Monitor Karadjordje was a river monitor of Riverine Navy of the Kingdom of Serbia. It served through both world wars, featured several conversions and upgrades, and has survived to become a museum ship.

𝔇𝔢𝔰𝔦𝔤𝔫 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔲𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫

Laid down in 1913 and launched in 1914 in M.Corp shipyard in Belgrade for Kingdom of Serbia, Karadjordje was inspired by the latest Austro-Hungarian river monitors.
It was designed with overlapping arcs of fire of the main battery, which is uniform and consists of three 130mm guns, two forward and one aft. As designed, secondary armament was to consist of two 120mm howitzers, but they were replaced with 66mm guns during construction. Four turreted Maxim guns round up the ship's armament. Fire control is provided by a coincidental rangefinder coupled with a powerful searchlight.
Armor of Karadjordje follows "all or nothing" scheme, with heavy armor belt stretching from just ahead of the fore turret to aft of the rear one, bow and stern being unarmored. Steering gear is housed in its own armored box. Wheelhouse features heavy armor, as do machine gun niches and turrets, while the rest of the superstructure offers protection from shrapnel and rifle fire.

In line with its purpose, Karadjordje's hull is very shallow and flat-bottomed. Its screws are recessed in the tunnels and rudder extends beyond the stern to allow for very shallow draft of 1.4m. This, combined with ship's relatively large beam, offers excellent maneuverability, which is necessary for riverine operations.
Machinery consists of two Yarrows coal-fired boilers that provide steam to two triple expansion engines powering two screws, offering a top speed of around 17 knots.

𝔒𝔭𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔥𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔬𝔯𝔶

Launched on 15th of May 1914, amidst the tensions between Kingdom of Serbia and Austro-Hungarian empire, Karadjordje was urgently fitted out and started its trials by mid July. It was deemed ready for service by the start of the first world war.

𝔚𝔞𝔯 𝔶𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔰

At around 1am on the 29th of July, just hours after the war was declared, Austro-Hungarian monitor SMS Bodrog fired the first shells of the First World War at a fortification near the Serbian capital of Belgrade, followed by monitors SMS Temes and SMS Szamos. Karadjordje was dispatched , along with her sister ship Gromovnik, to support the fortification on the Sava railway bridge. Gromovnik was still being fitted out, and was slow to react.
Karadjordje engaged SMS Bodrog at around 1:20am, scoring a hit on one of Bodrog's turrets. Austro-Hungarian ships retreated, and Karadjordje proceeded to Kalemegdan fortress, where it took station to await further attacks. Gromovnik joined her at around 2:30am. No further action happened that night.

Karadjordje and Gromovnik, now fully fitted out, met SMS Bodrog again on the river Sava on 24th of September, when she attempted to bombard Serbian defensive positions on the river bank. Bodrog was hopelessly outgunned, and was forced to flee to Zemun, where it was covered by land-based guns. Bodrog suffered minor damage to her port turret and superstructure.

On 29th of September, SMS Szamos and SMS Bodrog tried to bombard the Kalemegdan fortress, and were attacked by Karadjordje and Gromovnik. SMS Szamos was forced too close to the fortress, and took a number of hits from the coastal guns. Bodrog took major damage to her superstructure. SMS Szamos was ran down by Karadjordje and sunk.

Following those engagements, 130mm ammunition was exhausted, and Karadjordje and Gromovnik were kept moored near the Kalemegdan. When the fall of Belgrade was inevitable, Gromovnik was scuttled, as its machinery was too warn out to try to run. Karadjordje tried to escape to Romania, but struck a mine near Smederevo and beached itself.

Once Serbia fell under Austro-Hungarian occupation both Karadjordje and Gromovnik were refloated and repaired, and added to the Austro-Hungarian navy. They performed various guard, escort, and customs duties until 1918, when they were, along with a few other Austro-Hungarian monitors, sent into the black sea. Karadjordje was stationed in Odessa, while Gromovnik went to Nikolaev before being stationed in Cherson. They were sent back to the Danube to protect the withdrawal of Austro-Hungarian troops, but Gromovnik was lost in a storm along the way.
On 30st of October 1918, Karadjordje ran aground near Vinca, followed by her old enemy SMS Bodrog. Both ships were later captured by Serbian army.

I𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔴𝔞𝔯 𝔶𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔰

Following the war, Karadjordje was handed over to Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians, (later Kingdom of Yugoslavia) which also acquired four Austro-Hungarian built monitors, including SMS Bodrog. Karadjordje was modernized, being equipped with a new searchlight, oil-burning boilers, and two Vickers "Pom-pom" anti-aircraft guns. Modernization was finished in 1921.
Due to budget constrains, Yugoslavian monitors were rarely sailed, and even less often performed gunnery training.

𝔖𝔢𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔡 𝔚𝔬𝔯𝔩𝔡 𝔚𝔞𝔯

At the start of the Second World War, Karadjordje was based in Dubovac, a village close to Romanian border. On 6th of April 1941, when the Axis attack on Yugoslavia began, Karadjordje and Sava (former SMS Bodrog) fended off a number of attacks by Ju-87 dive bombers. Over the next three days, monitors laid mines across the Danube in that area, and retreated to Belgrade. On 11th of April, since water level was high and monitors were boxed in by bridges, captains of Karadjordje , Sava, and Morava decided to scuttle their vessels rather than surrender them.

All three were later raised by Axis and returned to service. Karadjordje ended up serving with the "Independent State of Croatia", a Nazi puppet state. She was scuttled again on 8th of September 1944 near Slavonski Brod and her crew defected to the Partisans.

𝔓𝔬𝔰𝔱-𝔴𝔞𝔯 𝔶𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔰

After the war, Karadjordje was raised yet again, renamed "Revolucija" (Revolution) and returned to service with the navy of SFR Yugoslavia, this time fitted with new 130mm main guns, 40mm secondary guns, and four 20mm anti-aircraft guns. She served from 1951 to 1963, when she was placed under the care of a government-owned company, which was privatized after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1990s.
By 2014, Karadjordje was being used as a gravel barge. When, in 2015, Defense Ministry of Serbia purchased what was left of Monitor Sava and started rebuilding it, M.Corp purchased back monitor Vitez and returned her to her 1914 layout. She is now moored next to Sava (formerly Bodrog, her first enemy) on river Sava, serving as a museum ship.

Karadjordje and Sava/SMS Bodrog as museum ships moored together on the river Sava in Belgrade, 2024.
Photo courtesy of BMilan.

𝔑𝔬𝔱𝔢𝔰 𝔬𝔫 𝔡𝔢𝔰𝔠𝔯𝔦𝔭𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫

History of the ship is fictional, placing Karadjordje among real ships, in real locations, on actual dates when these events took place. Her presence at these events alters history somewhat. For example, SMS Szamos was not lost in combat during the first world war.

𝔑𝔬𝔱𝔢𝔰 𝔬𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔟𝔲𝔦𝔩𝔡

This has been a very long running project. Started before the update 1.11, it has passed through multiple revisions and long periods of just sitting on the shelf. I have done countless hours of research on this type of watercraft, learning many interesting details about them.
The build itself features a hybrid of a number of real designs. It is primarily based on an Sava class monitor SMS Bosna, with many details from the older Temes and Enns class monitors. It features an atypical assortment of armament, as its focus is more to counter Austro-Hungarian monitors and to dispute river crossings than to perform shore bombardment.

𝔉𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔢𝔰

• Realistic design,
• Realistic performance,
• Camera controlled WarThunder style fire control,
• Propeller propulsion,
• Turning with actual rudder,
• Partial VR friendliness,
• Loads of details.

C𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔩𝔰

VTOL and roll to steer
Main gun elevation - Pitch
Secondary gun elevation- Throttle
Gun traverse - Camera "Fire control"

𝔊𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔢𝔯𝔶

C𝔯𝔢𝔡𝔦𝔱

Special thanks to BMilan for FT codes and tweaking, and to Leehopard for the awesome screenshots!