Yugoslav monitor Sava

The Yugoslav monitor Sava was a river monitor built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy as Bodrog. During World War I she was part of the Danube Flotilla, and fought the Serbian and the Romanian Army. After World War I she was provided to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia)., and renamed Sava During the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, she was scuttled by her crew. She was subsequently raised by the navy of the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia and continued in service as Sava until 8/9 September 1944 when she was again scuttled.

Description and construction
The Sava was built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy by H. Schönichen as Bodrog, and was laid down at Neupest. She had an overall length of 56 m, a beam of 9.5 m, and a normal draught of 1.22 m. Her displacement was 380 LT, and her crew consisted of 79 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered using steam generated by Yarrow water-tube boilers, and carried 62 LT of coal. The propulsion system was rated at 1200 shp and she was designed to reach a top speed of 9 kn.

Bodrog was armed with one double gun turret of 120 mm guns and a single 120 mm howitzer, a single 66 mm gun, and three machine guns. Her armour consisted of belt and bulkheads 38 mm thick, deck armour 25 mm thick, and her conning tower and gun turrets were 38 – thick. Bodrog was completed in March 1904.

Commissioning and World War I
Bodrog was commissioned into the Danube Flotilla, and at the start of World War I she was based at Zemun, just upstream from Belgrade on the Danube, with another three monitors and three patrol boats. Austria-Hungary declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia on 28 July 1914, and that night Bodrog and two other monitors fired the first shots of the war against fortifications at the Zemun-Belgrade railway bridge over the Sava. After a brief evacuation of the base at Zemun in September due to a Serbian counterattack, she continued in action against Serbian forces at Belgrade until December, when her base was withdrawn to Petrovaradin for the winter. This continued until October 1915 when the Serbs evacuated Belgrade in the face of an Austro-Hungarian assault. During the final river crossing and support of the resulting bridgehead, Bodrog provided close support. Following the capture of Belgrade, the Flotilla sailed downstream to Orșova near the Hungarian-Romanian border and waited for the lower Danube to be swept for mines. They then escorted a series of munitions convoys down the Danube to Lom where they were transferred to the Bulgarian railway system for shipment to their ally Turkey.

In November 1915, Bodrog and the other monitors were assembled at Rustschuk, Bulgaria. The position of Romania was uncertain, with the Central Powers being aware that the Romanians were negotiating to enter the war on the side of the Entente. To protect the 480 km long Danubian border between Romania and Bulgaria, the Flotilla established a sheltered base in the Belene Canal. When the Romanians entered the war on 27 August 1916, the monitors were again at Rustschuk, and were immediately attacked by three improvised torpedo boats operating out of the Romanian river port of Giurgiu. The torpedoes that were fired missed the monitors but struck a lighter loaded with fuel. The Second Monitor Division, consisting of Bodrog and three other monitors, was tasked with shelling Giurgiu, and subsequently set fire to oil storage tanks, the railway station and magazines, and sank several Romanian lighters. While the attack was underway, the First Monitor Division escorted supply ships back to the Belene anchorage. The Bodrog and her companions then destroyed two Romanian patrol boats and an improvised minelayer on their way back to Belene. This was followed by forays of the monitors both east and west of Belene, during which both Turnu Măgurele and Zimnicea were shelled.

At the conclusion of World War I, Bodrog was captured by the Serbian Army.

Interwar period and World War II
Bodrog was temporarily manned by the Yugoslavs in 1918–19, but in 1920 she was officially handed over to the Royal Yugoslav Navy and renamed Sava. Sava was scuttled by her crew on 11/12 April 1941 during the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. She was subsequently raised and repaired by the navy of the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia, and served until 8/9 September 1944 when she was once again scuttled.