page_title: SMS Königsberg (1915)
section_title: Second Battle of Helgoland Bight
hierarchical_section_title: SMS Königsberg (1915) / Service history / Second Battle of Helgoland Bight
caption_attribution_description: English: Study of a surrendered German cruiser at Scapa Flow, probably the 'Karlsruhe' Inscribed by the artist, 'Hun cruiser', lower right. Among the ships interned at Scapa Flow, there were five German cruisers that had raised funnels: 'Karlsruhe', 'Emden', 'Nürnberg', 'Cöln' and 'Dresden'. This is probably the 'Karlsruhe' which is the only one that other general visual sources (mainly photos) show with her topmasts lowered. All photos of 'Emden' and 'Nürnberg', including when beached at Scapa, show them with high topmasts. All photos of 'Cöln' and 'Dresden' up to the time of their sinking also show them with high topmasts. In this study, an unidentified German destroyer is alongside. Wyllie spent a month as a guest of Admiral Sir Charles Madden on board HMS 'Revenge' at the time of the surrender and subsequent internment of the German fleet at Scapa, and made many such studies on the spot. [BTodd/PvdM 5/13]
context_page_description: SMS Königsberg was the lead ship of the Königsberg class of light cruisers, built for the German Imperial Navy during World War I. She took the name of the earlier Königsberg, which had been destroyed during the Battle of Rufiji Delta in 1915. The new ship was laid down in 1914 at the AG Weser shipyard, launched in December 1915, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in August 1916. Armed with eight 15 cm SK L/45 guns, the ship had a top speed of 27.5 kn.
  Königsberg saw action with the II Scouting Group; in September 1917 she participated in Operation Albion, a large amphibious operation against the Baltic islands in the Gulf of Riga. Two months later, she was attacked by British battlecruisers in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. She was hit by the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, which caused a large fire and reduced her speed significantly. She escaped behind the cover of two German battleships, however. She was to have taken part in a sortie by the entire High Seas Fleet to attack the British Grand Fleet in the final days of the war, but unrest broke out that forced the cancellation of the plan.
context_section_description: On 17 November, Königsberg saw action at the Second Battle of Helgoland Bight. Along with three other cruisers from II Scouting Group and a group of torpedo boats, Königsberg escorted minesweepers clearing paths in minefields laid by the British in the area of Horns Rev. The dreadnought battleships Kaiser and Kaiserin stood by in distant support. Reuter had sent Nürnberg forward while he remained further back with the ships of II Minensuchflotille (Minesweeper Flotilla). The British 1st Cruiser Squadron and the 6th Light Cruiser Squadron, supported by the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, sortied to attack the operation. After the British opened fire, Reuter sought to use his ships to distract the British from the minesweepers while laying a smoke screen to cover their withdrawal. He also hoped to draw the British cruisers toward the two dreadnoughts.
  As the battle developed, the British battlecruisers HMS Courageous, Glorious, and Repulse joined the action. Once Kaiserin and Kaiser arrived on the scene, Reuter launched a counterattack, during which Repulse scored a hit on Königsberg with a 38 cm (15 in) shell at 10:58. The shell knocked all three of her funnels over and caused a fire, which significantly reduced her speed to 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph). Reuter transferred to Pillau while Königsberg withdrew so her crew could fight the fire; after the fire was suppressed she rejoined the German squadron. The presence of the German battleships led the British to break off the attack. Further German reinforcements arrived, including the battlecruisers Hindenburg and Moltke at 13:30 and the dreadnoughts Friedrich der Grosse and König Albert at 13:50.
  With these forces assembled, the IV Battle Squadron commander aboard Friedrich der Grosse, VAdm Wilhelm Souchon, conducted a sweep for any remaining British vessels but could find none. At 15:00, the German ships withdrew from the area and Königsberg anchored in the Schillig roadstead at 19:05. In the course of the battle, Königsberg had suffered twenty-three casualties, of whom eight died. The commander of Kaiserin, Kurt Graßhoff, was later criticized for failing to intervene quickly enough, leading to the development of new guidelines for placing battleships closer to minesweeper groups in the future. From 19 November to 15 December, Königsberg was in the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven for repairs.
caption: Königsberg's sister ship Karlsruhe
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