Article of the day for July 28, 2017
The Article of the day for July 28, 2017 is Yugoslav monitor Sava.
The ship that became the Yugoslav monitor Sava began as SMS Bodrog, a river monitor built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She and two other monitors fired the first shots of World War I on the night of 28 July 1914, when they shelled Serbian defences near Belgrade. She fought the Serbian and Romanian armies during the war, and was captured in its closing stages. She was transferred to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and renamed Sava. During the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, she fought off several air attacks, but was scuttled on 11 April. Sava was later raised by the Independent State of Croatia, an Axis puppet state, and continued to serve under that name until 1944 when she was again scuttled. Following World War II, Sava was raised again, and was refurbished to serve in the Yugoslav Navy from 1952 to 1962. After that she became a commercial gravel barge. In 2005, the government of Serbia granted her limited heritage protection after citizens demanded that she be preserved as a floating museum.
The ship that became the Yugoslav monitor Sava began as SMS Bodrog, a river monitor built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She and two other monitors fired the first shots of World War I on the night of 28 July 1914, when they shelled Serbian defences near Belgrade. She fought the Serbian and Romanian armies during the war, and was captured in its closing stages. She was transferred to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and renamed Sava. During the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, she fought off several air attacks, but was scuttled on 11 April. Sava was later raised by the Independent State of Croatia, an Axis puppet state, and continued to serve under that name until 1944 when she was again scuttled. Following World War II, Sava was raised again, and was refurbished to serve in the Yugoslav Navy from 1952 to 1962. After that she became a commercial gravel barge. In 2005, the government of Serbia granted her limited heritage protection after citizens demanded that she be preserved as a floating museum.
