The Novara class (sometimes called the Helgoland class or the Admiral Spaun class) was a class of three scout cruisers built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for the Battle of Novara, the class comprised , , and . Construction started on the ships shortly before World War I; Saida and Helgoland were both laid down in 1911, Novara followed in 1912. Two of the three warships were built in the Ganz-Danubius shipyard in Fiume; Saida was built in the Cantiere Navale Triestino shipyard in Monfalcone. The Novara-class ships hold the distinction for being the last cruisers constructed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
Saida and Helgoland were commissioned into the fleet in the opening weeks of World War I, in August and September 1914, respectively. Novara followed in January 1915. All three ships saw limited action during the first year of the war, and following Italy's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915, the ships participated in a bombardment of the Italian coastline. Throughout the rest of 1915, the Novara-class cruisers engaged in various operations across the Adriatic Sea and the Strait of Otranto.
All of the Novaras were assigned to the First Torpedo Flotilla of the Austro-Hungarian Navy upon their commissioning, with Saida named the flotilla leader. and were initially stationed out of the naval base at Sebenico, before eventually being deployed to Cattaro. Throughout the rest of 1915 and 1916, all three ships saw extensive combat in several raids directed at the Otranto Barrage which prohibited the bulk of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from leaving the Adriatic Sea. These actions culminated in the Battle of the Strait of Otranto in May 1917, where the Novaras participated in the largest surface engagement of the Adriatic Campaign of World War I. The ensuing battle resulted in an Austro-Hungarian victory, though Novara suffered damage.
Emboldened by this operation and determined to break the Otranto Barrage with a major attack on the strait, Austria-Hungary's newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet (German: Flottenkommandant) Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya organized a massive attack on the Allied forces with the three Novara-class cruisers, alongside seven battleships, one cruiser, four destroyers, four torpedo boats, and numerous submarines and aircraft, but the operation was abandoned after the battleship was sunk by the motor torpedo boat MAS-15 on the morning of 10 June.
After the sinking of Szent István, the ships returned to port where they remained for the rest of the war. When Austria-Hungary was facing defeat in October 1918, the Austrian government transferred its navy to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in order to avoid having to hand the ship over to the Allies. Following the Armistice of Villa Giusti in November 1918, the Novara-class cruisers were divided between Italy and France, with Saida and Helgoland both being ceded to the Italians before being renamed Venezia and Brindisi respectively, while Novara was handed over to France and renamed Thionville. The Novara-class cruisers were the largest ships of Austro-Hungarian Navy to serve under the flag of another nation after the war, having been transferred to the victors. After serving in the Italian Regia Marina for 17 years, Venezia and Brindisi were sold for scrap in March 1937; Thionville was decommissioned from the French Navy in 1932 and broken up for scrap in 1941.
Background
In 1904, the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of 10 battleships of various types, three armored cruisers, six protected cruisers, eight torpedo vessels, and 68 torpedo craft. The total tonnage of the navy was . While the navy was capable of defending the coastline of Austria-Hungary, it was drastically outclassed by other major Mediterranean navies, namely Italy and the United Kingdom. Following the establishment of the Austrian Naval League in September 1904, and the October appointment of Vice-Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli to the posts of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (German: Marinekommandant) and Chief of the Naval Section of the War Ministry (German: Chef der Marinesektion), the Austro-Hungarian Navy began an expansion program suitable for that of a Great Power. Montecuccoli immediately pursued the efforts championed by his predecessor, Admiral Hermann von Spaun, and pushed for a greatly expanded and modernized navy.
The Novara-class cruisers were developed at a time when Austria-Hungary's naval policy began to shift away from simply coastal defense, to projecting power into the Adriatic and even Mediterranean Seas. This change in policy was motivated by both internal and external factors. New railroads had been constructed through Austria's Alpine passes between 1906 and 1908, linking Trieste and the Dalmatian coastline to the rest of the Empire and providing the interior of Austria-Hungary with quicker access to the sea than ever before. Lower tariffs on the port of Trieste aided the expansion of the city and a similar growth in Austria-Hungary's merchant marine. These changes necessitated the development of a new line of battleships capable of more than the defense of Austria-Hungary's coastline. Prior to the turn of the century, sea power had not been a priority in Austrian foreign policy, and the navy had little public interest or support. The appointment of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and a prominent and influential supporter of naval expansion – to the position of admiral in September 1902 greatly increased the importance of the navy in the eyes of both the general public and the Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments. Franz Ferdinand's interest in naval affairs stemmed primarily from his belief that a strong navy would be necessary to compete with Italy, which he viewed as Austria-Hungary's greatest regional threat.
Austro-Italian naval arms race The Novara-class cruisers were authorized when Austria-Hungary was engaged in a naval arms race with its nominal ally, Italy. Italy's Regia Marina was considered the most-important naval power in the region which Austria-Hungary measured itself against, often unfavorably. The disparity between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian navies had existed for decades; in the late 1880s Italy boasted the third-largest fleet in the world, behind the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. While that disparity had been somewhat equalized with the Imperial Russian Navy and the German Imperial Navy surpassing the Italian Navy in 1893 and in 1894, by 1904 the balance began to shift towards Italy's favor once more. Indeed, by 1904 the size of the Italian Regia Marina was by tonnage was over twice that of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and while the two nations had relatively even numbers of battleships, Italy had over twice as many cruisers.
+Naval strength of Italy and Austria-Hungary in 1904TypeItalyAustria-HungaryItalian/Austro-Hungarian tonnage ratioNumberTonnageNumberTonnageBattleships13101.9:1Armored cruisers632.1:1Protected cruisers1462.1:1Torpedo vessels1582.5:1Torpedo Craft145682.4:1Total195952.3:1
Proposals
The Novara-class ships were first conceived on paper in early 1905 when Montecuccoli drafted his first proposal for a modern Austrian fleet as part of his plan to construct a navy large enough to contest the Adriatic Sea. This initial plan consisted of 12 battleships, four armored cruisers, eight scout cruisers, 18 destroyers, 36 high seas torpedo craft, and 6 submarines. While specifics had yet to be drawn up, the four cruisers in Montecuccoli's plan would ultimately become and the three ships of the Novara class. While the Austrian and Hungarian Delegations for Common Affairs approved Montecuccoli's program in part at the end of 1905, the budget only included for the three s, the cruiser Admiral Spaun, and six destroyers. While Montecuccoli's 1907 naval budget was able to secure funding for Admiral Spaun, it was not until 1909 that the Novara-class cruisers made it from the drawing board into the navy's budget.
Taking advantage of political support for naval expansion he had obtained in both Austria and Hungary since coming into office, and Austrian fears of a war with Italy over the Bosnian Crisis during the previous year, Montecuccoli drafted a new memorandum to Emperor Franz Joseph I in January 1909 proposing an enlarged Austro-Hungarian Navy consisting of 16 battleships, 12 cruisers, 24 destroyers, 72 seagoing torpedo boats, and 12 submarines. This memorandum was essentially a modified version of his 1905 plan, though notable changes included four additional dreadnought battleships with a displacement of at load which would later become the s as well as three cruisers modeled after Admiral Spaun, which was nearing completion. These three ships would each have a displacement of .
The subsequent leaking of this proposal to the general press led to an intensification of the naval arms race between Austria-Hungary and Italy, and diverted most public attention towards the competing dreadnought battleship proposals emerging from both Vienna and Rome. Nevertheless, Montecuccoli did not neglect the other aspects of his proposed program and in September 1909 he proposed to the Austro-Hungarian Ministerial Council a budget for 1910 which would authorize construction on the three cruisers of the Novara class, alongside the four dreadnoughts of the Tegetthoff class and several torpedo boats and submarines. Once again, Montecuccoli's desire to construct a new class of cruisers was delayed, this time due to the financial costs Austria-Hungary took on following the annexation of Bosnia and the mobilization of her fleet and army at the height of the diplomatic crisis stemming from the annexation. Rather than being given the funding needed to begin construction on the Novara-class cruisers, the navy was instead given funds only to speed up completion of the s and Admiral Spaun.
Budget negotiations
Faced with another setback, Montecuccoli drafted a second memorandum to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 30 May 1910, once again calling for a strengthened navy which included three Novara-class cruisers. Recent developments following the Bosnian Crisis, such as Italy's announced naval expansion, the construction of the new Italian dreadnought battleship , and the modernization of Italy's torpedo flotilla all led Montecuccoli to warn the Emperor that the navy would be unable to protect Austria-Hungary's coastline, barring the "urgent and quickest possible completion" of his naval expansion program. This program included four proposed Tegetthoff-class battleships, the three Novara-class cruisers, six destroyers, 12 torpedo boats, six submarines, and four river monitors to patrol the Danube. Montecuccoli's plans were to cost 330 million Kronen and would be completed by 1915.
The Emperor supported this proposal and his support, combined with that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the Austrian Naval League, were sufficient for Montecuccoli to obtain the necessary funds he needed from the Austrian and Hungarian delegations in December 1910. By this time, some of the dreadnought battleships in his plan, and , had already been laid down, effectively forcing the hand of the remaining members of the Austro-Hungarian government who opposed Montecuccoli's project. The final version of Montecuccoli's proposal included a slight modification, with the build range for the ships expanding to 1916, and the final cost being brought down to 312.4 million Kronen. Despite heated debate among the deputies, including an attempt to kill the proposal outright and initiate talks with Italy to end the growing arms race between Austria-Hungary and its nominal ally, the vast majority of both the Austrian and Hungarian delegations supported Montecuccoli's plan to expand the navy.