German cruiser Leipzig Leipzig was the lead ship of her class of light cruiser s built by the German navy . She had one sister ship , " Nürnberg " . " Leipzig " was laid down in April 1928 , was launched in October 1929 , and was commissioned into the " Reichsmarine " in October 1931 . Armed with a main battery of nine guns in three triple turrets , " Leipzig " had a top speed of . " Leipzig " participated in non - intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War . In the first year of World War II , she performed escort duties for warships in the Baltic and North seas . While on one of these operations in December 1939 , the ship was torpedoed by a British submarine and badly damaged . Repairs were completed by late 1940 , when she returned to service as a training ship . She provided gunfire support to the advancing " Wehrmacht " troops as they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 . In October 1944 , " Leipzig " collided with the heavy cruiser " Prinz Eugen " ; the damage was so severe that the navy decided complete repairs were unfeasible . The ship was patched up to keep her afloat , and she helped to defend Gotenhafen from the advancing Red Army in March 1945 . She then carried a group of fleeing German civilians , reaching Denmark by late April . After the end of the war , " Leipzig " was used as a barracks ship for minesweeping forces and was scuttled in July 1946 . Design . " Leipzig " was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two steam turbines and four 7 - cylinder two - stroke diesel engines . Steam for the turbines was provided by six Marine - type double - ended oil - fired boilers . The ship ' s propulsion system provided a top speed of and a range of approximately at using only the diesel engines . " Leipzig " had a crew of 26 officers and 508 enlisted men . The ship was armed with nine 15 cm SK C / 25 guns mounted in three triple gun turret s . One was located forward , and two were placed in a superfiring pair aft , all on the centerline . They were supplied with between 1 , 080 and 1 , 500 rounds of ammunition , for between 120 and 166 shells per gun . As built , the ship was also equipped with two 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns in single mounts ; they had 400 rounds of ammunition each . " Leipzig " also carried four triple torpedo tube mounts located amidships ; they were supplied with twenty - four torpedo es . She was also capable of carrying 120 naval mine s . The ship was protected by an armored deck that was thick amidships and an armored belt that was thick . The conning tower had thick sides . Service history . " Leipzig " was laid down at the " Reichsmarinewerft " shipyard in Wilhelmshaven on 28 April 1928 and launched on 18 October 1929 . She was commissioned into the " Reichsmarine " on 8 October 1931 . The ship trained extensively in the Baltic Sea throughout 1932 and 1933 , and also made several goodwill cruises overseas . In 1934 , she and the cruiser " Königsberg " made the first goodwill visit to the United Kingdom since the end of World War I . In late 1934 , " Leipzig " went into drydock for modifications . An aircraft catapult was installed on the aft superstructure and a crane for handling float planes replaced one of her boat derricks . The original single - mount 8 . 8 cm anti - aircraft guns were replaced with twin mounts . These modifications were made in Kiel . In early 1935 , " Leipzig " joined the old pre - dreadnought battleship , the new heavy cruiser " Deutschland " , and the light cruiser " Köln " for major fleet exercises . Later in 1935 , Adolf Hitler visited the ship during training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet . The ship joined her sister " Nürnberg " and " Köln " for exercises in the Atlantic Ocean in early 1936 . In August , " Leipzig " took part in the non - intervention patrols off Spain during the Spanish Civil War . She conducted several patrols between August 1936 and June 1937 , and in late June , she was allegedly attacked with torpedoes ; this prompted Germany and Italy to withdraw from the non - intervention patrols . She thereafter returned to Germany and went into the Baltic Sea for training , which lasted through 1938 . In March 1939 , she participated in the annexation of Memel which Germany had demanded from Lithuania . The following month , she joined the battleship " Gneisenau " , the cruiser " Deutschland " , and several destroyers and U - boat s for major exercises in the Atlantic . Additional maneuvers were conducted through the middle of 1939 . World War II . At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 , " Leipzig " was assigned to the blocking force that was intended to prevent the escape of the Polish Navy from the Baltic ; they were unsuccessful . " Leipzig " thereafter went to the North Sea , where she and the other light cruisers laid a series of defensive minefields . This task lasted through the end of the month , after which she returned to the Baltic for training maneuvers . On 17 – 19 November , " Leipzig " covered a minelaying operation in the North Sea . She joined " Deutschland " , " Köln " , and three torpedo boat s for a sweep in the Skagerrak for Allied shipping on 21 – 22 November . " Leipzig " was tasked with escorting the battleships " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " through the Skagerrak , and with covering their return on the 27th . On 13 December , " Leipzig " was tasked with escorting a flotilla of destroyers and other small vessels as they proceeded through the Skagerrak to lay a minefield . While en route , the British submarine attacked the German warships , and at 11 : 25 , hit " Leipzig " with a torpedo . The torpedo hit " Leipzig " just below the waterline , where a bulkhead separated two of the ship ' s three boiler rooms . The explosion bent her armored deck and damaged her keel ; some of water flooded the ship , and the damage cut electrical power to the ship ' s pumping system . The two boiler rooms were flooded , steam lines were damaged , and the port turbine was shut down . At around the same time , her sister " Nürnberg " was also torpedoed . A pair of destroyers arrived to escort the damaged cruisers back to port ; an hour after " Leipzig " was torpedoed , one of the escorting destroyers was also torpedoed , just outside the mouth of the Elbe . Another torpedo passed just ahead of " Leipzig " , nearing hitting the damaged cruiser . After safely returning to port in Kiel , " Leipzig " was taken into the Deutsche Werke shipyard for repairs . She was decommissioned while under repair and reclassified as a training ship . To accommodate additional training crews , four of the ship ' s boilers were removed . She returned to service in late 1940 . In early June 1941 , she escorted the heavy cruiser " Lützow " ( formerly " Deutschland " ) to Norway . After she returned to the Baltic , she and the cruiser " Emden " provided artillery support to advancing German ground forces during Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of the Soviet Union . In September , she supported the invasion of the Baltic islands in the West Estonian archipelago . While bombarding Soviet positions on Moon Island , " Leipzig " was attacked unsuccessfully by the Soviet submarine " Shch - 317 " . In late September , the ship joined the German Baltic Fleet , centered on the battleship " Tirpitz " ; the fleet was tasked with blocking a possible Soviet attempt to break out of the Baltic . " Leipzig " returned to Kiel in October , and conducted maneuvers with the heavy cruiser " Admiral Scheer " . " Leipzig " became the flagship of the training fleet in 1942 ; she spent the year performing training duties . " Leipzig " was decommissioned briefly in March 1943 , and recommissioned on 1 August . She was in need of an overhaul , however , and the work significantly delayed her return to operational status . Furthermore , an outbreak of meningitis killed two crewmen and created an additional delay . " Leipzig " returned to escort duties in the Baltic in mid - September 1944 . Her first operation covered troop transports between Gotenhafen and Swinemünde in company with " Admiral Scheer " . On 14 October , " Leipzig " departed Gotenhafen , bound for Swinemünde , to take on a load of mines . In a heavy fog , she collided with the heavy cruiser " Prinz Eugen " , which was steaming at . " Prinz Eugen " struck " Leipzig " on her port side , just forward of her funnel ; the collision killed or wounded 39 crewmen . The ships remained stuck fast for over a day , after which " Leipzig " was towed back to Gotenhafen . The damage was so severe that repairs were deemed impractical , especially considering Germany ' s pressing military situation by late 1944 . Only repairs to keep her afloat in the harbor were effected . " Leipzig " provided fire support to the defending German forces in March 1945 , while Soviet Red Army forces advanced on the city . On 24 March , " Leipzig " was moved to Hela , laden with refugees ; she was capable of steaming at only . She was repeatedly attacked by Soviet aircraft , and Allied submarines attempted to torpedo her twice . She nevertheless safely reached Denmark on 29 April . Due to her poor state following the end of the war , she was used as a barracks ship for the men of the German Mine Sweeping Administration , tasked with clearing mines off the German coast . The battered ship was eventually towed out and scuttled in July 1946 .