Yugoslav torpedo boat T2

T2 was a seagoing torpedo boat that was operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941. Originally 77 T, a 250t-class torpedo boat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy built in 1913–1914, she was armed with two 66 mm (2.6 in) guns and four 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes, and could carry 10–12 naval mines. She saw active service during World War I, performing convoy, patrol, escort, minesweeping and minelaying tasks, anti-submarine operations, and shore bombardment missions. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat, 77 T was allocated to the Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which became the Royal Yugoslav Navy, and was renamed T2. At the time, she and seven other 250t-class boats were the only modern sea-going vessels of the fledgling maritime force. During the interwar period, T7 and the rest of the navy were involved in training exercises and cruises to friendly ports, but activity was limited by reduced naval budgets. She was scrapped in 1939.

T2
One of T2's sister ships
History
Austria-Hungary
Name: 77 T
Builder: Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino
Laid down: 24 August 1913
Launched: 30 January 1914
Commissioned: 11 August 1914
Out of service: 1918
Fate: Assigned to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Name: T2
Acquired: March 1921
Out of service: 1939
Fate: scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type: 250t-class, T-group sea-going torpedo boat
Displacement:
  • 262 t (258 long tons)
  • 320 t (315 long tons) (full load)
Length: 58.2 m (190 ft 11 in)
Beam: 5.7 m (18 ft 8 in)
Draught: 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range: 980 nmi (1,810 km; 1,130 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement: 39 officers and enlisted
Armament:

Background

In 1910, the Austria-Hungary Naval Technical Committee initiated the design and development of a 275-tonne (271-long-ton) coastal torpedo boat, specifying that it should be capable of sustaining 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) for 10 hours. This specification was based an expectation that the Strait of Otranto, where the Adriatic Sea meets the Ionian Sea, would be blockaded by hostile forces during a future conflict. In such circumstances, there would be a need for a torpedo boat that could sail from the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German: kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine) base at the Bocche di Cattaro (Bay of Kotor) to the Strait during darkness, locate and attack blockading ships and return to port before morning. Steam turbine power was selected for propulsion, as diesels with the necessary power were not available, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy did not have the practical experience to run turbo-electric boats. Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) of Triest was selected for the contract to build eight vessels, ahead of one other tenderer.[1] The T-group designation signified that they were built at Trieste.[2]

Description and construction

The 250t-class T-group boats had a waterline length of 58.2 m (190 ft 11 in), a beam of 5.7 m (18 ft 8 in), and a normal draught of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). While their designed displacement was 262 tonnes (258 long tons), they displaced about 320 tonnes (315 long tons) fully loaded. The crew consisted of 39 officers and enlisted men. The boats were powered by two Parsons steam turbines driving two propellers, using steam generated by two Yarrow water-tube boilers, one of which burned fuel oil and the other coal. The turbines were rated at 5,000 shp (3,700 kW) with a maximum output of 6,000 shp (4,500 kW) and were designed to propel the boats to a top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). They carried 18 tonnes (17.7 long tons) of coal and 24 tonnes (23.6 long tons) of fuel oil,[3] which gave them a range of 980 nautical miles (1,810 km; 1,130 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).[2] The T-group had one funnel rather than the two funnels of the later groups of the class.[1] Due to inadequate funding, 77 T and the rest of the 250t class were essentially coastal vessels, despite the original intention that they would be used for "high seas" operations.[4] They were the first small Austro-Hungarian Navy boats to use turbines, and this contributed to ongoing problems with them.[1]

The boats were originally to be armed with three Škoda 66 mm (2.6 in) L/30[lower-alpha 1] guns, and three 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes,[1] but this was changed to two guns and four torpedo tubes before the first boat was completed, in order to standardise the armament with the following F-group. They could also carry 10–12 naval mines.[2]

The fourth of its class to be completed, 77 T was laid down on 24 August 1913, launched on 30 January 1914 and completed on 11 August 1914.[2] Later that year, one 8 mm (0.31 in) machine gun was added.[1]

Career

World War I

At the outbreak of World War I, 77 T was part of the 1st Torpedo Group of the 3rd Torpedo Craft Division of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Torpedo Craft Flotilla.[5] During the war, 77 T was used for convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping tasks, anti-submarine operations,[1] and shore bombardment missions.[6] On 24 May 1915, 77 T and seven other 250t-class boats participated in the Bombardment of Ancona, which involved shelling of various Italian shore-based targets, with 77 T involved in the operation against Ancona itself.[7] In late November 1915, the Austro-Hungarian fleet deployed a force from its main fleet base at Pola to Cattaro in the southern Adriatic; this force included six of the eight T-group torpedo boats, so it is possible that one of these was 77 T. This force was tasked to maintain a permanent patrol of the Albanian coastline and interdict any troop transports crossing from Italy.[8]

On the night of 31 May – 1 June 1916, the Tátra-class destroyers Orjen and Balaton, accompanied by 77 T and two other 250t-class boats, raided the Otranto Barrage, an Allied naval blockade of the Strait of Otranto. Orjen sank one drifter, but once the alarm had been raised, the Austro-Hungarian force withdrew.[9] In 1917, one of her 66 mm guns was placed on an anti-aircraft mount.[2] On 23 September 1917, 77 T and another 250t-class boat were laying a minefield off Grado in the northern Adriatic when they had a brief encounter with a Royal Italian Navy (Italian: Regia Marina) MAS motor torpedo boat.[10] By 1918, the Allies had strengthened their ongoing blockade on the Strait of Otranto, as foreseen by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. As a result, it was becoming more difficult for the German and Austro-Hungarian U-boats to get through the strait and into the Mediterranean Sea. In response to these blockades, the new commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Konteradmiral Miklós Horthy, decided to launch an attack on the Allied defenders with battleships, scout cruisers, and destroyers.[11]

During the night of 8 June, Horthy left the naval base of Pola in the upper Adriatic with the dreadnought battleships Viribus Unitis and Prinz Eugen. At about 23:00 on 9 June 1918, after some difficulties getting the harbour defence barrage opened, the dreadnoughts Szent István and Tegetthoff,[12] escorted by one destroyer and six torpedo boats, including 77 T, also departed Pola and set course for Slano, north of Ragusa, to rendezvous with Horthy in preparation for a coordinated attack on the Otranto Barrage. About 03:15 on 10 June,[lower-alpha 2] while returning from an uneventful patrol off the Dalmatian coast, two Italian MAS boats, MAS 15 and MAS 21, spotted the smoke from the Austrian ships. Both boats successfully penetrated the escort screen and split to engage the dreadnoughts individually. MAS 21 attacked Tegetthoff, but her torpedoes missed.[14] Under the command of Luigi Rizzo, MAS 15 fired two torpedoes at 03:25, both of which hit Szent István. Both boats evaded pursuit. The torpedo hits on Szent István were abreast her boiler rooms, which flooded, knocking out power to the pumps. Szent István capsized less than three hours after being torpedoed.[13]

Interwar period

77 T survived the war intact.[1] In 1920, under the terms of the previous year's Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye by which rump Austria officially ended World War I, she was allocated to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS, later Yugoslavia). Along with three other 250t-class T-group boats, 76 T, 78 T and 79 T, and four 250t-class F-group boats, she served with the Royal Yugoslav Navy (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Kraljevska Jugoslovenska Ratna Mornarica, KJRM; Краљевска Југословенска Ратна Морнарица). Taken over in March 1921,[15] in KJRM service, 77 T was renamed T2.[2] When the navy was formed, she and the other seven 250t-class boats were the only modern sea-going vessels in the KJRM.[16] In 1925, exercises were conducted off the Dalmatian coast, involving the majority of the navy.[17] In May and June 1929, six of the eight 250t-class torpedo boats accompanied the light cruiser Dalmacija, the submarine tender Hvar and the submarines Hrabri and Nebojša, on a cruise to Malta, the Greek island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, and Bizerte in the French protectorate of Tunisia. It is not clear if T2 was one of the torpedo boats involved. The ships and crews made a very good impression while visiting Malta.[18] In 1932, the British naval attaché reported that Yugoslav ships engaged in few exercises, manoeuvres or gunnery training due to reduced budgets.[19] In 1939, T2 was scrapped.[20]

See also

Notes
  1. L/30 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/30 gun is 30 calibre, meaning that the gun was 30 times as long as the diameter of its bore.
  2. Sources differ on what the exact time was when the attack took place. Sieche states that the time was 3:15 am when the Szent István was hit,[13] while Sokol claims that the time was 3:30 am.[12]

Footnotes
  1. Gardiner 1985, p. 339.
  2. Greger 1976, p. 58.
  3. Jane's Information Group 1989, p. 313.
  4. O'Hara, Worth & Dickson 2013, pp. 26–27.
  5. Greger 1976, pp. 11–12.
  6. Cernuschi & O'Hara 2015, p. 171.
  7. Cernuschi & O'Hara 2015, p. 168.
  8. Halpern 2012, p. 229.
  9. Halpern 1987, p. 151.
  10. Cernuschi & O'Hara 2016, p. 67.
  11. Sokol 1968, pp. 133–134.
  12. Sokol 1968, p. 134.
  13. Sieche 1991, pp. 127, 131.
  14. Sokol 1968, p. 135.
  15. Vego 1982, p. 345.
  16. Chesneau 1980, p. 355.
  17. Jarman 1997a, p. 733.
  18. Jarman 1997b, p. 183.
  19. Jarman 1997b, p. 451.
  20. Greger 1976, p. 60.

References
  • Cernuschi, Enrico & O'Hara, Vincent P. (2015). "The Naval War in the Adriatic Part I: 1914–1916". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2015. London, England: Bloomsbury. pp. 161–173. ISBN 978-1-84486-295-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Cernuschi, Enrico & O'Hara, Vincent P. (2016). "The Naval War in the Adriatic Part II: 1917–1918". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2016. London, England: Bloomsbury. pp. 62–75. ISBN 978-1-84486-438-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships, 1922–1946. London, England: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-146-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921. London, England: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Greger, René (1976). Austro-Hungarian Warships of World War I. London, England: Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0623-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Halpern, Paul G., ed. (1987). The Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, 1915–1918. Aldershot, England: Temple Smith, Gower Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-566-05488-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Halpern, Paul G. (2012). A Naval History of World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-266-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Jane's Information Group (1989) [1946/47]. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II. London, England: Studio Editions. ISBN 978-1-85170-194-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Jarman, Robert L., ed. (1997a). Yugoslavia Political Diaries 1918–1965. 1. Slough, Berkshire: Archives Edition. ISBN 978-1-85207-950-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Jarman, Robert L., ed. (1997b). Yugoslavia Political Diaries 1918–1965. 2. Slough, Berkshire: Archives Edition. ISBN 978-1-85207-950-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • O'Hara, Vincent; Worth, Richard & Dickson, W. (2013). To Crown the Waves: The Great Navies of the First World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-61251-269-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sieche, Erwin F. (1991). "S.M.S. Szent István: Hungaria's Only and Ill-Fated Dreadnought". Warship International. Toledo, Ohio: International Warship Research Organization. XXVII (2): 112–146. ISSN 0043-0374.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Sokol, Anthony Eugene (1968). The Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy. Annapolis, Maryland: U.S. Naval Institute. OCLC 1912.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Vego, Milan (1982). "The Yugoslav Navy 1918–1941". Warship International. Toledo, Ohio: International Naval Research Organisation. XIX (4): 342–361. ISSN 0043-0374.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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