Download or read book A Fleet in Being written by Russell Phillips and published by Shilka Publishing. This book was released on with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine – The Austro-Hungarian Navy – was in at the beginning of World War I when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie lay in state abord its flagship, and at the end when it dissolved along with the empire that commanded it. During the war, this small but powerful “fleet in being” forced the Allies to maintain a blockade of the Otranto Straits. German and Austro-Hungarian u-boats ran riot elsewhere in the Mediterranean even though the capital ships almost never left port. Illustrated with thirty photographs and drawings, this book provides a comprehensive and detailed reference of the ships that made up the KuK Kriegsmarine, its operations, and the unique problems this unusual fleet faced, from contentious duelling parliaments to ships built by landlocked Hungary.