User:Peacemaker67/Review of Freivogel 2022

Austro-Hungarian Torpedo Boats in World War One

By Peacemaker67

This is a detailed (over 150 pages) and readable book about a subject that has not received a holistic examination in the past. I bought it when Sturmvogel_66 mentioned it as part of the recent FAC of Yugoslav torpedo boat T2, as it provides some additional detail over and above that provided by sources like older books by Freivogel and others, and a few relevant articles in Warship. My main interest was in the detail about the World War I operations of the two main classes of torpedo boats that ended up in Yugoslav hands after World War I, most of which I have brought to FAC, principally the 250t-class torpedo boats and Kaiman-class torpedo boats. These torpedo boats fought in the Adriatic Sea, which was largely isolated from the wider World War I naval warfare in the North Sea, Atlantic and Mediterranean by the Allied blockade of the Straits of Otranto between Otranto in Italy and Valona (modern day Vlorë) in Albania. The fighting was dominated by Austro-Hungarian bombardments of the Italian coast and concerted attacks on the Otranto Barrage, along with numerous clashes between smaller ships. Italian, French and British ships operated in the Adriatic, but generally battleships on both sides remained in port and cruisers of various types led the larger actions. There was also significant submarine activity by all sides, including German submarines operating from Austro-Hungarian ports. And the most modern classes of Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats were involved in much of this action.

The information in the book is excellent – as with Freivogel's previous books – and is a welcome addition to knowledge on this fairly obscure aspect of World War I. It also contains many previously unpublished photographs, and the bibliography shows the extensive secondary source survey that Freivogel has conducted in German, Serbo-Croatian, Italian, French and English. However, like all of Freivogel's earlier work, the book has obviously not been copy edited by someone with a knowledge of naval history and terminology whose first language is English. The result of this is quite a bit of poor grammar throughout (the classic that is in all his books is "commando bridge" when he means command bridge/bridge), but there are many awkward turns of phrase and translations of technical words. There are few minor factual errors and typos, certainly not enough to significantly mar the book, and they would have been picked up by a thorough copy edit. The second flaw – the lack of an index – is unforgivable in a historical reference book. The bolding of all ship names in the text is a very poor substitute for this omission. Sadly, these two major flaws detract from a book which would be a solid four and a half stars with a solid copy edit and an index. I hope, possibly in vain given that these criticisms are not new, that future editions and books by Freivogel will address them.

Publishing details: Freivogel, Zvonimir (2022). Austro-Hungarian Torpedo Boats in World War One. Zagreb, Croatia: Despot Infinitus. ISBN 978-953-366-063-9.