Eventually, Zenta was sunk with 173 men killed and over 50 wounded, but allowing enough time for Ulan to make good her escape.ĭespite Zenta being cut off, the main body of the Austro-Hungarian fleet did not sortie out to do battle as the French had hoped. The French battleships significantly outranged Zenta and so were able to score large numbers of hits without taking any damage themselves. Zenta also had serious disadvantage as the range of her 120 mm cannons was too short, so they were not able to reach the enemy ships. Hopelessly outnumbered, the commander of Zenta decided to attempt to fight his way out and cover Ulan's escape. The Allied Fleet managed to cut off Zenta and Ulan from escaping back to the main Austro-Hungarian fleet. The Allied force consisted of three dreadnought battleships, 10 pre-dreadnought battleships, four armoured cruisers, one protected cruiser and more than 20 destroyers. The French Navy had decided to try to force the Austro-Hungarian Navy into a decisive fleet action by making a sortie into the Adriatic and bait the Austrians into engaging them. When war broke out between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Montenegro, the Austro-Hungarians began a blockade of the Montenegrin coast as well as several bombardments of the various towns and cities there. After blockading the Adriatic for a while the French were forced to withdraw due to lack of supplies. Although Zenta was destroyed, Ulan escaped and the Austrian fleet did not come out of port to meet the Allied fleet. The two Austrian vessels at Antivari were cut off and forced to fight an engagement in order to attempt to free themselves. It was an attempt to bring the Austro-Hungarians into a fleet action. The Austrian light cruiser SMS Zenta and the destroyer SMS Ulan were bombarding the town of Antivari, today known as Bar, when on 16 August 1914 they were cut off by a large Franco-British force that had sortied into the Adriatic. 16th August 1914 Battle of Antivari 1914 The Battle of Antivari was a naval engagement between the French, British and Austro-Hungarian navies at the start of World War I.
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