 A painting of SMSKörös bombarding Belgrade in 1914 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Austria-Hungary | |
| Name | Körös |
| Namesake | Körös River |
| Laid down | 30 March 1890 |
| Launched | 5 February 1892 |
| Commissioned | 21 April 1892 |
| Out of service | 6 November 1918 |
| Fate | Transferred to theHungarian People's Republic |
 Hungarian People's Republic | |
| Name | Körös |
| Namesake | Körös River |
| Acquired | 6 November 1918 |
| Out of service | 13 December 1918 |
| Fate | Assigned to theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS) |
 Kingdom of Yugoslavia | |
| Name | Morava (Морава) |
| Namesake | Morava River |
| Acquired | 1920 |
| Fate | Scuttled by her crew on 11/12 April 1941 |
 Independent State of Croatia | |
| Name | Bosna |
| Namesake | Bosna River |
| Acquired | Raised and repaired |
| Fate | Mined June 1944, raised and broken up 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Körös-class river monitor |
| Displacement | 448 t (441long tons) |
| Length | 54 m (177 ft 2 in) |
| Beam | 9 m (29 ft 6 in) |
| Draught | 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 screws; 2Triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed | 10knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 77 officers andenlisted men |
| Armament |
|
| Armour |
|
SMSKörös (pronounced[ˈkørøʃ]) was thename ship of theKörös-classriver monitors built for theAustro-Hungarian Navy. Completed in 1892, the ship was part of theDanube Flotilla, and fought variousAllied forces fromBelgrade down theDanube to theBlack Sea duringWorld War I. After brief service with theHungarian People's Republic at the end of the war, she was transferred to the newly createdKingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and renamedMorava. She remained in service throughout theinterwar period, although budget restrictions meant she was not always in full commission.
During theWorld War IIGerman-ledAxisinvasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941,Morava was the flagship of the 2nd Mine Barrage Division, and operated on the RiverTisza. She fought off attacks by theLuftwaffe, and shot down one enemy aircraft, but was forced to withdraw to Belgrade. Due to high river levels and low bridges, navigating monitors was difficult, and she wasscuttled by her crew on 11 April. Some of her crew tried to escape cross-country towards the southernAdriatic coast, but most surrendered on 14 April. The remainder made their way to theBay of Kotor, which was captured by the ItalianXVII Corps on 17 April. She was later raised by theNavy of the Independent State of Croatia, an Axis puppet state, and continued in service asBosna until June 1944, when she struck a mine and sank.
Thename ship of theKörös-classriver monitors was built for theAustro-Hungarian Navy byH. Schönichen.[1] She waslaid down atBudapest on 30 March 1891.[2]Körös and hersister shipSMS Szamos doubled the size of Austria-Hungary'sDanube Flotilla.[3] The two monitors each had anoverall length of 54 m (177 ft 2 in), abeam of 9 m (29 ft 6 in), and a normaldraught of 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in). Herdisplacement was 448 tonnes (441 long tons),[1] and her crew consisted of 77 officers and enlisted men.[4] The ship was powered using steam generated by twoYarrow boilers driving twotriple-expansion steam engines,[1] and carried 54 tonnes (53 long tons) of coal.[5] Her engines were rated at 1,200 ihp (890 kW) and she was designed to reach a top speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[6]
Körös was armed with two singlegun turrets of 120 mm (4.7 in)/L35[a]fore andaft, twosuperfiring66 mm (2.6 in)/L42anti-aircraft guns protected bygun shields on the superstructure fore and aft, and twomachine guns.[4][6] Her main guns fired a 26 kg (57 lb)armour-piercing, high explosive,shrapnel orfragmentation shell to a maximum range of 8.2 km (5.1 mi) at anelevation of 20°. They could depress to −6° and elevate to +25°.[7] Her armour consisted of abelt andbulkheads 50 mm (2.0 in) thick,deck armour 19 mm (0.75 in) thick, andconning tower and gun turret armour 75 mm (3.0 in) thick.[4][6] The armour was produced by theWitkowitz steel works, inMoravia.[8] She waslaunched on 5 February 1892 andcommissioned on 21 April of the same year.[4] Her sister shipSzamos was completed in 1893, and was identical except for 50 mm (2.0 in) armour on her conning tower.[6]
At the start ofWorld War I,Körös was based atZemun, just upstream fromBelgrade on the Danube. Her commander wasLinienschiffsleutnant[b] (LSL) Josef Meusburger,[4] and she was accompanied by another three monitors and threepatrol boats.[10] Austria-Hungary declared war onSerbia on 28 July 1914, and that night the flotilla fired the first shots of the war against fortifications at the Zemun–Belgrade railway bridge over the riverSava and on theTopčider Hill, althoughKörös was not initially involved. The Serbs were outgunned by the monitors, and by August began to receive assistance from the Russians. This support included the supply and emplacement of naval guns and the establishment of river obstacles andmines.[11]
The Austro-Hungarian base at Zemun was briefly evacuated due to a Serbiancounterattack in September.[12] On 28 September, Körös, along with the monitorSMS Temes, a patrol boat and aminesweeper, broke through the minefields on the Sava near Belgrade and pushed upstream to join the fighting nearŠabac.[13] In November, French artillery support arrived in Belgrade, endangering the monitor's anchorage.[14] The stalemate continued until December 1914 when the Serbs briefly evacuated Belgrade in the face of an Austro-Hungarian assault, althoughKörös did not support this action. After less than two weeks, the Austro-Hungarians had to withdraw from Belgrade, and it was soon recaptured by the Serbs with Russian and French assistance.Körös continued in action against Serbia and her allies at Belgrade until December, when the base of the Danube Flotilla was withdrawn north to Petrovaradin for the winter.[15]
In January 1915, British artillery arrived in Belgrade, further bolstering its defences.[16] On 22 April 1915, a Britishpicket boat that had been brought overland by rail fromSalonika was used to attack the Danube Flotilla anchorage at Zemun, firing twotorpedoes without success.[17]Bulgaria joined theCentral Powers in September 1915, and the Serbian Army soon faced an overwhelming Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian ground invasion. On 7 October, the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army attacked Belgrade, andKörös, along with the majority of the flotilla, was heavily engaged in support of the crossings near theBelgrade Fortress andAda Ciganlija island.[18] During the final river crossing and support of the resultingbridgehead, the ship provided close support, during which herstack was hit and damaged. The following day,Körös assistedSMSEnns when the latter took a direct hit and began to take on water.[19]
Following the capture of Belgrade, the flotilla sailed downstream toOrșova near the Hungarian–Romanian border and waited for the lower Danube to be swept for mines. It then escorted a series of munitions convoys down the Danube toLom, from where they were transferred to the Bulgarian railway system for shipment to theOttoman Empire.[20]
In November 1915,Körös and the other monitors were assembled atRuschuk, Bulgaria.[20] The position of Romania was uncertain; the Central Powers were aware that the Romanians were negotiating to enter the war on the opposing side of theEntente. To protect the Danube's 480 km (300 mi) border between Romania and Bulgaria, the flotilla established a sheltered base in theBelene Canal.[21] When the Romanians entered the war on 27 August 1916, the monitors were again at Rustschuk, and were immediately attacked by three improvisedtorpedo boats operating out of the Romanian river port ofGiurgiu. The torpedoes that were fired missed the monitors but struck alighter loaded with fuel. The Second Monitor Division, consisting ofKörös and three other monitors, was tasked with shelling Giurgiu. This bombardment set fire to oil storage tanks as well as the railway station andmagazines, and sank several Romanian lighters. While the attack was underway, the First Monitor Division escorted supply ships back to the Belene anchorage. TheKörös and her companions then destroyed two Romanian patrol boats and an improvisedminelayer on their way back to Belene. This was followed by forays of the monitors both east and west of Belene, during which bothTurnu Măgurele andZimnicea were shelled.[22]
In April 1918,Körös, along with three other monitors, two patrol boats and atug, were formed intoFlottenabteilung Wulff (Fleet Division Wulff) under the command ofFlottenkapitän (Fleet Captain) Olav Wulff.Flottenabteilung Wulff was sent through the mouth of the Danube and across theBlack Sea toOdessa, where it spent several months supporting the Austro-Hungarian troops enforcing the peace agreement with Russia. It returned to the Danube at the end of August, and was anchored atBrăila on 12 September. On 16 October,Körös and the rest of the First Monitor Division sailed from Brăila to Belene. For several weeks the Danube Flotilla was engaged in protecting Austro-Hungarian troops retreating towards Budapest, fighting French and irregular Serbian forces as they withdrew; the flotilla arrived in Belene on 6 November.[23]
After theArmistice of Villa Giusti signed by the Austro-Hungarians on 3 November 1918,Körös was operated by the navy of theHungarian People's Republic between 6 November and 13 December.[24] She was then crewed by sailors of the newly createdKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in 1918–19. Under the terms of theTreaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye concluded in September 1919,Körös was transferred to the KSCS along with a range of other vessels, including three other river monitors, but was officially handed over to theKSCS Navy and renamedMorava in 1920.[25] Her sister shipSzamos was dismantled and used as apontoon.[6] In 1925–26,Morava was refitted, but by the following year only two of the four river monitors of the KSCS Navy were being retained in full commission at any time.[26] In 1932, the British navalattaché reported that Yugoslav ships were engaging in little gunnery training, and few exercises or manoeuvres, due to reduced budgets.[27]
On 6 April 1941, when theWorld War IIGerman-ledAxisinvasion of Yugoslavia began,Morava was based atStara Kanjiža on theTisza river, as the flagship of the 2nd Mine Barrage Division.[28] This force was responsible for the Hungarian border, and came under the operational control of the7th Infantry DivisionPotiska.[29] The remainder of the 2nd Mine Barrage Division consisted of the river tugR-XXI, the river transportSenta, and a few mobilisedcustoms motorboats,[28] based further south on the Tisza atSenta.[29] On 7 April,Morava withdrew to Senta, where she was attacked by German aircraft. According to her commander,Poručnik bojnog broda[c] Božidar Aranđelović, her crew shot down one German aircraft and captured aLuftwaffeOberstleutnant.[31][d] On 10 April,Morava was ordered to withdraw to conform with the retreat of the2nd Army Group of theRoyal Yugoslav Army fromBačka andBaranja.[33] On the evening of 11 April,Morava anchored at theconfluence of the Danube and Sava near Belgrade, along with her fellow monitorsVardar andSava, and Aranđelović took command of the flotilla. The three captains conferred, and decided toscuttle their vessels due to the high water levels in the rivers and low bridges, which meant insufficient clearance for the monitors to navigate freely. The crews of the monitors were transshipped to two tugboats, but when one of the tugboats was passing under a railway bridge, demolition charges on the bridge exploded prematurely and the bridge fell onto the tugboat. Of the 110 officers and men aboard the vessel, 95 were killed.[34][35]
After the scuttling of the monitors, around 450 officers and men from theMorava and various other riverine vessels gathered atObrenovac, and armed only with personal weapons and some machine guns stripped from the scuttled vessels, started towards theBay of Kotor in the southernAdriatic in two groups.[36] The larger of the two groups only made it as far asSarajevo on 14 April before they surrendered.[37] The smaller group made their way to the Bay of Kotor, and was captured by theItalianXVII Corps on 17 April.[38]
Morava was later raised and repaired by thenavy of an Axispuppet state, theIndependent State of Croatia, in which she served asBosna. She served alongside her fellow monitorSava, which had also been raised and repaired, but retained her name. Along with six captured motorboats and tenauxiliary vessels, they made up the riverine police force of the Croatian state.[39]Bosna was part of the 2nd Patrol Group of the River Flotilla Command, headquartered at Zemun.[40] She struck a mine nearBosanski Novi on theRiver Una and sank in June 1944.[41] The following year she was raised andbroken up.[4]
| Coastal defence ship |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Light cruiser | ||
| Destroyers | ||
| Corvette | ||
| Gunboat/Royal yacht | ||
| Torpedo boats |
| |
| Motor torpedo boats | ||
| Submarines |
| |
| Minelayers | ||
| Minesweepers | ||
| River flotilla | ||
 Austro-Hungarian Navy | |
|---|---|
 Royal Yugoslav Navy |
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in April 1941 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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