Radetzky and her sisters, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Zrínyi, were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy—they were followed by the larger and significantly more powerful Tegetthoff-class dreadnoughts.

During the war, Radetzky operated largely as part of a fleet in being alongside the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Navy; in doing so, the ships tied down considerable naval forces from the Triple Entente.

On 10 November 1918 — six days after the Austrian armistice — Yugoslav navy officers sailed the battleship out of Pola and surrendered it to a squadron of American submarine chasers.

The ship was powered by two-shaft four-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower and a top speed of 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph).

Later that year, Radetzky and her sisters, under the command of Vice Admiral Maximilian Njegovan,[7] took part in an international fleet demonstration in the Ionian Sea to protest the Balkan Wars.

[7] The combined flotilla, under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney, proceeded to blockade the Montenegrin coast to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at Scutari.

[19] Aside from the encounter with Turbine, Radetzky managed to destroy a railroad bridge near the town of Fermo, severely hampering the movement of troops and supplies in the region.

[8][22] Their operations were limited by Admiral Anton Haus, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, who believed that he would need to husband his ships to counter any Italian attempt to seize the Dalmatian coast.

Since coal was diverted to the newer Tegetthoff-class battleships, the remainder of the war saw Radetzky and the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Navy acting as a fleet in being.

[23] With his fleet blockaded in the Adriatic Sea, and facing a shortage of coal, Haus attempted to use mines and submarines, rather than battleships, to reduce the numerical superiority of the Allied navies.

[24] By October 1918, Austria prepared to transfer her entire fleet to the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (later to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in order to keep it out of Italian hands.

[8][15] Once outside Pola, the ships spotted heavy units of the Italian fleet; the two battleships hoisted American flags and sailed south to escape.

A squadron of US Navy submarine chasers operating off the city of Spalato during the allied occupation of the eastern Adriatic accepted the surrender of Radetzky and Zrínyi.