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Post Info TOPIC: Eugene/Montenegro


Hero

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Eugene/Montenegro
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.. in an earlier tread, which I've managed to lose, a question was asked whether Montenegro had a "Navy".  The short answer is "no".


Their only noteworthy outlet to the Adriatic was the port of Bar, which was (is) only a few miles from Cattaro.


As a side story, you likely know King Nikola was a crafty conniver who managed to marry off his daughters for political / monetary gain.  Several married Ruskie princes, and one snared Victor Emanuele.  Considering the ages long Italian interest in Dalmatia, it wasn't long before Italian money started flowing into the "Black Mountain" kingdom.  The port of Bay was dredged, docks built, and paved roads appeared.  A railway line was built, and streets in the capitol received paving.  It is understandable that Nikola counted heavily on both Russia and Italy to guarantee his kingdom's continued existence... which proved to be a false expectation.



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Field Marshal

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so they only had like patrol boats and such? no destroyers?

what about an airforce?

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Legend

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eugene wrote:


so they only had like patrol boats and such? no destroyers? what about an airforce?

No aircraft. The French supplied some air support detached from the seaplane carrier Foudre in the early stages of the war. Initally with 2 Voisin seaplanes. These were not successful, one crashing on its first take off and the other being destroyed on its slip way by a gale after only a few sorties. The Voisins were then replaced with 2 Nieuport Monoplane seaplanes (the British RNAS used 12 of these for training and a picture is available in British Naval Aircraft since 1912  by Owen Thetford). These were more successful but attraced the attention of Austrian Lohner flying boats which bombed the French sea plane base on a daily basis. Although they never hit anythibg important in the base they caused much damage in the surrounding town and consequent local hostility to the French presence forced  a move inland to Lake Antivari. There they experienced difficulties becoming unstuck from the water and taking off. The French claimed that this was because fresh water provides less boyancy than salt. This however does not ring true as the same type of aircraft was successfully operated by the RNAS from Lake Windermere in Cumbria (the English Lake District). What ever the reason the French contingent was soon with drawn and Montenigro had no air support in 1915. However some Montenigrian pilots flew on the Western front as part of the French Air Service with a small mixed unit of Serbian and Montenigrian personnel, the most successful being Montenegrian Lieutenant Pavle Matanovic, who scored three victories.

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