Despite these qualities, the "Erzherzog Karl"-class battleships were inferior to the more modern Dreadnought type battleships – with their "all big gun" armament and turbine propulsion. As a result, they only played a limited role during World War I. At the beginning of the war, the members of the "Erzherzog Karl" class formed the III division of the Austrian-Hungarian battle-fleet. Despite their largely inactive involvement in the conflict, the battleships of the "Erzherzog Karl" class did participate in the flight of and during the opening days of the war, as well as the bombardment of Ancona on 23 May 1915.