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Montenegrin campaign | |||||||
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Part of the Serbian campaign of World War I | |||||||
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The Montenegrin campaign of World War I, in January 1916, was a part of the Serbian campaign, in which Austria-Hungary defeated and occupied the Kingdom of Montenegro, an ally of the Kingdom of Serbia.
By January 1916, the Serbian Army had been defeated by an Austrian-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian invasion. The remnants of the Serbian army had retreated through Montenegro and Albania, and were being evacuated by allied ships from 12 December first to Italy and later to Corfu.
The Austro-Hungarian High Command, then at Teschen, decided to use the success in Serbia to knock Montenegro out of the war. The Montenegrin Army that had fought alongside their Serbian allies, had now withdrawn into their own territory, but were still resisting against the Central Powers. Furthermore, the Austrian Commander-in-Chief Conrad von Hötzendorf wanted to take the Italian-held Albanian ports of Durazzo and Valona.
Two Austrian Army corps for this task were formed in December 1915. One in the west under command of Stjepan Sarkotić between Trebinje and Cattaro, composed of the XIX Armeekorps, reinforced with troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia. They were to attack the main body of the Montenegrin army, gathered around Mount Lovćen, supported by French artillery, and a second attack was planned from Trebinje towards the east. In the east and north, the VIII Armeekorps under command of Hermann Kövess von Kövessháza was to attack the Montenegrin troops there.
The VIII Armeekorps, which pursued the withdrawing Montenegrin army, had two tasks. On the one hand to slow down the Montenegrin troops; for this the 62nd and 53rd Infantry Divisions were used. On the other hand, it had to pass the Montenegrin right wing and converge with the XIX Korps on Podgorica.
The 62nd and 53rd Infantry Division entered Montenegro on 5 January 1916 from the North-East and advanced along Tara river towards Pljevlja and Bijelo Polje, where they were stopped by the Montenegrins in the Battle of Mojkovac. At the same time, the Austrian 10th and 18th Mountain brigades advanced from Novi Pazar and on 10 January took the city of Berane. The 205th and 9th Mountain brigades advanced westwards from Priština and took Peć and Velika. The 57th Infantry Division advanced from Prizren.
Mount Lovćen was the key defensive position of the Montenegrin army, who defended it as a citadel with roughly two-thirds of their forces. On 8 August 1914 the Montenegrin High Command commenced operations against the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro, the Austro-Hungarian Kriegsmarine's southernmost base in the Adriatic Sea. It was just across the border from Mount Lovćen where the Montenegrin army had placed several batteries of artillery, and on the same day, Montenegrin guns commenced firing on Austro-Hungarian fortifications at Cattaro which had been established by the Austro-Hungarian (Croatian) general Stjepan Sarkotić. The forts of Cattaro and the armoured cruiser SMS Kaiser Karl VI returned the fire, aided by reconnaissance from navy seaplanes. However, on 13 September, Austrian-Hungarian reinforcements arrived from Pola, in the form of three active pre-dreadnought coastal battleships, the SMS Monarch, SMS Wien, and SMS Budapest. They outgunned the Montenegrins, who nevertheless put up a fight for several weeks, with artillery duels almost daily.
With the entry of France into the war, the French realised that the capture of Cattaro might well be beneficial to their own navy and so they landed an artillery detachment of four 15 cm and four 12 cm naval guns under the command of Capitaine de frégate Grellier, at Antivari, on 18–19 September. It took Grellier a month to move his guns inland but eventually his batteries were set up and positioned in fortifications on the south side of Mount Lovćen. On 19 October the French guns opened fire on the Austro-Hungarian positions. The Austro-Hungarians called for reinforcements and on 21 October Admiral Anton Haus despatched the modern semi-dreadnought battleship SMS Radetzky. With a broadside of four 30.5 cm guns and four 24 cm guns, the Radetzky would tip the balance of the battle in the favour of the Austro-Hungarians. Naval seaplanes had been busy taking photographs and mapping accurate positions, and at 16:27, on 22 October all of the battleships opened fire on these position. Radetzky made a number of direct hits on the guns and fortified positions on the mountain and on 24 October one of the French 12 cm guns was completely knocked out. On 26 October the Radetzky opened fire before sunrise, catching the French and Montenegrins off guard, and a number of batteries and fortifications were destroyed during what was a heavy bombardment, including another French 12 cm gun.
By 10:00, Allied firing from Mount Lovćen had ceased. The following day the Radetzky repositioned closer to the shore and blasted the Allied positions further. Grellier conceded defeat and pulled out his remaining saveable guns. Likewise, the Montenegrins abandoned their fortifications. By November, the French High Command decided to give up its campaign to neutralize and capture Cattaro, and the Radetzky returned to Pola on 16 December. [1]
On 8 January 1916 a new attack against Montenegrin forces on Mt.Lovćen began with a massive artillery bombardment followed by an Austro-Hungarian army offensive into Montenegro. The Austrian's coastal battleship Budapest was again used to assist the troops against Lovćen's renewed defences to such good effect that on the 10th, the Austro-Hungarian troops took the Lovćen Pass and the adjacent heights, where the French guns had previously been. The two heavy bombardments of Mount Lovćen played a decisive role in breaking the morale of the defenders of the mountain, and by 11 January, Mount Lovćen was in Austrian hands. [1]
In the meantime, two independent brigades under Feldmarschalleutnant Braun advanced towards Nikšić, covering the left flank and threatening to cut off the Montenegrins from the north-east. Braun, however, encountered stiff resistance and advanced only 10 km in the direction of Nikšić.
On 13 January 1916, the vanguard of the Austrian army reached the Montenegrin capital Cetinje.
Negotiations for an armistice started on 13 January, after the fall of Cetinje. When told of the terms, King Nicholas I of Montenegro at first refused to sign the Armistice and left for Albania and from there travelled to Italy on 19 January. From there he issued an order to Janko Vukotić demanding that the army continue to fight and eventually retreat with the Serbians to Albania and Corfu but instead the government ministers who had remained in Montenegro issued a proclamation to the Montenegrin armed forces to surrender all weapons and signed the armistice, withdrawing Montenegro from the war.
On 1 March a provisional military government was established under Viktor Weber Edler von Webenau, he was replaced by Heinrich Clam-Martinic on 10 July 1917, who filled this position until the end of the war.
During the following weeks the troops of the 3rd Austro-Hungarian Army occupied the rest of Montenegro and invaded Albania, taking Scutari and finally Durazzo at the end of February. (The evacuation of the Serbian army had been completed by 10 February.)
General Stjepan Sarkotić was made a Hungarian baron and officially styled Stefan Baron Sarkotić von Lovćen.
Major General Ignaz Trollmann, commander of the XIX Corps, was ennobled as baron in 1917 with the style of Freiherr Trollmann von Lovcenberg.
General Kövess was awarded the Silver Merit Medal (Signum Laudis) with war-ribbon on 12 January 1916 and promoted to Generaloberst on 26 February 1916.
SMS Zrínyi was a Radetzky-class semi-dreadnought battleship (Schlachtschiff) of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, named for the Zrinski, a Croatian-Hungarian noble family. Zrínyi and her sisters, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Radetzky, were the last pre-dreadnoughts built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
Lovćen is a mountain and national park in southwestern Montenegro. It is the inspiration behind the names Montenegro and Crna Gora, both of which mean "Black Mountain" and refer to the appearance of Mount Lovćen when covered in dense forests. The name Crna Gora was first mentioned in a charter issued by Stefan Milutin in 1276 and was used for several regions across medieval Serbian lands, including Skopska Crna Gora and Užička Crna Gora.
The Battle of Mojkovac was a World War I battle fought between 6 and 7 January 1916 near Mojkovac, in today's Montenegro, between the armies of Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Montenegro. It ended with a decisive Montenegrin victory.
The Radetzky class was a group of three semi-dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1907 and 1910. All ships were built by the STT shipyard in Trieste. They were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarians, and the penultimate class of any type of Austro-Hungarian battleship completed. The class comprised three ships: Radetzky, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, and Zrínyi. They were armed with four 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in two twin turrets and eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four twin turrets.
Stjepan Freiherr Sarkotić von Lovćen was an Austro-Hungarian Army generaloberst of Croatian descent who served as Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina and military commander of Dalmatia and Montenegro during the First World War.
The Adriatic Campaign of World War I was a naval campaign fought between the Central Powers and the Mediterranean squadrons of Great Britain, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Australia, and the United States.
SMS Radetzky was the first of the three Radetzky-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was named for the 19th-century Austrian field marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. Radetzky and her sisters, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Zrínyi, were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy—they were followed by the larger and significantly more powerful Tegetthoff-class dreadnoughts.
The Battle of Antivari or Action off Antivari was a naval engagement between a large fleet of French and British warships and two ships of the Austro-Hungarian navy at the start of the First World War. The old Austrian protected cruiser SMS Zenta and the destroyer SMS Ulan were blockading the Montenegrin port of Antivari, when on 16 August 1914, they were surprised and cut off by a large Anglo-French force that had sortied into the Adriatic. Zenta fought and was destroyed, to give Ulan a chance to escape, which she did. The ships of the Austrian fleet at Cattaro, unaware of events, did not come out of port to meet the Allied fleet. After blockading the Adriatic for a short while the French were forced to withdraw due to a lack of supplies.
SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was an Austro-Hungarian Radetzky-class pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 June 1910. She was named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The first ship of her class to be built, she preceded Radetzky by more than six months. Her armament included four 30.5 cm (12 in) guns in two twin turrets, and eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four twin turrets.
The Monarch class was a class of three coastal defense ships built by Austria-Hungary at the end of the 19th century. The Monarchs were the first ships of their type to utilize turrets. The class comprised three ships: SMS Monarch, SMS Wien, and SMS Budapest, each armed with four 240 mm (9 in) L/40 guns in two turrets and capable of 15.5 knots at full speed. Budapest was fitted with slightly more modern and powerful engines, giving her a top speed of 17.5 knots.
SMS Wien was one of three Monarch-class coastal defense ships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1890s. After her commissioning, the ship participated in an international blockade of Crete during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Wien and the two other Monarch-class ships made several training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 1900s. They formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned Habsburg-class predreadnought battleships at the turn of the century. In 1906 the three Monarchs were placed in reserve and only recommissioned for annual summer training exercises. After the start of World War I, Wien was recommissioned and assigned to 5th Division together with her sisters.
SMS Budapest was a Monarch-class coastal defense ship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1890s. After their commissioning, Budapest and the two other Monarch-class ships made several training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 1900s. Budapest and her sisters formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned Habsburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships at the turn of the century. In 1906 the three Monarchs were placed in reserve and only recommissioned during the annual summer training exercises. After the start of World War I, Budapest was recommissioned and assigned to 5th Division together with her sisters.
SMS Kaiser Karl VI was the second of three armored cruisers built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste between June 1896 and May 1900, when she was commissioned into the fleet. Kaiser Karl VI represented a significant improvement over the preceding design—Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia—being faster and more heavily armed and armored. She provided the basis for the third design, Sankt Georg, which featured further incremental improvements. Having no overseas colonies to patrol, Austria-Hungary built the ship solely to reinforce its battle fleet.
SMS Monarch was the lead ship of the Monarch-class coastal defense ship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1890s. After their commissioning, Monarch and the two other Monarch-class ships made several training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 1900s. Monarch and her sisters formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned Habsburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships at the turn of the century. In 1906 the three Monarchs were placed in reserve and only recommissioned during the annual summer training exercises. After the start of World War I, Budapest was recommissioned and assigned to 5th Division together with her sisters.
Fort Vrmac is a former fortification of the Austro-Hungarian Empire located on the southern end of the Vrmac ridge near Tivat in Montenegro. Established in 1860, the present structure was built between 1894 and 1897, and saw action during the First World War, when it was heavily bombarded by the Montenegrins. It was repaired and disarmed before the end of the war and was abandoned after a period of occupation by Yugoslav troops. Today it is one of the best preserved Austro-Hungarian fortifications in the Bay of Kotor area.
Fort Gorazda is a fortification built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire near Kotor in Montenegro. The current fort was built between 1884–86 and replaced an earlier structure on the same site; its most notable feature is a 100-ton Gruson rotating turret on its roof, the last remaining example of its type. The fort was used by the Austrians in artillery duels against Montenegrin batteries stationed on Mount Lovćen during the First World War. The Montenegrins were unable to destroy it and were pushed out of range in 1916 by an Austrian offensive. The damage to the fort was repaired and its guns were removed to support the Austrian field army. It was used as a depot by the Yugoslav Army until as recently as the early 1990s. It was subsequently abandoned and can be visited by the public.
Fort Trašte is a fortification built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire near Tivat in Montenegro. Built on a hill between 1907 and 1909, it overlooks the Bay of Trašte on one side and the plain of Tivatsko polje on the other. The fort was intended to secure the bay against possible landings from the sea. It was bombarded during World War I but sustained little damage. The collapse of the empire in 1918 led to the abandonment of the fort. It is now derelict but is still in fairly good condition externally, with its rotating gun cupolas still in situ.
The Kaiser Franz Joseph I class was a class of two protected cruisers built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I, the class comprised SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I and SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth. Construction took place throughout the late 1880s, with both ships being laid down in 1888. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was built by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste, while Kaiserin Elisabeth was built at the Pola Navy Yard in Pola. The Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class ships were the first protected cruisers constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was the first ship of the class to be commissioned into the fleet in July 1890. She was followed by Kaiserin Elisabeth in November 1892.
SMS Kaiser Franz Joseph I was a protected cruiser built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for the Austrian emperor and Hungarian king Franz Joseph I, Kaiser Franz Joseph I was the lead ship of her namesake class. Constructed by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino in Trieste, she was laid down in January 1888 and launched in May 1889. Kaiser Franz Joseph I was commissioned into the Navy in June 1890. As the first protected cruiser constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, she was intended to serve as Austria-Hungary's response to the Italian cruisers Giovanni Bausan and Etna. Her design was heavily influenced by the Jeune École, a naval strategy which had gained prominence in the 1880s as a means to combat a larger and more heavily armored navy of battleships through the use of torpedo flotillas.