Cöln-class cruiser

SMS

The 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; and . Five more were launched, but not completed: , , , and , while another three were laid down but not launched: , and (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 .

and 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 and remain on the bottom of Scapa Flow.

Design

By 1916, thirteen German light cruisers had been lost in the course of World War I. To replace them, the ordered ten new cruisers built to a modified design.Template:Sfn All ten ships were laid down in 1915 and 1916. was built by the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Bremen. and were built at AG Vulcan in Stettin, and , , and were ordered from the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen. and were built at the Howaldtswerke shipyard in Kiel, while and were built by the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel.Template:Sfn

and , the only two ships to be completed, were launched on 5 October 1916 and 25 April 1917, respectively. was launched on 3 March 1917 and was five months away from completion when she was canceled in December 1918. followed on 17 November 1917; she was nine months from being finished when she was canceled. was launched on 28 January 1918 and canceled seven months from completion. followed on 6 April, and also was seven months away from being finished. , the last ship of the class to be launched, on 16 September, was about thirteen months away from completion when she was canceled. The last three ships were canceled while still on the slipway.Template:Sfn

General characteristics and machinery

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. The ships had a designed displacement of , and at full load, they displaced . Their hulls were built with longitudinal steel frames. The hulls were divided into twenty-four watertight compartments and incorporated a double bottom that extended for forty-five per cent of the length of the keel. The ships had a complement of 17 officers and 542 enlisted men. They carried several smaller vessels, including one picket boat, one barge, one cutter, two yawls, and two dinghies. The German Navy regarded the ships as good sea boats, having gentle motion. The ships were highly maneuverable and had a tight turning radius, but lost speed going into a turn; in hard turns, they lost up to sixty percent of their speed. They were stern-heavy.Template:Sfn

Their propulsion systems consisted of two sets of steam turbines, which drove a pair of screw propellers that were in diameter. Steam was provided by eight coal-fired and six oil-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers. The boilers were ducted into three funnels amidships. Electrical power was provided by two turbo generators and one diesel generator, which had a total output of 300 kilowatts at 220 volts. Steering was controlled by a single, large rudder.Template:Sfn

The engines were rated to produce for a top speed of . On trials, reached and a top speed of , while made and . Coal storage was as designed, though up to could be carried. Fuel oil was initially , and could be similarly increased to . At a cruising speed of , could steam for approximately , while could steam for at the same speed. At a higher speed of , the range fell considerably, to .Template:Sfn

Armament and armor

The ship was armed with eight [[15 cm SK L/45|Template:Cvt SK L/45]] guns in single pedestal mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, four were located amidships, two on either side, and two were arranged in a super firing pair aft. Aboard , the forward pair of amidships guns were placed on the forecastle deck, while on the rest of the ships in the class, they were placed one deck lower, on the upper deck. These guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of . The guns had a maximum elevation of 30 degrees, which allowed them to engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1,040 rounds of ammunition, for 130 shells per gun. The ships also carried three SK L/45 anti-aircraft guns mounted on the centerline astern of the funnels, though one was removed in 1918. These guns fired a shells at a muzzle velocity of . She was also equipped with four torpedo tubes with eight torpedoes in deck-mounted swivel launchers amidships. The ships were also outfitted to carry up to 200 mines.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The class ships were protected by an armor belt composed of Krupp cemented steel. It was thick amidships and forward. The stern was not protected by armor. The armored deck was thick in the stern, thick amidships, and 60 mm thick forward. Sloped armor 40 mm thick connected the deck and belt armor. The conning tower had thick sides and a 20 mm thick roof. The main battery guns were protected with thick gun shields.Template:Sfn

Ships of the class

Construction data

Name	BuilderTemplate:Sfn	Laid downTemplate:Sfn	LaunchedTemplate:Sfn	CompletedTemplate:Sfn	FateTemplate:Sfn
	Blohm & Voss	1915	5 October 1916	17 January 1918	Scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919
	Howaldtswerke	1916	25 April 1917	28 March 1918	Scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919
	AG Vulcan	1915	3 March 1917	N/A	Not completed, scrapped in 1920
	Howaldtswerke	1916	17 November 1917		Not completed, scrapped in 1922
	AG Weser	1915	28 January 1918		Not completed, scrapped in 1921
	AG Vulcan	1915	6 April 1918		Not completed, scrapped in 1921
	Kaiserliche Werft Kiel	1915	16 October 1918		Not completed, scrapped in 1921
	AG Weser	1916	N/A		Not completed, scrapped in 1921
	AG Weser	1916			Not completed, scrapped in 1921
	Kaiserliche Werft Kiel	1916			Not completed, scrapped in 1920

Service history

File:SMS Cöln (1916).jpg

in Scapa Flow

After their commissioning, and joined the High Seas Fleet.Template:Sfn They were assigned to the II Scouting Group, alongside the cruisers , , , , and .Template:Sfn The ships were in service in time for the major fleet operation to Norway in 23–24 April 1918. The I Scouting Group and II Scouting Group, along with the Second Torpedo-Boat Flotilla were to attack a heavily guarded British convoy to Norway, with the rest of the High Seas Fleet steaming in support. The Germans failed to locate the convoy, which had in fact sailed the day before the fleet left port. As a result, Admiral Reinhard Scheer broke off the operation and returned to port.Template:Sfn

In October 1918, the two ships and the rest of the II Scouting Group were to lead a final attack on the British navy. , , , and were to attack merchant shipping in the Thames estuary while the rest of the Group were to bombard targets in Flanders, to draw out the British Grand Fleet.Template:Sfn Scheer intended to inflict as much damage as possible on the British navy, in order to secure a better bargaining position for Germany, whatever the cost to the fleet. On the morning of 29 October 1918, the order was given to sail from Wilhelmshaven the following day. Starting on the night of 29 October, sailors on and then on several other battleships mutinied.Template:Sfn

During the sailors' revolt, the crew of the battleship refused to move out of Template:'s way; she aimed one of her gun turrets at , but then backed down and let leave the port. The ship then went to Swinemünde, where she was partially scuttled and subsequently re-floated and returned to seaworthy condition.Template:Sfn The unrest ultimately forced Hipper and Scheer to cancel the operation.Template:Sfn When informed of the situation, the Kaiser stated, "I no longer have a navy."Template:Sfn Following the capitulation of Germany in November 1918, most of the High Seas Fleet's ships, under the command of Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, were interned in the British naval base in Scapa Flow.Template:Sfn and were among the ships interned.Template:Sfn

Postwar fates

The fleet remained in captivity during the negotiations that ultimately produced the Versailles Treaty. Reuter believed that the British intended to seize the German ships on 21 June 1919, which was the deadline for Germany to have signed the peace treaty. Unaware that the deadline had been extended to the 23rd, Reuter ordered the ships to be sunk at the next opportunity. On the morning of 21 June, the British fleet left Scapa Flow to conduct training maneuvers, and at 11:20 Reuter transmitted the order to his ships.Template:Sfn sank at 13:50 and was never raised for scrapping.Template:Sfn also remains at the bottom of Scapa Flow.Template:Sfn

The eight ships that were not completed by the end of the war were formally stricken from the naval register on 17 November 1919. The navy considered selling the vessels for conversion into cargo ships, even those like that had had little work done; according to the proposals, they would have received diesel engines from unfinished U-boats. By 1920, the had acquired the rights to the ships, planning to convert them into oil tankers, and this plan was approved by the Naval Inter-Allied Commission of Control, which specified that any military features in the ships (to include side and deck armor and torpedo bulkheads) were to be removed and destroyed by 31 July 1921. By this time, and had been towed to Lübeck, where conversion work had started. Their old machinery had been removed by November 1920 and their military features had been cut away by the NIACC deadline. had been similarly demilitarized at Howaldtswerke.Template:Sfn

While the conversion program was underway, in May 1920, the postwar German navy requested permission to use the incomplete hull of for the new cruiser . Germany was permitted to build to replace one of the old cruiser , and they cited economic grounds (since simply reusing the unfinished hull would be much cheaper than building one from the keel up) as justification to use . Britain initially approved the request, but France and Italy were unwilling to allow any alteration to the Versailles terms to avoid setting the precedent for further revisions. The German request was rejected on 22 August 1922, by which time had already been sold for scrap.Template:Sfn

The oil tanker conversion program eventually fell apart, however, and all of the vessels were broken up. was sold on 28 October 1921 and broken up the next year at Kiel-Nordmole. and were sold in 1921 and scrapped in Hamburg. was towed to the Deutsche Werke shipyard in 1921 and broken up. was dismantled on the slipway in 1920, and and were sold on 21 and 25 June 1921, respectively. Both vessels had been launched at some point to clear the slipway, and by August 1920, had been towed to Bremen. Both ships were scrapped in 1921 in Hamburg.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn