Yugoslav monitor "Sava"

The Yugoslav river patrol ship Sava is a Temes-class patrol ship that was built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy as SMS Bodrog. She fired the first shots of World War I just after 01:00 on 29 July 1914, when she and two other monitors shelled Serbian defences near Belgrade. After the war, she was transferred 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 laid mines in the Danube near the Romanian border. The two monitors fought off several attacks by the Luftwaffe, but were forced to withdraw to Belgrade. All crew were captured prior to the Yugoslav surrender. The vessel was later raised by the navy of the Axis puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia and continued to serve as Sava.

Following World War II, Sava was raised once again, and was refurbished to serve in the Yugoslav Navy from 1952 to 1962. She was then transferred to a state-owned company that was eventually privatised. In 2015, the Serbian Ministry of Defence and Belgrade's Military Museum acquired the ship.

She was restored by early 2019 and opened as a floating museum in November 2021.

For current visiting hours, please contact the museum.

Do you have more information about this location? Inform us!

Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Koos Winkelman