r/Austrohungarian

The SMS U5

SM U-5 or U-V was the lead boat of the U-5 class of submarines or U-boats built for and operated by the Austro-Hungarian Navy (German language: [Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine or K.u.K. Kriegsmarine] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) before and during the First World War. The submarine was built as part of a plan to evaluate foreign submarine designs, and was the first of three boats of the class built by Whitehead & Co. of Fiume after a design by American John Philip Holland.

U-5 was laid down in April 1907 and launched in February 1909. The double-hulled submarine was just over 105 feet (32 m) long and displaced between 240 and 273 metric tons (265 and 301 short tons), depending on whether surfaced or submerged. U-5's design had inadequate ventilation and exhaust from her twin gasoline engines often intoxicated the crew. The boat was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy in April 1910, and served as a training boat—sometimes making as many as ten cruises a month—through the beginning of the First World War in 1914.

The submarine scored most of her wartime successes during the first year of the war while under the command of Georg Ritter von Trapp. The French armoured cruiser Léon Gambetta, sunk in April 1915, was the largest ship sunk by U-5. In May 1917, U-5 hit a mine and sank with the loss of six men. She was raised, rebuilt, and recommissioned, but sank no more ships. At the end of the war, U-5 was ceded to Italy as a war reparation, and scrapped in 1920. In all, U-5 sank four ships totaling 21,604 gross register tons (GRT).

Design and construction

U-5 was built as part of a plan by the Austro-Hungarian Navy to competitively evaluate foreign submarine designs from Simon Lake, Germaniawerft, and John Philip Holland.[1] The Austro-Hungarian Navy authorized the construction of U-5 (and sister ship, U-6) in 1906 by Whitehead & Co. of Fiume.[2] The boat was designed by American John Philip Holland and licensed by Holland and his company, Electric Boat.[3] U-5 was laid down on 9 April 1907 in the United States, partially assembled, and shipped to Whitehead's for final assembly, a process which, author Edwin Sieche notes, "caused a lot of trouble".[4] She was launched at Fiume on 10 February 1909 by Agathe Whitehead,[3][5][Note 1] and towed to Pola on 17 August.[4]

U-5's design featured a single-hull with a teardrop-shaped body that bore a strong resemblance to modern nuclear submarines.[4] She was 105 feet 4 inches (32.11 m) long by 13 feet 9 inches (4.19 m) abeam and had a draft of 12 feet 10 inches (3.91 m). She displaced 240 metric tons (260 short tons) surfaced, and 273 metric tons (301 short tons) submerged.[6] Her two 45-centimeter (17.7 in) bow torpedo tubes featured unique, cloverleaf-shaped design hatches that rotated on a central axis,[4] and the boat was designed to carry up to four torpedoes.[6] For surface running, U-5 was outfitted with 2 gasoline engines, but suffered from inadequate ventilation, which resulted in frequent intoxication of the crew;[1] her underwater propulsion was by two electric motors.[6] Service career

U-5 was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 1 April 1910,[4] with Linienschiffsleutnant Urban Passerar in command.[7] Over the next three years she served primarily as a training boat, making as many as ten training cruises per month. On 1 May 1911, she hosted a delegation of Peruvian Navy officers that inspected her. In June 1912, she towed a balloon as part of efforts to assess the underwater visibility of hull paint schemes.[4]

At the outbreak of World War I, U-5 was one of only four fully operational U-boats in the Austro-Hungarian Navy fleet.[8] She was initially stationed at the submarine base on Brioni, but was moved to Cattaro by late 1914.[9] U-5 made an unsuccessful attack on a French battleship squadron off Punta Stilo on 3 November. In December, the ship's armament was augmented by a 3.7 cm/23 (1.5 in) quick-firing (QF) deck gun, and had her first radio receiver installed.[10]

In April 1915, Georg Ritter von Trapp assumed command of U-5,[7] and the following month, led the boat in sinking the French armored cruiser Léon Gambetta off Santa Maria di Leuca.[10] On the night of 26 April, Léon Gambetta was patrolling the Straits of Otranto at a leisurely 6.5 knots (12.0 km/h) without the benefit of a destroyer screen. U-5 launched two torpedoes at the French cruiser, hitting with both. The ship was rocked by the explosions of the two torpedoes and went down in ten minutes, taking down with her the entire complement of officers, including Rear Admiral Victor Baptistin Sénès.[11][12] Of the French ship's complement, 648 were killed in the attack;[10] there were 137 survivors.[13] Léon Gambetta was the largest ship of any kind sunk by U-5.[14] Victims Gallery

In June, U-5 helped search for the lost Austro-Hungarian seaplane L 41, and in July, received an upgrade of her deck gun to a 4.7 cm (1.9 in) QF gun.[10] In early August, U-5 was sent out from Lissa when the Austro-Hungarian Navy received word from a reconnaissance aircraft that an Italian submarine had been sighted at Pelagosa.[15] On the morning of 5 August, the Italian submarine Nereide was on the surface, moored under a cliff in the island's harbor.[16] When U-5 surfaced just offshore, Nereide's commanding officer, Capitano di Corvetta Carlo del Greco, cast off the lines and maneuvered to get a shot at von Trapp's boat. Nereide launched a single torpedo at U-5 that missed, after which del Greco ordered his boat submerged. U-5 lined up a shot and launched a single torpedo at the slowly submerging target, striking her, and sending her to the bottom with all hands.[17][Note 2] The Italian captain received the Medaglia d'Oro al Valore Militare for his actions.[18] At the end of August, U-5 captured the 1,034 GRT Greek steamer Cefalonia as a prize off Durazzo.[10] In late November, Friedrich Schlosser succeeded von Trapp as U-5's commanding officer.[7]

Schlosser and U-5 made an unsuccessful attack on an Italian Indomito-class destroyer on 7 June 1916, but the boat managed to torpedo the Italian armed merchant cruiser Principe Umberto off Cape Linguetta on the next day.[10] According to a contemporary account, Principe Umberto and two other ships were transporting troops and materiel under escort of two destroyers.[19] After the torpedo hit, Principe Umberto went down quickly with the loss 1,750 men.[10][19] Principe Umberto was the last ship hit by U-5.[14] Gallery

On 16 May 1917, U-5 was conducting a training cruise in the Fasana Channel near Pula when her stern struck a mine. The boat sank at a depth of 36 meters (118 ft) with a loss of 6 of the 19 men on board. From 20 to 24 May the submarine was raised, and through November underwent a refit. During this reconditioning, a new conning tower was added and the deck gun was upgraded again, this time to a 7.5 cm/30 (3.0 in) gun.[10] Upon completion, U-5 was recommissioned,[10] but had no more war successes.[14] In her career, U-5 sank a total of four ships totaling 21,604 GRT.[14] After the war's end, U-5 was transferred to Venice where she was inspected by British military commissions.[10] U-5 was later ceded to Italy as a war reparation in 1920 and was scrapped.[3]

sources: https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/SM_U-5_(Austria-Hungary)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_von_Trapp

https://wiki.wargaming.net/ru/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Von_Trapp_%D1%81_%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC.jpg

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WW1 Austro-Hungarian military uniforms on display at the Heeresgesichtliche Museum in Vienna

u/JetBolt007 — 1 day ago
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Bosniak-Herzegovinian infantry ("Bosniaks") on guard in front of the War Ministry at the court, Vienna photo by Emil Mayer

source: Damals in Wien. Menschen um die Jahrhundertwende Photographien von Emil Mayer. ISBN 3-85447-532-2 (online)

Julius Kugy a great mountaineer and mountain guide of the Austro-Hungarian Army

Julius Kugy (19 July 1858 – 5 February 1944) was a mountaineer, writer, botanist, humanist, lawyer and officer of Slovenian descent. He wrote mostly in German. He is renowned for his travelogues from opening up the Julian Alps, in which he reflected on the relationship between man, nature, and culture. He opposed competing nationalist ideologies in the Alpe-Adria region, insisting on the need of peaceful co-existence among Slovene, Italian and German peoples.

Julius Kugy was born to a Slovenian family in Gorizia, then part of the Austrian Empire (now in Italy). His father Paul was a farmer from Lind (Lipa) near Arnoldstein in the Carinthian Gail Valley. His mother Giulia was the daughter of the Slovene poet Janez Vesel. The surname Kugy has the same origin as the surnames Kugi, Kogoj, and Kogej.[1] Kugy was educated in a multilingual environment: from an early age he was fluent in three of the four languages of his native Gorizia and Gradisca region: Italian, German, and Friulian. Kugy did not speak Slovene,[2] as he also writes in his book Aus dem Leben eines Bergsteigers. However, he did later learn to read Slovene.[3] During his childhood he would spend the summers in his father's native village of Lind, where he developed his interest in nature and mountains.

Julius attended the German-language secondary school in Trieste and continued his studies at the University of Vienna, graduating in law in 1882. Upon returning to Trieste, he took over the management of the import-export company Pfeifer & Kugy, co-founded by his father.

He explored large portions of the Eastern Alps, dedicating most of his mountaineering career to climbing in the Julian Alps, where he discovered and marked more than 50 new routes. Local guides helped him climb many a previously unconquered peak in the Julian Alps: he became famous for climbing Škrlatica and Jôf di Montasio.

In addition to mountaineering, Kugy was interested in many other subjects such as literature, botany and music. One of the riddles he tried to solve was a mysterious plant species Scabiosa trenta, described by Belsazar Hacquet and later proven by Anton Kerner von Marilaun to be a specimen of the already known Cephalaria leucantha.[4] Together with his friend Albert Bois de Chesne he created an Alpine botanical garden near Bovec. He was among the founders of two amateur music societies in Trieste: the Philharmonic Society and the Palestrinian Chorus. He also donated an organ to the Mekhitarist church in Trieste.

After Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary in 1915, Kugy volunteered to the Austro-Hungarian Army. In the Battles of the Isonzo his mountaineering knowledge and experience proved to be extremely valuable and he was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. He was demobilized after the Battle of Caporetto.

After the war he closed down his company and dedicated his time to writing and lecturing throughout the Slovene and German speaking lands.

During World War II, Kugy rescued several Slovene alpine climbers from the Dachau concentration camp, and he collaborated with the Slovene Partisan underground resistance in Trieste. He died in Trieste in 1944. He was interred in the central city cemetery.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Kugy

u/Longjumping-Kale-283 — 3 days ago

Portrait of an officer and a sergeant at the Russian theater of war

source: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek - Austrian National Library

Accession number WK1/ALB098/29261

u/Longjumping-Kale-283 — 5 days ago
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Some pictures of Austro-Hungarian military uniforms and equipment at the Army Museum Zizkov in Prague

Taken during my visit there earlier today.

u/JetBolt007 — 5 days ago

2nd Infantry Regiment of Polish Auxiliary Corps in Bukovina 1917 or 1918

The soldiers are equipped with a trench 3.7 cm. M15 gun (3.7 cm Infanteriegeschütz M.15)

source: Księga chwały piechoty, Warszawa 1938-1939 Quirini E., Librewski, S.: Ilustrowana kronika Legionów Polskich 1914-1918, Nakładem Głównej Księgarni Wojskowej, Warszawa 1936; s. 189 (339)

u/Longjumping-Kale-283 — 5 days ago