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SMS Krs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SMS Krs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SMS Krs was the name ship of the Krs-class river

monitors built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Completed
in 1892, the ship was part of the Danube Flotilla, and fought
various Allied forces from Belgrade down the Danube to the
Black Sea during World War I. After the war, she was
transferred to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and renamed Morava. She
remained in service throughout the interwar period,
although budget restrictions meant she was not always in
full commission.
During the World War II German-led Axis invasion of
Yugoslavia in April 1941, Morava was the agship of the
2nd Mine Barrage Division, and operated on the Tisza river.
She fought off attacks by the Luftwaffe, and shot down one
enemy aircraft, but was forced to withdraw to Belgrade. Due
to high river levels and low bridges, navigating monitors
was difcult, and she was scuttled by her crew on 11 April.
Some of her crew tried to escape cross-country towards the
southern Adriatic coast, but most surrendered on 14 April.
The remainder made their way to the Bay of Kotor, which
was captured by the Italian XVII Corps on 17 April. She
was later raised by the navy of the Axis puppet state the
Independent State of Croatia and continued in service as
Bosna until June 1944, when she struck a mine and sank.

Contents
1 Description and construction
2 Career
2.1 Commissioning and World War I
2.1.1 Serbian campaign
2.1.2 Romanian campaign
2.2 Interwar period and World War II
2.2.1 191941
2.2.2 194145
3 Notes
4 Footnotes
5 References
5.1 Books
5.2 Periodicals
5.3 Websites

Description and construction

SMS Krs

A painting of SMS Krs bombarding Belgrade in

1914

History
Austria-Hungary
Name:

Krs

Namesake:

Krs River

Laid down:

30 March 1890

Launched:

5 February 1892

Commissioned: 21 April 1892

Out of service: 1918
Fate:

Assigned to the Kingdom of Serbs,

Croats and Slovenes (KSCS)

Notes:

Sister ship SMSSzamos was

dismantled and used as a pontoon

Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Name:

Morava

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

General characteristics
Class and type: Krs-class river monitor

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The name ship of the Krs-class river monitors was built

Displacement: 448 tonnes (441 long tons)

for the Austro-Hungarian Navy by H. Schnichen.[1] She

Length:

54m (177ft 2in)

Beam:

9m (29ft 6in)

Draught:

1.2m (3ft 11in)

1890.[2]

was laid down at Budapest on 30 March

Krs and
her sister ship SMSSzamos doubled the size of AustriaFlotilla.[3]

Hungary's Danube
The two monitors each had an
overall length of 54m (177ft 2in), a beam of 9m (29ft
6in), and a normal draught of 1.2m (3ft 11in). Her

Installed
power:

1,200ihp (890kW)
2 Yarrow boilers

Propulsion:

2 Triple-expansion steam engines

crew consisted of 77 ofcers and enlisted men.[2] The ship

was powered using steam generated by two Yarrow boilers

Speed:

10 knots (19km/h)

Complement:

77 ofcers and enlisted men

driving two triple-expansion steam engines,[1] and carried

Armament:

2 120mm (4.7in)/L35
guns (1 2)
2 66mm (2.6in)/L42 antiaircraft guns
2 machine guns

Armour:

Belt and bulkheads: 50mm

(2.0in)
Deck: 19mm (0.75in)
Conning tower and gun
turrets: 75mm (3.0in)

displacement was 448 tonnes (441 long tons),[1] and her

54 tonnes (53 long tons) of coal.[4] Her engines were rated

at 1,200ihp (890kW) and she was designed to reach a top
speed of 10 knots (19km/h; 12mph).[5]
Krs was armed with two single gun turrets of 120mm
(4.7in)/L35[a] fore and aft, two superring 66mm
(2.6in)/L42 anti-aircraft guns protected by gun shields on
the superstructure fore and aft, and two machine guns.[2][5]
Her main guns red a 26kg (57lb) armour-piercing, high
explosive, shrapnel or fragmentation shell to a maximum

range of 8.2km (5.1mi) at an elevation of 20. They could depress to 6 and elevate to +25.[6] Her armour
consisted of a belt and bulkheads 50mm (2.0in) thick, deck armour 19mm (0.75in) thick, and conning tower
and gun turret armour 75mm (3.0in) thick.[2][5] The armour was produced by the Witkowitz steel works, in
Moravia.[7] She was launched on 5 February 1892 and commissioned on 21 April of the same year.[2] Her sister
ship Szamos was completed in 1893, and was identical except for 50mm (2.0in) armour on her conning
tower.[5]

Career
Commissioning and World War I
Serbian campaign
At the start of World War I, Krs was based at Zemun, just upstream from Belgrade on the Danube. Her
commander was Linienschiffsleutnant[b] (LSL) Josef Meusburger,[2] and she was accompanied by another three
monitors and three patrol boats.[9] Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914, and that night the
otilla red the rst shots of the war against fortications at the ZemunBelgrade railway bridge over the river
Sava and on the Topider Hill, although Krs 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 and mines.[10]
The Austro-Hungarian base at Zemun was briey evacuated due to a Serbian counterattack in September.[11]
On 28 September, Krs, along with the monitor SMSTemes, a patrol boat and a minesweeper, broke through
the mineelds on the Sava near Belgrade and pushed upstream to join the ghting near abac.[12] In November,
French artillery support arrived in Belgrade, endangering the monitor's anchorage.[13] The stalemate continued
until December 1914 when the Serbs briey evacuated Belgrade in the face of an Austro-Hungarian assault,
although Krs did not support this action. After less than two weeks, the Austro-Hungarians had to withdraw
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from Belgrade, and it was soon recaptured by the Serbs with Russian and French assistance. Krs 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.[14]
In January 1915, British artillery arrived in Belgrade, further bolstering its defences.[15] On 22 April 1915, a
British picket boat that had been brought overland by rail from Salonika was used to attack the Danube Flotilla
anchorage at Zemun, ring two torpedoes without success.[16] Bulgaria joined the Central 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, and Krs, along with the majority
of the otilla, was heavily engaged in support of the crossings near the Belgrade Fortress and Ada Ciganlija
island.[17] During the nal river crossing and support of the resulting bridgehead, the ship provided close
support, during which her stack was hit and damaged. The following day, Krs assisted SMS Enns when the
latter took a direct hit and began to take on water.[18]
Following the capture of Belgrade, the otilla sailed downstream to Orova near the HungarianRomanian
border and waited for the lower Danube to be swept for mines. It then escorted a series of munitions convoys
down the Danube to Lom, from where they were transferred to the Bulgarian railway system for shipment to
the Ottoman Empire.[19]
Romanian campaign
In November 1915, Krs and the other monitors were assembled at Rustschuk, Bulgaria.[19] 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 the Entente. To protect the Danube's 480km (300mi) border between Romania and
Bulgaria, the otilla established a sheltered base in the Belene Canal.[20] When the Romanians entered the war
on 27 August 1916, the monitors were again at Rustschuk, and were immediately attacked by three improvised
torpedo boats operating out of the Romanian river port of Giurgiu. The torpedoes that were red missed the
monitors but struck a lighter loaded with fuel. The Second Monitor Division, consisting of Krs and three
other monitors, was tasked with shelling Giurgiu. This bombardment set re to oil storage tanks as well as the
railway station and magazines, and sank several Romanian lighters. While the attack was underway, the First
Monitor Division escorted supply ships back to the Belene anchorage. The Krs and her companions then
destroyed two Romanian patrol boats and an improvised minelayer on their way back to Belene. This was
followed by forays of the monitors both east and west of Belene, during which both Turnu Mgurele and
Zimnicea were shelled.[21]
In April 1918, Krs, along with three other monitors, two patrol boats and a tug, were formed into
Flottenabteilung Wulff (Fleet Division Wulff) under the command of Flottenkapitn (Fleet Captain) Olav
Wulff. Flottenabteilung Wulff was sent through the mouth of the Danube and across the Black Sea to Odessa,
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 at Brila on 12 September. On 16
October, Krs and the rest of the First Monitor Division sailed from Brila to Belene. For several weeks the
Danube Flotilla was engaged in protecting Austro-Hungarian troops retreating towards Budapest, ghting
French and irregular Serbian forces as they withdrew; the otilla arrived in Belene on 6 November.[22]

Interwar period and World War II

191941
Immediately after the Armistice of Villa Giusti signed by the Austro-Hungarians on 3 November 1918, Krs
was crewed by sailors of the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (KSCS, later the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia) in 191819. Under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye concluded in September
1919, Krs was transferred to the KSCS
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1919, Krs was transferred to the KSCS along with a

range of other vessels, including three other river monitors,
but was ofcially handed over to the KSCS Navy and
renamed Morava in 1920.[23] Her sister ship Szamos was
dismantled and used as a pontoon.[5] In 192526, Morava
was retted, 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.[24] In 1932, the British naval
attach reported that Yugoslav ships were engaging in little
gunnery training, and few exercises or manoeuvres, due to

Morava in 1924

reduced budgets.[25]
194145
On 6 April 1941, when the World War II German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia began, Morava was based at
Stara Kanjia on the Tisza river, as the agship of the 2nd Mine Barrage Division.[26] This force was
responsible for the Hungarian border, and came under the operational control of the 7th Infantry Division
Potiska.[27] The remainder of the 2nd Mine Barrage Division consisted of the river tug R-XXI, the river
transport Senta, and a few mobilised customs motorboats,[26] based further south on the Tisza at Senta.[27] On 7
April, Morava withdrew to Senta, where she was attacked by German aircraft. According to her commander,
Porunik bojnog broda[c] Boidar Aranelovi, her crew shot down one German aircraft and captured a
Luftwaffe Oberstleutnant.[29][d] On 10 April, Morava was ordered to withdraw to conform with the retreat of
the 2nd Army Group of the Royal Yugoslav Army from Baka and Baranja.[31] On the evening of 11 April,
Morava anchored at the conuence of the Danube and Sava near Belgrade, along with her fellow monitors
Vardar and Sava, and Aranelovi took command of the otilla. The three captains conferred, and decided to
scuttle their vessels due to the high water levels in the rivers and low bridges, which meant insufcient
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 ofcers and men aboard the vessel, 95 were
killed.[32][33]
After the scuttling of the monitors, around 450 ofcers and men from the Morava and various other riverine
vessels gathered at Obrenovac, and armed only with personal weapons and some machine guns stripped from
the scuttled vessels, started towards the Bay of Kotor in the southern Adriatic in two groups. [34] The larger of
the two groups only made it as far as Sarajevo on 14 April before they surrendered.[35] The smaller group made
their way to the Bay of Kotor,and was captured by the Italian XVII Corps on 17 April.[36]
Morava was later raised and repaired by the navy of an Axis puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia, in
which she served as Bosna. She served alongside her fellow monitor Sava, which had also been raised and
repaired, but retained her name. Along with six captured motorboats and ten auxiliary vessels, they made up the
riverine police force of the Croatian state.[37] Bosna was part of the 2nd Patrol Group of the River Flotilla
Command, headquartered at Zemun.[38] She struck a mine near Bosanski Novi on the River Una and sank in
June 1944.[39] The following year she was raised and broken up.[2]

Notes
a. L/35 denotes the length of the gun. In this case, the L/35 gun is 35 calibre, meaning that the gun was 35 times as long
as the diameter of its bore.
b. Equivalent to an Austro-Hungarian Army Hauptman (captain).[8]
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c. Equivalent to a United States Navy lieutenant commander.[28]

d. Oberstleutnant was equivalent to a United States Army lieutenant colonel.[30]

Footnotes
1. Greger 1976, pp.138139.
2. Pawlik, Christ & Winkler 1989, p.44.
3. Sondhaus 1994, p.87.
4. Jane's Information Group 1989, p.315.
5. Greger 1976, p.139.
6. Friedman 2011, p.290.
7. Sondhaus 1994, p.126.
8. Deak 1990, Introduction.
9. Halpern 2012, p.262.
10. Halpern 2012, pp.263265.
11. Halpern 2012, p.263.
12. Halpern 2012, pp.263264.
13. Halpern 2012, p.265.
14. Halpern 2012, pp.265266.
15. Halpern 2012, p.266.
16. Halpern 2012, pp.270271.
17. Halpern 2012, p.272.
18. Halpern 2012, p.273.
19. Halpern 2012, p.274.
20. Halpern 2012, p.275.
21. Halpern 2012, p.277.

21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.

Halpern 2012, p.277.

Halpern 2012, pp.284286.
Gardiner 1985, p.426.
Jarman 1997a, p.732.
Jarman 1997b, p.451.
Niehorster 2013a.
Terzi 1982, p.168.
Niehorster 2013b.
Terzi 1982, p.313.
Stein 1984, p.295.
Terzi 1982, p.375.
Terzi 1982, pp.391392.
Chesneau 1980, p.357.
Terzi 1982, p.432.
Terzi 1982, pp.432 & 405.
Terzi 1982, p.457.
Chesneau 1980, pp.357 & 359.
Niehorster 2013c.
Naval Records Club 1968, p.333.

References
Books
Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 19221946. London, England: Conway
Maritime Press. ISBN978-0-85177-146-5.
Deak, Istvan (1990). Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Ofcer Corps, 18481918.
New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-992328-1.
Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War I. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN978-184832-100-7.
Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 19061921. London, England: Conway
Maritime Press. ISBN978-0-85177-245-5.
Greger, Ren (1976). Austro-Hungarian Warships of World War I. London, England: Allan. ISBN978-0-7110-06232.
Halpern, Paul G. (2012) [1994]. A Naval History of World War I (3 ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN978-0-87021-266-6.
Jane's Information Group (1989) [1946/47]. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II. London, England: Studio
Editions. ISBN978-1-85170-194-0.
Jarman, Robert L., ed. (1997a). Yugoslavia Political Diaries 19181965. 1. Slough, Berkshire: Archives Edition.
ISBN978-1-85207-950-5.
Jarman, Robert L., ed. (1997b). Yugoslavia Political Diaries 19181965. 2. Slough, Berkshire: Archives Edition.
ISBN978-1-85207-950-5.
Pawlik, Georg; Christ, Heinz; Winkler, Herbert (1989). Die K.u.K. Donauottille 18701918 [The K.u.K. Danube
Flotilla 18701918] (in German). Graz, Austria: H. Weishaupt Verlag. ISBN978-3-900310-45-5.
Sondhaus, Lawrence (1994). The Naval Policy of Austria-Hungary, 18671918: Navalism, Industrial Development,
and the Politics of Dualism. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press. ISBN978-1-55753-034-9.
Stein, George H. (1984). The Waffen SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War, 193945. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press. ISBN978-0-8014-9275-4.
Terzi, Velimir (1982). Slom Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1941: Uzroci i posledice poraza [The Collapse of the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia in 1941: Causes and Consequences of Defeat] (PDF) (in Serbo-Croatian). 2. Belgrade, Yugoslavia:
Narodna knjiga. OCLC10276738.

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Periodicals
Naval Records Club (1968). "Yugoslavian monitors". Warship International. Toledo, Ohio: International Naval
Research Organization. 5: 333. OCLC1647131.

Websites
Niehorster, Leo (2013a). "Balkan Operations Order of Battle Royal Yugoslavian Navy River Flotilla 6th April
1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
Niehorster, Leo (2013b). "Royal Yugoslav Armed Forces Ranks". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
Niehorster, Leo (2013c). "Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia Order of Battle Croatian Navy 1st July
1941". Leo Niehorster. Retrieved 11 March 2015.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SMS_Krs&oldid=741536084"

Categories: 1892 ships Ships built in Austria-Hungary World War I naval ships of Austria-Hungary
World War I monitors World War II monitors Maritime incidents in April 1941
World War II naval ships of Yugoslavia Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy Riverine warfare
Navy of the Independent State of Croatia Scuttled vessels Ships sunk by mines
Maritime incidents in June 1944
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