Sava-class river monitor

The Sava-class river monitors were built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the mid-1910s. The two ships of the class were assigned to the Danube Flotilla and participated in World War I. The ships survived the war and were transferred to Romania and the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) as reparations.

Description and construction

The ships had an overall length of 62 m (203 ft 5 in), a beam of 10.3 m (33 ft 10 in), and a normal draught of 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in). They displaced 580 tonnes (570 long tons), and their crew consisted of 91 officers and enlisted men.^[1] The Sava-class ships were powered by two triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam generated by two Yarrow boilers driving.^[1] The engines were rated at 1,750 indicated horsepower (1,300 kW) and were designed to reach a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph). They carried 75 long tons (76 t) of fuel oil.^[2]

The main armament of the Sava-class river monitors was a pair of 120 mm (4.7 in) L/45^[a] guns in a single turret forward of the conning tower and a pair of 120 mm (4.7 in) L/10 howitzers in the rear turret. They also mounted a pair of 66 mm (2.6 in) L/26 anti-aircraft guns, two 47 mm (1.9 in) L/44 guns, and seven machine guns.^[1] The maximum range of her Škoda 120 mm (4.7 in) L/45 guns was 15 kilometres (9.3 mi).^[3] Her armour consisted of belt and bulkheads 40 mm (1.6 in) thick, deck armour 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, and her conning tower, gun turrets and cupolas were 50 mm (2.0 in) thick.^[1]

Ships

Careers

In Romanian service, Bucovina (ex-Sava) was fitted for service at sea as an anti-submarine escort, having one of her seven machine guns replaced by one 610 mm depth charge thrower. Otherwise her armament remained unchanged. In Romanian service, she also had a range of 750 nautical miles, more than enough to travel across the greatest East-West extent of the Black Sea, which was 635 nautical miles (the Black Sea was the area of operations of the World War II Romanian Navy).^[5]

Notes

1. L/45 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/45 gun is 45 calibre, meaning that the gun was 45 times as long as the diameter of its bore.

Footnotes

1. Greger 1976, p. 142.
2. Jane's Information Group 1989, p. 315.
3. Greger 1976, p. 9.
4. Chesneau 1980, p. 357.
5. Е. Е. Шведе, Военные флоты 1939–1940 гг., Рипол Классик, 2013, pp. 120–121 (in Russian)

References

• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-146-5.
• Frampton, Viktor; Sieche, Erwin & Stewart, Charles L. (2006). "Question 22/04: Austro-Hungarian Danube River Monitors". Warship International. XLIII (3): 239–243. ISSN 0043-0374.
• Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.
• Greger, René (1976). Austro-Hungarian Warships of World War I. London: Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0623-2.
• Halpern, Paul G. (2012). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-266-6.
• Jane's Information Group (1989) [1946/47]. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II. London: Studio Editions. ISBN 978-1-85170-194-0.
• Jane's Information Group (1990) [1919]. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. London: Studio Editions. ISBN 978-1-85170-378-4.
• Marshall, Chris (1995). The Encyclopedia of Ships : The History and Specifications of Over 1200 Ships. New York City: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-1-56619-909-4.
• Niehorster, Dr. Leo (2013). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle Royal Yugoslavian Navy River Flotilla 6th April 1941". Dr. Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
• Shores, Christopher F.; Cull, Brian; Malizia, Nicola (1987). Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece, and Crete, 1940–41. London: Grub Street. ISBN 978-0-948817-07-6.
• Terzić, Velimir (1982). Slom Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1941 : uzroci i posledice poraza [The Collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941: Causes and Consequences of Defeat] (in Serbo-Croatian). Vol. 2. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Narodna knjiga. OCLC 10276738.