Königsberg-class cruiser (1905)
SMS Königsberg
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| Class overview | |
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| Operators: |
 Kaiserliche Marine
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| Preceded by: | Bremen class |
| Succeeded by: | Dresden class |
| Built: | 1905–07 |
| In service: | 1907–18 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Lost: | 2 |
| Retired: | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 115.30 m (378 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 13.20 m (43 ft 4 in) |
| Draft: | 5.29 m (17 ft 4 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The Königsberg class was a group of four light cruisers built for the German Imperial Navy. The class comprised four vessels: SMS Königsberg, the lead ship, SMS Nürnberg, SMS Stuttgart, and SMS Stettin. The ships were an improvement on the preceding Bremen class, being slightly larger and faster, and mounting the same armament of ten 10.5 cm SK L/40 guns and two 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes.
The four ships saw extensive service during World War I. Königsberg conducted commerce warfare in the Indian Ocean before being trapped in the Rufiji River and sunk by British warships. Her guns nevertheless continued to see action as converted artillery pieces for the German Army in German East Africa. Nürnberg was part of the German East Asia Squadron, and participated in the Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands. At the former, she sank the British armored cruiser HMS Monmouth, and at the latter, she was in turn sunk by the cruiser HMS Kent.
Stuttgart and Stettin remained in German waters during the war, and both saw action at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. The two cruisers engaged in close-range night fighting with the British fleet, but neither was significantly damaged. Both ships were withdrawn from service later in the war, Stettin to serve as a training ship, and Stuttgart to be converted into a seaplane tender in 1918. They both survived the war, and were surrendered to Britain as war prizes; they were dismantled in the early 1920s.
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