Th e Sinking of the Viribus Unitis

pen to paper and wrote their memoirs on the event. Th e most notable Austrian memorialists were Maschinebetriebsleiter 1. Klasse Karl Mohl, Stabsmaschinewärter Franz Dueller521 and Franz Scheiber. Th ere are many Hungarian survivors who wrote their memoirs. Th e author of the longest and most detailed memoir is Ferenc Pintér, whose votive offering, a tiny anchor mentioned in the Preface, still hangs from the altar screen of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Szeged. Other Hungarian memorialists are Ferenc Magyar, János Szilágyi, Adolf Maritny, Antal Bicskey, János Kovács and the chaplain of the battleship József Sági, who is the main antagonist in Pintér’s story.522 Most of the above listed memorialists wrote more or less realistic and reliable memoires, but naturally not without errors. Among them János Szilágyi was the too-imaginative one. Sometimes he drew the longbow: he wrote of Persian carpets, paintings of Titian and Rembrandt, banknotes, Egyptian cigarettes and Cuban cigars all over the deck.523 It is assumed that there are several other unpublished memoirs which perhaps will be discovered in the future.

Th e wreck of the Szent István lies upside down at a depth of 65 meters. Her bow broke off when she hit the seabed while her stern was still afl oat. Th e four triple turrets are still in place, they did not fall out during the period of seven minutes when the capsized battleship was still afl oat contrary to earlier speculation. Since the early 1990s several Austrian, Croatian and Hungarian diving expeditions have visited the wreck. Now the wreck is a protected site and has a war grave status. Some experts state that the wreck will collapse in the near future under its own weight.

Th e Sinking of the Viribus Unitis After the unsuccessfully Piave off ensive of the Monarchy in June and the successful Allied offensive on the Western Front in August it became evident that the Central Powers had lost the war. After the loss of the Szent István the Austro-Hungarian naval activity was mostly confi ned to submarine warfare. Th e 3 August report of Horthy to the AOK on the state of the fl eet declared that the Navy was still ready for action. Th e Flottenkommandant announced that the mutinous spirit of Cattaro, the South Slav and political propaganda had been successfully repelled by harsh punishments524 and successful counter-propaganda. One type of cure to the internal problems of the Navy proposed by Horthy was the change of sailors with questionable loyalty to new recruits, but the number of the new recruits available was much less than was desired.525

Th e last battle fought by the Austro-Hungarian Navy was the Second Battle of Durazzo of 2 October 1918. A large Allied naval force, including Italian, British, American and Australian units attacked the Albanian port of Durazzo, then in Austro-Hungarian hands. Th ree Italian armored cruisers protected by the Italian dreadnought Dante Alighieri began to bombard the city. Th e two Austro-Hungarian destroyers, one torpedo boat and two submarines which were stationed in the port initially returned the Allied fi re, and then successfully fl ed.

On 24 October, when the internal collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was well underway, the Italian Army launched a major off ensive. Th e defeat and the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy were imminent. On 26 October, Karl I informed Wilhelm II that the German – Austro-Hungarian alliance had come to an end, but the time for a separate peace had long gone. Th e Habsburg Empire was unsavable now. In AprilMay 1918, the Allies fi nally had decided for the dissolution of the Monarchy after the war, so every attempt to save it was now futile.

In the last days of October, the fl eet in Pola was on the verge of mutiny. Horthy, desperately trying to maintain order on 27 October asked help form the AOK, but on the next day he was informed that the Army could not transfer troops to Pola. On 28 October, the larger warships were now in hands of their crews. On 29 October, the situation in Pola further deteriorated. Sailor’s councils were controlling most of the warships, and some sailors began to loot in the city. Th e commander of the submarines, Franz von Th ierry, suggested that he would use his boats against the mutinous ships but it would be against the direct orders of the Emperor. On the night of 28-29 October, a group of civilians under Italian fl ags broke the windows of the Marinekasino of Pola.526

On 29 October, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs comprising the South Slav territories of the Dual Monarchy, was proclaimed in Zagreb.

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64 Viribus Unitis sinking on 1 November 1918 in Pola

Th rough its short history this state remained unrecognized and on 1 December 1918 joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. On 30 October, a conference was held at Schönbrunn, with Emperor Karl, Chief of the General Staff Arthur Arz, Keil and Holub participating in it. Th is conference decided to turn over the fl eet to the new South Slav state. Th e order, signed by Keil was cabled from the AOK to Horthy at Pola at the evening of 30 October. A little later the same telegram was cabled to the Hafenadmiralität of Pola, to the naval base of Cattaro, and to the Bezirkskommandos of Trieste, Fiume and Sebenico.527

Up to this day the question of who was the real originator of the turnover of the fl eet, or what were the real motives behind it, are still open. Karl Fried rich Nowak, an Austrian journalist, in his 1923 book “Chaos” published his theory, that the turnover was made on Horthy’s advice, and its main purpose was to poison the relationship between the South Slavs and Italians. Horthy’s former Chief of Staff , Emil Konek in his note of 1923 strongly denied this theory. He wrote that Horthy as Flottenkommandant in Pola in the last days of October 1918 was not in a position to propose anything. Konek stated that the real advisor was Vizeadmiral Keil. He wrote: “At the fi rst moment this order shocked all of us. […] A little later, reconsidering it, this order seemed as a possible way to avoid the total loss of the fl eet.”528 In a memoir written in 1920 Karl argued that this decision prevented a violent South Slav takeover of the Navy.529

Horthy met the South Slav representatives on the morning of 31 October. Th e transfer ceremonies took place at 4:45 p.m. Horthy left his fl agship, the Viribus Unitis, and a twenty-one gun salute greeted the raising the new fl ag.530 Th e commander of the Viribus Unitis, Janko Vuković was promoted to kontraadmiral and appointed to the commander of the Navy by the National Council of Zagreb.

In 1918 an Italian naval offi cer, Raff aele Rossetti developed a new, torpedo-like device intended to attack ships at anchor, which was capable to carry two divers and two magnetic mines, each fi lled with 180 kg of TNT, called Mignatta (Leech). Rossetti won over Raff aele Paolucci, a medical offi cer, to his cause. Th ey planned to test the Mignatta under real circumstances in Pola harbor. Th ey left little time because the armistice between Italy and the Monarchy was imminent. Th e last ideal date for the action seemed the moonless night of 31 October – 1 November. On 31 October a torpedo boat escorted by the MAS 95 carried the Mignatta from Venice near the Brioni Island. From there the MAS 95 towed the device 600 meters off the entrance of Pola harbor. Rossetti and Paulucci, vested in diver’s suits, boarded the Mignatta and without any diffi culty entered into the harbor. Th ey passed the darkened battleships of the Radetzky class and continued their way toward the well illuminated Viribus Unitis, on which the South Slav crews were celebrating the transfer of the fl eet. Th e two Italians succeeded, not without some diffi culties, to attach one of the magnetic mines to the underwater part of the ship between the starboard 15 cm casemates No IV and V. Th ey were spotted by a searchlight upon leaving the ship. In a hurry they armed the other mine and released the slow

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