AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN DESTROYERS IN WORLD WAR ONE

The Austro-Hungarian destroyers were during the World War One almost daily at sea, together with the scout cruisers and torpedo boats, to accomplish various tasks, beginning with the anti-submarine warfare, over mine sweeping and laying, to the attacks on the enemy maritime communications or on the Otranto Barrage vessels. The served often to receive A-H seaplanes returning from their missions against the enemy coast as well, to help the machines after an emergency landing on sea, and to tow them back to harbor or to rescue their crews.

This richly illustrated book describes all A-H destroyers – called torpedo vessels in the A-H parlance – from the first prototypes to the last unrealized projects. The best and most efficient vessels of the Tátra and Ersatz Triglav classes were equal to destroyers of other navies – French, Italian and British – operating in the Adriatic and could compete with stronger enemies too. Older destroyers of the Huszár class were also very active, together with the much older torpedo gunboats or destroyer predecessors built in the late 19th Century. All these ships are described in detail, with building and tactical & technical data in respective tables, together with the operational history of every A-H destroyer from the commissioning to the end of their service.