Kolberg-class cruiser

The class was a group of four light cruisers built for the German Imperial Navy and used during the First World War. The class comprised four vessels: , the lead ship, , , and . The ships were built between 1908 and 1910, and two, and , were modernized in 1916–1917. The ships were armed with a main battery of twelve 10.5 cm SK L/45 guns and had a design speed of . The first three ships were assigned to the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet; was instead used as a torpedo and gunnery training ship.

At the outbreak of war in August 1914, was deployed to the Baltic, while , , and remained in the North Sea. The three ships were assigned to patrol duty in the Heligoland Bight; on 28 August 1914, they were attacked during the Battle of Heligoland Bight. and were both sunk in the battle. saw action at the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, and joined for the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. Both ships also saw service during Operation Albion in October 1917. Both ships survived the war; was ceded to France, where she was renamed and served in the French Navy until 1927. was surrendered to Japan and was then sold for scrap.

Design

General characteristics

The ships of the class were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. They displaced as designed, but the ships varied in their full-load displacement. displaced at full load; displaced , displaced , and displaced .

The ships were steel-built; their hulls were constructed with longitudinal and transverse steel frames. The hulls contained thirteen watertight compartments and a double bottom that extended for fifty percent of the length of the keel. The ships were good sea boats, although they suffered from severe rolling and were fairly stiff. They were not very maneuverable and had a large turning radius. Steering was controlled by a single rudder. Their transverse metacentric height was . The ships had a standard crew of 18 officers and 349 enlisted men and carried a number of smaller vessels, including one picket boat, one barge, one cutter, two yawls, and two dinghies.

Machinery

All four ships had slightly different propulsion systems in order to test engines from competing companies. was equipped with two sets of Melms & Pfenniger steam turbines driving four three-bladed propellers in diameter. was powered by two AEG-Curtiss turbines driving a pair of three-bladed screws in diameter. initially had Zoelly turbines, though before sea trials, these were replaced with two sets of turbines with four three-bladed screws; two were in diameter, and two were wide. was equipped with two sets of Parsons turbines with four 3-bladed screws 2.25 m in diameter. All four ships were equipped with fifteen Marine type water-tube boilers, divided into four boiler rooms on the centerline. In 1916, and were equipped with supplementary oil-firing to increase the burn rate of the coal-fired boilers; and had been sunk by that time.

The ships' engines were designed to give , with the exception of s engines, which were rated at . These were powered by fifteen coal-fired Marine water-tube boilers, which were trunked into three evenly spaced funnels. These gave the ships a top speed of ; s more powerful engines gave her a half-knot speed advantage. All four ships exceeded these figures on speed trials, however, and all four cruisers reached speeds in excess of . carried of coal, and after 1916, of oil. This gave her a maximum range of approximately at . carried of coal, which allowed her to steam for at the cruising speed. carried of coal for a cruising radius of . carried , and had the same radius of action as .

Armament and armor

The ships were armed with a main battery of twelve 10.5 cm SK L/45 guns in single pedestal mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, eight were located amidships, four on either side, and two were side by side aft. For and , the 10.5 cm guns were replaced in 1916–1917 with six 15 cm SK L/45 guns. They also carried four 5.2 cm SK L/55 anti-aircraft guns, though these were replaced on the surviving ships with a pair of two 8.8 cm SK L/45 anti-aircraft guns in 1918. They were also equipped with a pair of torpedo tubes submerged in the hull. Two deck-mounted torpedo tube launchers were added to and in 1918. All four ships could also carry 100 mines.

The ships were protected with a combination of normal steel and Krupp cemented steel; the armor consisted of a layer of Krupp steel backed with two layers of steel. From stern to stem, the deck was covered with thick armor aft, thick armor plate over the machinery spaces, 20 mm thick armor forward of the machinery spaces, and on the bow. The coamings for the ships' funnels were thick. The conning tower had 100 mm thick sides and a 20 mm thick roof. The main battery guns were equipped with shields that were thick.

Construction

was ordered under the contract name and was laid down in early 1908 at the shipyard in Danzig under construction number 814. She was launched on 14 November 1908, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 21 June 1910. For the modifications in 1916–1917, went into drydock at the in Kiel. was ordered as and was laid down in 1907 at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin. Built under construction number 288, she was launched on 23 January 1909, and was commissioned into the fleet on 1 October 1909.

was ordered under the contract name and was laid down in 1908 at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel. Her construction number was 191. She was launched on 5 June 1909, and after fitting-out was completed, she was commissioned into the fleet on 16 June 1911. was ordered as from the shipyard in Kiel. Her keel was laid in 1908 under building number 34. She was launched on 10 July 1909 and was commissioned into the fleet on 1 October 1910. She returned to the shipyard in Kiel for her modernization in 1916–1917.

Service history

After their commissioning, , , and were assigned to the II Scouting Group, part of the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet. was instead used as a training ship for torpedo crews and gunnery. was assigned as the flagship of Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the II Scouting Group was deployed to a patrol line based on the island of Heligoland. meanwhile was mobilized for active service and sent into the Baltic. There, she participated in an operation that saw the first shots of the war fired against the Russians, on 2 August.

On the morning of 28 August, the British Harwich Force, supported by the battlecruisers of Vice Admiral David Beatty's 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, broke into the Heligoland Bight and attacked the II Scouting Group patrols. In the confused action, and were sunk, by light cruisers and battlecruisers, respectively. The majority of crewmen from were picked up by the British ships, but was lost with only one survivor. was stationed in port during the attack, and steamed out to support the beleaguered German forces, but the British had departed by the time she reached the scene.

continued to serve with the reconnaissance forces in the North Sea, including seeing action at the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914, where she laid a minefield off the British coast, and the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915. At Dogger Bank, she fired the first shots—and scored the first hits—of the engagement, at the cruiser . was meanwhile heavily engaged in the Baltic; in June 1915, she participated in a minelaying operation in the Gulf of Finland that saw the loss of the minelayer .

then joined her sister in the Baltic during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. During the operation, and the battlecruiser bombarded Russian positions on Utö, while steamed into the Gulf with the battleship , where they sank a Russian gunboat and damaged another. By 19 August, the danger of British and Russian submarines in the Gulf prompted the Germans to withdraw. participated in another, unsuccessful attempt to force the Gulf in late 1916. Both ships were present for Operation Albion, another large-scale assault on the Gulf of Riga, in October 1917. The ships were involved in a variety of operations, including minesweeping, and screening for the battleships and while they destroyed Russian opposition in the Gulf. Men from also landed on one of the islands to destroy a Russian gun battery.

Both ships survived the war. As part of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, the ships were awarded to the victorious powers as war prizes. was allocated to France, where she was commissioned into the French Navy as . was transferred to Japanese control; having no use for her, they sold the ship for scrapping. saw one tour on colonial duty in Asia in 1924, where she participated in a multinational operation to protect foreign nationals from Chinese unrest in Shanghai. She was subsequently stricken in 1927 and broken up for scrap in Brest, France.

Footnotes

References

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Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolberg
Cruiser classes
World War I cruisers of Germany

Ship classes of the French Navy