Freivogel, Zvonimir Austro-Hungarian Destroyers in World War One

The Austro-Hungarian (A-H) destroyers were during the World War One almost daily at sea, together with the scout cruisers and torpedo boats, to accomplish various tasks, beginning with the anti-submarine warfare, over mine sweeping and laying, to the attacks on the enemy maritime communications or on the Otranto Barrage vessels. They served often to receive A-H seaplanes returning from their missions against the enemy coast as well, to help the machines after an emergency landing on sea, and to tow them back to harbor or to rescue their crews.
This richly illustrated book describes all A-H destroyers - called torpedo vessels in the A-H parlance - from the first prototypes to the last unrealized projects. The best and most efficient vessels of the "Tátra" and Ersatz-"Triglav" classes were equal to destroyers of other navies - French, Italian and British operating in the Adriatic and could compete with stronger enemies too. Older destroyers of the "Huszár" class were also very active, together with the much older torpedo gunboats or destroyer predecessors built in the late 19th Century. All these ships are described in detail, with building and tactical and technical data in respective tables, together with the operational history of every A-H destroyer from the commissioning to the end of their service.

The older destroyers of the "Huszár" class operated together with them, but also the old destroyer predecessors built in the late 19th century. In addition to descriptions of the characteristics of these ships, as well as tables with construction and tactical-technical data, the operations of all k.u.k. destroyers from their commissioning to their last decommissioning. During the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian destroyers - together with light cruisers and torpedo boats - were at sea almost every day and carried out a variety of tasks, from submarine hunting, searching for floating mines and laying mines, to attacks on enemy shipping and the ships of the Otranto blockade. They were also deployed to support the Austro-Hungarian seaplanes and waited for them on their return from attacks on targets on the enemy coast to take the distressed aircraft in tow or rescue their crews.