Th e Koudelka-mission

During the design process of the future Tegetthoff class, an interesting and unprecedented episode occurred: the Austro-Hungarian Navy asked the permission of its great ally, the German Kaiserliche Kriegsmarine, to obtain information about the newest trends in German battleship design. On 17 April 1909, little after the fi rst draft designs of the future dreadnoughts had been completed Mon tecuccoli sent a letter via the Austro-Hungarian Military Attaché in Berlin, Karl von Bienereth to Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the head of the German Reichs ma ri ne amt, asking his permission for an Austro-Hungarian naval offi cer to gather information in strict confi dence on the new German battleships then under construction.122 Th e Marinekom man dant referred to the intention of the k. u. k. Kriegs marine to build 20,000 ton battleships, and he explained his request with the need for the possible quickest decision on the armament of these battleships.

Th e permission from Berlin arrived on 25 April 1909. Kaiser Wilhelm II personally gave the permission to the Reichs marineamt to share confi dential information on the newest German battleships with the Austro-Hungarian ally. Montecuccoli chose his secretary, Fre gat ten kapitän Alfred von Kou del ka for the mission. Koudelka left for Berlin on 28 Apriland arrived back to Vienna on 1 May.

Koudelka was received by Konteradmiral Gustav von Bachmann who introduced him to Tirpitz. Tirpitz made a conversation of two hours with Koudelka, who after leaving the Admiral’s offi ce visited the departments of the Reichsmarineamt escorted by Kapitänleutnant Wernher von Rheinbaben, adjutant of Tirpitz.

Th e British were also interested in the Austro-Hungarian battleship projects, so a British spy followed Koudelka during his visit in Berlin. According to Koudelka, on the morning of 29 April, Tir pitz showed Koudelka the British spy out on the street from the window of his offi ce and asked Kou delka not to wear his uniform.123 On this same day, Tirpitz told Koudelka that the leading principle of the German battleship design was the supremacy of the survivability.124 For this reason German battleships had the maximum possible belt armor and a carefully tested underwater protective system. Tirpitz also advocated for retaining the 15 cm secondary battery under casemate armor in contrast to British practice which, under the guidance of Admiral Fisher, used smaller calibers125 .

Koudelka had the opportunity of examining the plans of the German dreadnoughts and even given permission to make some sketches to copy details. On the next day he continued the examination of the battleship plans and Ge heim rat Veit showed him the four meters-long cutaway model of the dreadnought Nassau. 126 Before departing to Vienna, Koudelka briefl y met Tirpitz again and gratefully thanked him for the precious information that he had been given.127

In his secret report Koudelka gave an account of the results of the German gunnery and underwater explosion tests. From 1906, the Germans, who had recognized the importance of survivability as one of the lessons from the Russo-Japanese War, conducted careful and expensive tests. Th e gunnery tests were carried out on old armored ships and on full scale sections representing the dreadnought Nassau, the latter being conducted on the Krupp’s artillery test ground of Meppen. Th ey observed that hits on the sections caused fl ames “as high as a building” as projectiles passed through coal bunkers, pulverizing and igniting coal. In Tirpitz’s view

24 Koudelka’s sketch of the torpedo protection system of the German Kaiser class

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