Division after the start of the Second Balkan War, but were decommissioned again on 10 March. World War I With the beginning of World War I the three Monarchs were recommissioned as the 5th Division. They were sent to the Bay of Kotor in August 1914 to attack Montenegrin artillery batteries on Mount Lovćen bombarding the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro and the fortifications defending it. Budapest and her sisters arrived on 13 August, but their guns could not elevate enough to engage all of the enemy artillery, which was reinforced by eight French guns on 19 October. The battleship was summoned to deal with the guns two days later, and she managed to knock out several French guns and forced the others to withdraw by 27 October. When the Austro-Hungarian army was finally able to launch an offensive into Montenegro in January 1916, SMS Budapest was on hand to assist the ground troops against Lovćen's defences. The battleship's 9.5 inch and 6 inch guns pounded Montenegrin positions and on January 10 the ground forces took the Lovćen Pass and the adjacent heights where the French gun positions had been. In order for its guns to elevate high enough to hit the Montenegrin lines at the top of the mountain Budapest had to be trimmed 7 degrees. The naval bombardment played a decisive role in breaking the morale of the mountain's defenders and Montenegro requested an armistice two days later. Budapest was subsequently called to action in the Adriatic on 15 May 1917 when an Austro-Hungarian force of three light cruisers and destroyer escorts, returning from a major attack on the Otranto Straits, were intercepted by a stronger force of Allied warships led by HMS Dartmouth. The armoured cruiser SMS Sanct George with two destroyers and four torpedo-boats under Kontra-Admiral Alexander Hansa headed off to support the beleaguered Austrian force. Upon receiving news from a naval flying boat that nine enemy ships were in the vicinity of the Otranto force, Hansa called for SMS Budapest which immediately put to sea with three high seas torpedo boats as escorts. Upon sighting the smoke from the approaching Austro-Hungarian warships the Allied ships turned away and returned to port. The Sanct George and the Budapest escorted their little fleet, as it had become, back to Cattaro. The Monarchs remained at Cattaro until mid-1917 to deter any further attacks. In August, Budapest and Wien