Cöln-class cruiser
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SMS Dresden
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| Class overview | |
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| Builders: | Blohm & Voss and Howaldtswerke |
| Operators: |
 Kaiserliche Marine
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| Preceded by: | Königsberg class |
| Succeeded by: | FK proposals |
| Planned: | 10 |
| Completed: | 2 |
| Cancelled: | 8 |
| Lost: | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Light cruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 155.50 m (510 ft 2 in) |
| Beam: | 14.20 m (46 ft 7 in) |
| Draft: | 6.01 m (19 ft 9 in) |
| Propulsion: | 31,000 shp (23,000 kW), two shafts |
| Speed: | 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph) |
| Range: | 5,400 nmi (10,000 km; 6,200 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The Cöln class of light cruisers was Germany's last class commissioned before her defeat in World War I. Originally planned to comprise ten ships, only two were completed; Cöln and Dresden. Five more were launched, but not completed: Wiesbaden, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Rostock and Frauenlob, while another three were laid down but not launched: Ersatz Cöln, Ersatz Emden and Ersatz Karlsruhe (for the last three, the names quoted were only provisional titles to be used during construction, and the three would have received other names at their launch if that had taken place). The design was a slightly modified version of the preceding Königsberg class.
Cöln and Dresden joined the High Seas Fleet in 1918, which limited their service careers. They were assigned to the II Scouting Group, and participated in an abortive fleet operation to Norway to attack British convoys. They were to have led attacks on British merchant traffic designed to lure out the British Grand Fleet and force a climactic fleet battle in the final days of the war, but the Wilhelmshaven Mutiny forced the cancellation of the plan. The two ships were interned and eventually scuttled in Scapa Flow in June 1919. Both Dresden and Cöln remain on the bottom of Scapa Flow.
By 1916, thirteen German light cruisers had been lost in the course of World War I. To replace them, the Kaiserliche Marine ordered ten new cruisers built to a modified Königsberg class design. All ten ships were laid down in 1915 and 1916. Cöln was built by the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Bremen. Wiesbaden and Rostock were built at AG Vulcan in Stettin, and Leipzig, Ersatz Cöln, and Ersatz Emden were ordered from the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen. Dresden and Magdeburg were built at the Howaldtswerke shipyard in Kiel, while Frauenlob and Ersatz Karlsruhe were built by the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel.
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Wikipedia