Editing Tegetthoff-class battleship (section)

==== 1918 ====
[[File:Gulf of Taranto map.png|thumb|250px|Map showing the location of the Straits of Otranto at the southern end of the Adriatic|alt=A map showing the Strait of Otranto. The southeastern tip of Italy can be seen on the left, with the coast of Albania appearing on the right.|right]]
Following the [[Cattaro Mutiny]] in February 1918, Admiral Njegovan was fired as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, though at Njegovan's request it was announced that he was retiring.{{sfn|Sondhaus|1994|p=144}} [[Miklós Horthy|Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya]], commander of ''Prinz Eugen'', was promoted to [[rear admiral]] and named Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet. Horthy's promotion was met with support among many members of the naval officer corps, who believed he would use Austria-Hungary's navy to engage the enemy. Horthy's appointment did however pose difficulties. His relatively young age alienated many of the senior officers, and Austria-Hungary's naval traditions included an unspoken rule that no officer could serve at sea under someone of inferior seniority. This meant that the heads of the First and Second Battle Squadrons, as well as the Cruiser Flotilla, all had to go into early retirement.{{sfn|Sondhaus|1994|p=326}}

In March 1918 Horthy's position within the navy was secured, and he had begun to reorganize it according to his own vision, with strong support from Emperor Karl&nbsp;I. By this time, the [[United States]] had [[American entry into World War I|declared war]] on both Germany and Austria-Hungary and had begun to send ships to aid the French, British, and Italians in the Mediterranean Sea. Horthy had inherited an "Austrian lake" in the Adriatic Sea, according to the [[United States Navy]],{{sfn|Halpern|1987|p=439}} and shipping of supplies, troops, sick and wounded personnel, and military equipment across various ports in the Adriatic was done with little to no opposition from the [[Allies of World War I|Allied Powers]]. American planning for a naval offensive to sweep the Adriatic and even land up to 20,000 [[United States Marine Corps|marines]] with naval and infantry support from Britain, France, and Italy were halted by the onset of the [[German spring offensive]] in France, launched on 21 March 1918.{{sfn|Sondhaus|1994|p=329}} Horthy used these first few months as Commander-in-Chief to finish his re-organization of the navy. As one of Njegovan's final actions before he was ousted entailed shifting several smaller and older vessels around to different ports under Austro-Hungarian control, the only ships which remained at port in Pola aside from the three of the ''Radetzky'' class were the four dreadnoughts of the ''Tegetthoff'' class, which had now fallen under the command of Captain Heinrich Seitz. Horthy worked to re-locate as many ships as he could back to Pola in order to maximize the threat the Austro-Hungarian Navy posed to the Allied Powers. Horthy also used his appointment to take the Austro-Hungarian fleet out of port for maneuvers and gunnery practice on a regular basis. The size of these operations were the largest the navy had seen since the outbreak of the war.{{sfn|Sondhaus|1994|pp=330, 333}}

These gunnery and maneuver practices were conducted not only to restore order in the wake of several failed mutinies, but also to prepare the fleet for a major offensive operation. Horthy's strategic thinking differed from his two predecessors, and shortly after assuming command of the navy he resolved to undertake a major fleet action in order to address low morale and boredom, and make it easier for Austro-Hungarian and German U-boats to break out of the Adriatic into the Mediterranean. After several months of practice, Horthy concluded the fleet was ready for a major offensive at the beginning of June 1918.{{sfn|Sondhaus|1994|p=334}}