SMS Novara (1912)

SMS ''Novara'' was a scout cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy which served during World War I. Built by the Danubius shipyard between December 1912 and January 1915, ''Novara'' was the third and final member of her class to enter service, some six months after the start of the war. She was armed with a battery of nine guns and had a top speed of .

The ship saw extensive service during World War I, owing to the cautious strategies adopted by the Austro-Hungarian fleet and their opponents in the Triple Entente. ''Novara'' was frequently used to raid enemy shipping and the Otranto Barrage, including a patrol in November 1915 where she destroyed a stranded French submarine. These operations culminated in the Battle of the Strait of Otranto in May 1917, the largest naval battle of the Adriatic Campaign. There, she and her two sisters sank fourteen drifters, though she was badly damaged by a British cruiser and had to be towed back to port. ''Novara'' was involved in the Cattaro Mutiny in January 1918 and led the loyalist vessels to safety.

''Novara'' changed hands several times as the war ended, being transferred first to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a successor state to Austria-Hungary, and then to France as a war prize under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Commissioned into the French fleet as ''Thionville'', the ship served from 1920 to 1932 as a training ship, and from 1932 to 1941 as a barracks ship in Toulon before being broken up for scrap.

Design

''Novara'' was long overall, with a beam of and a mean draft of . She displaced at normal load, and up to at deep load. Her propulsion system consisted of two sets of AEG steam turbines driving two propeller shafts. They were designed to provide and were powered by 16 Yarrow water-tube boilers. These gave the ship a top speed of . ''Novara'' carried about of coal that gave her a range of approximately at . The ship had a crew of 340 officers and men.Fraccoli, p. 317Gardiner & Gray, p. 336

''Novara'' was armed with nine 50-caliber guns in single pedestal mounts. Three were placed forward on the forecastle, four were located amidships, two on either side, and two were side by side on the quarterdeck. A Škoda /50 K10 anti-aircraft gun and six torpedo tubes in twin mounts were added in 1917. The navy planned to remove the guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck and replace them with a pair of guns fore and aft, but nothing was done before the end of the war. The ship was protected by a waterline armored belt that was thick amidships and a thick deck. The conning tower had 60 mm thick sides, and the guns had thick shields.

Service history

Construction and early World War I

''Novara'' was laid down at the Danubius shipyard in Fiume on 9 December 1912, the last member of her class to begin construction. She was launched on 15 February 1913; the ship was still undergoing fitting-out work when World War I broke out in July 1914. The ship was completed on 10 January 1915 and commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian fleet. The commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, Admiral Anton Haus, adopted a cautious strategy to preserve his fleet, since he was outnumbered by the Anglo-French fleets in the Mediterranean, and the attitude of Austria-Hungary's erstwhile ally Italy remained unknown. Haus decided the best course of action would be to act as a fleet in being, which would tie down Allied naval forces, while torpedo boats, mines, and raids with fast cruisers like ''Novara'' could be used to reduce the numerical superiority of the enemy fleets before a decisive battle could be fought.

In March, after the beginning of the British Dardanelles Campaign against the Ottoman Empire, Germany began to pressure Austria-Hungary to assist their ally; Haus considered sending ''Novara'' with a cargo of munitions. Haus ultimately decided the operation was too risky for what would have been a minimal gain, as the ship would not have been able to carry a particularly large amount. On 2 May, ''Novara'' towed the German U-boat from Pola out of the Adriatic Sea. They evaded French patrols until 6 May, off Cephalonia, they were spotted by a French vessel. ''Novara'' cut the tow and sped north, while ''UB-8'' submerged and evaded the French patrol. Following the Italian declaration of war against the Central Powers on 23 May, the entire Austro-Hungarian fleet sortied to bombard Italian coastal targets. ''Novara'' took part in the operation; along with a destroyer and two torpedo boats, she bombarded Porto Corsini near Ravenna. Defensive fire from Italian coastal guns killed six men aboard ''Novara''.

By late in the year, the Austro-Hungarian high command decided to begin attacking the ''Entente'' supply shipments being sent to Serbia via Albania. The first such raid, conducted by ''Novara''s sister ships and , took place on the night of 22–23 November. Haus transferred ''Novara'', ''Helgoland'', and six destroyers to Cattaro at the end of the month to facilitate further attacks. On 5 December, ''Novara'', four destroyers, and three torpedo boats made an attack on the shipping lanes; they sank three transport ships and numerous fishing boats. While on their way back to Cattaro, they spotted the French submarine , which had run aground off the mouth of the Bojana river. ''Novara'' and the other vessels took the crew captive and destroyed the submarine.

On 29 December, ''Novara'', the cruiser , and the old coastal defense ship sortied to support ''Helgoland'' and six destroyers after they had run into a minefield, which sank a destroyer and badly damaged another. ''Novara'' and the other vessels did not reach ''Helgoland''s flotilla before they were able to disengage from pursuing Italian warships. On 29 January 1916, ''Novara'' and two destroyers began another raid, this time on the port of Durrazo. While en route, the two destroyers collided and had to return to port, leaving just ''Novara'' to conduct the attack. Upon reaching the target, she encountered the Italian protected cruiser and a French destroyer. After a short engagement, ''Novara'' broke off the action and retreated, since the element of surprise was no longer available. Then-''Linienschiffskapitän'' (Captain) Miklós Horthy, who commanded ''Novara'' at the time, launched an attack on the Otranto Barrage on 9 July. ''Novara'' sank a pair of drifters, damaged two more, and captured nine British sailors.

Battle of the Strait of Otranto

In February 1917, Horthy began preparations for a major raid on the drifters; he planned to use ''Novara'' and both of her sisters, which he modified to look like large British destroyers by cutting down their mainmasts. Each of the ships also received a 7 cm anti-aircraft gun, and their engines were thoroughly cleaned and repaired. While the preparations were being made in late April and early May, destroyers made several sweeps down to the coast of Albania to reconnoiter the ''Entente'' defenses in the area; they found none. On 13 May, '' Konteradmiral'' (Rear Admiral) Alexander Hansa issued the order to begin the operation the following morning. The three cruisers steamed south to the drifter line, arriving after night fall; at the same time, a pair of destroyers, and , mounted a diversionary attack off the coast of Albania. At around 03:30 on 15 May, ''Novara'' and the other cruisers opened fire on the drifters, sinking fourteen and damaging four more before they broke off the attack and withdrew, hoping to return to port before ''Entente'' forces could react.

At 06:45, the British cruisers and and five Italian destroyers sortied to intercept ''Novara'', ''Helgoland'', and ''Saida''. By 09:00, the faster British cruisers had caught up to the Austro-Hungarian vessels, and both sides called for reinforcements; a flotilla centered on the armored cruiser was sent to assist Horthy's cruisers. ''Dartmouth'' opened fire first and scored a hit on ''Novara'', and the three Austro-Hungarian cruisers laid smoke screens and turned back toward their pursuers, scoring several hits on ''Dartmouth'' in the process. ''Novara'' was hit several more times, and her main feed pumps and starboard auxiliary steam pipe were damaged, which caused the ship to begin losing speed. Horthy was badly injured as well, though he remained in command. At 11:05, the ''Entente'' commander, Admiral Alfredo Acton, turned away in an attempt to separate ''Saida'' from ''Novara'' and ''Helgoland''. At this point, ''Sankt Georg'' was approaching the scene, which prompted Acton to temporarily withdraw to consolidate his forces. This break in the action was enough time for the Austro-Hungarians to save the crippled ''Novara''; ''Saida'' took the ship under tow while ''Helgoland'' covered them.

Unaware that ''Novara'' had been disabled, and fearing that his ships would be drawn too close to the Austrian naval base at Cattaro, Acton broke off the pursuit. The destroyer ''Acerbi'' misread the signal, and attempted to launch a torpedo attack, but was driven off by the combined fire of ''Novara'', ''Saida'', and ''Helgoland''. At 12:05, Acton realized the dire situation ''Novara'' was in, but by this time, the ''Sankt Georg'' group was too close. The ''Sankt Georg'' group rendezvoused with ''Novara'', ''Saida'', and ''Helgoland'', and ''Csepel'' and ''Balaton'' reached the scene as well. The entire group returned to Cattaro together.

End of the war

By early 1918, the long periods of inactivity had begun to wear on the crews of several warships at Cattaro, primarily those of the little-used armored cruisers. On 1 February, the Cattaro Mutiny broke out, starting aboard ''Sankt Georg''. They then rapidly gained control of the cruiser and most of the other major warships in the harbor. The crews of ''Novara'' and ''Helgoland'' resisted the mutiny, with the latter preparing their ship's torpedoes but ''Sankt Georg''s gunners aimed their guns at ''Helgoland'', which convinced them to back down. ''Novara''s commander, Prince Johann of Liechtenstein, initially refused to allow a rebel party to board his vessel, but after ''Kaiser Karl VI'' trained her guns on ''Novara'', he relented and let the crew fly a red flag in support of the mutiny. Liechtenstein and Erich von Heyssler, the commander of ''Helgoland'', plotted overnight how to extricate their vessels, their crews having abstained from actively supporting the rebels.

The following day, many of the mutinous ships abandoned the effort and rejoined loyalist forces in the inner harbor after shore batteries opened fire on the rebel guard ship . Liechtenstein tore down the red flag before ordering his ship to escape into the inner harbor; they were joined by the other scout cruisers and most of the torpedo boats, followed by several of the other larger vessels. There, they were protected by shore batteries that opposed the rebellion. By late in the day, only the men aboard ''Sankt Georg'' and a handful of destroyers and torpedo boats remained in rebellion. The next morning, the s arrived from Pola and put down the uprising.

On 3 November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian government signed the Armistice of Villa Giusti with Italy, ending their participation in the conflict. Following the armistice, the entire Austro-Hungarian fleet was transferred to the newly formed Yugoslavia.

French service

In 1920, under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, ''Novara'' and the rest of the fleet was surrendered to the Allied powers as war prizes; ''Novara'' was awarded to France in the post-war distribution of ships. She sprang a leak in the Adriatic and put into Brindisi, Italy, where she sank on 29 January 1920. She was refloated in early April 1920. The ship was renamed ''Thionville'' and incorporated into the French fleet after repairs. ''Thionville'' was assigned to the torpedo school for use as a training ship, a role she filled until 1 May 1932.Jordan & Moulin, p. 167 The ship was then disarmed and converted into a barracks ship based in Toulon. She remained there until 1941, when she was broken up for scrap.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Novara (1913)
Novara-class cruisers
Ships built in Fiume
1913 ships
World War I cruisers of Austria-Hungary
Maritime incidents in 1920