Königsberg-class cruiser (1927)
A member of the Königsberg class in 1936
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| Class overview | |
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| Name: | Königsberg |
| Operators: | |
| Preceded by: | Emden |
| Succeeded by: | Leipzig class |
| In service: | 1929–1945 |
| Completed: | 3 |
| Lost: | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Königsberg class |
| Displacement: | 7,700 long tons (7,800 t) |
| Length: | 174 m (571 ft) |
| Beam: | 15.3 m (50 ft) |
| Draft: | 6.28 m (20.6 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 3 shafts, two MAN 10-cylinder diesels, four geared turbines |
| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) |
| Range: | 5,700 nmi (10,600 km; 6,600 mi) at 19 kn (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Complement: |
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The Königsberg class, sometimes referred to as the K class, was a class of light cruisers of the German Reichsmarine and Kriegsmarine. The class comprised three ships named after German cities: Königsberg, Karlsruhe, and Köln, all built between 1926 and 1930. These ships were the first of the Reichsmarine with a modern cruiser design; their predecessor, Emden, was based on World War I-era designs. They were armed with a main battery of nine 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and with twelve 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tubes.
All three ships of the class were used extensively as training cruisers throughout the 1930s. They went on numerous overseas cruises and participated in the non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1939. After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the three ships laid defensive minefields in the North Sea. They all saw action in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway, in April 1940; Königsberg was damaged by Norwegian coastal guns outside Bergen and sunk by British bombers the following day. Karlsruhe was sunk by the British submarine HMS Truant; only Köln survived the attack on Norway.
After returning to Germany, Köln operated Flettner Fl 282 helicopters as an experiment. She provided gunfire support to German ground forces during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and returned to Norway in 1942. Ultimately, she was sunk in Wilhelmshaven in March 1945 by American bombers. Her guns were still above water, which allowed her to support the defending German army against British ground forces until the final days of the war.
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