A somewhat forgotten war was the Balkan War of 1912-13, in which there were some decisive naval actions, however conspicuously light in their death tolls. Here you can see the Greek flagship, the Armored Cruiser Giorgio Averoff, at the battle of Elli , followed by the 3 older Hydra class battleships:
Though her aspect has changed somewhat, the Averoff's still afloat, the third example of an early 20th century armored cruiser still afloat with the Russian Aurora & American Olympia. She can visited at Phalera harbour near Athens (needless to say, a must-see after the Acropolis! ):
Their main opponents during the war were 2 former German built pre-dreadnoughts, the Torgud Reis and Hayreddin Barbarossa (formerly Friedrich Wilhelm and Weissenburg ) that had been built in 1893 :
To cut a long story short, both Turkish Navy attempts to break the blockade and surge yhrough the Dardanelles were soundly defeated by the Greek navy, the Turkish ships being sent back into the straights and kept bottled up there. A success that can be chalked upto two majopr causes : the technical superiority of teh Averoff itself, and the superior operational and tactical skills of the Greek admiral, Pavlos Kontouriotis.
Edit : oddly enough, the Torgud REis was torpedoed and sunk by a British sub at the beginning of WW1 at the entrance of the Dardanelles in shallow waters.
Her guns and turrets were salvaged, and installed on land, from which they took part in defeating the Allied attack in 1915. This turret is still there nowadays, having survived, like its eartwhile foe the Averoff, throughout the vagaries of the 20th century.
