircraft ceiling.
Penetration: N/A
Velocity: 880m/s
Reload: 20 rounds per minute
Mountings: Single-gun swivel mounts on turrets,
- K10: firing angles of -10/+20 degrees
- K16: firing angles of -6/+90 degrees
(Note: TAG was the abbreviation used for “Torpedoboot-Abwehr Geschütz” - “Anti-Torpedoboat Gun”, and BAG was the abbreviation for “Ballon-Abwehr Geschütz” - “Anti-Airship Gun”.)
- 45cm L5g Whitehead Torpedo
Torpedo diameter: 450mm (17.7-inch)
Torpedo specifications:
- 654kg, 5.28m long, 110kg TNT explosive charge.
Maximum range: 5,000m at 33.5 knots (62.0km/h) or 10,000m at 20.5 knots (38.0km/h).
Reloads: 3 torpedoes per tube; one in the tube and 2 spare reloads
Mountings: 3 single tubes, mounted below the water on the stern and both sides of the ship.
I hope my post has been interesting in the least, and I hope you consider voting to add this unique battleship to War Thunder.
Yours truly, KewlPangolin.
Sources:
Kriegsmarine.at - S.M.S. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
Austro-Hungarian Battleships and Battleship Designs: 1904-1914 by Mihály Krámli, 2018
Navweaps - Austro-Hungarian Naval Guns
Navweaps - Austro-Hungarian Torpedoes
Big thanks to the next two sources for being the most prolific source of information:
Die “Radetzky”-Klasse: Österreich-Ungarns letzte Vor-Dreadnoughts by Erwin Sieche, 1984
and…
Viribus Unitis - Radetzky Preliminary Designs