SMS Frankfurt SMS " Frankfurt " was a light cruiser of the built by the German " Kaiserliche Marine " ( Imperial Navy ) . She had one sister ship , ; the ships were very similar to the previous s . The ship was laid down in 1913 , launched in March 1915 , and completed by August 1915 . Armed with eight 15 cm SK L / 45 guns , " Frankfurt " had a top speed of and displaced at full load . " Frankfurt " saw extensive action with the High Seas Fleet during World War I . She served primarily in the North Sea , and participated in the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft and the battles of Jutland and Second Heligoland . At Jutland , she was lightly damaged by a British cruiser and her crew suffered minor casualties . At the end of the war , she was interned with the bulk of the German fleet in Scapa Flow . When the fleet was scuttled in June 1919 , " Frankfurt " was one of the few ships that were not successfully sunk . She was ceded to the US Navy as a war prize and ultimately expended as a bomb target in tests conducted by the US Navy and Army Air Force in July 1921 . Design . " Frankfurt " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the " Kaiserliche Werft " shipyard in Kiel in 1913 and launched on 20 March 1915 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 20 August 1915 , after being rushed through trials . The ship was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of forward . She displaced at full combat load . Her propulsion system consisted of two sets of Marine steam turbines driving two propellers . They were designed to give . These were powered by twelve coal - fired Marine - type water - tube boilers and two oil - fired double - ended boilers . These gave the ship a top speed of . " Frankfurt " carried of coal , and an additional of oil that gave her a range of at . " Frankfurt " had a crew of 17 officers and 457 enlisted men . The ship was armed with eight 15 cm 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 placed in a superfiring pair aft . The guns could engage targets out to . They were supplied with 1 , 024 rounds of ammunition , for 128 shells per gun . The ship ' s antiaircraft armament initially consisted of four L / 44 guns , though these were replaced with a pair of 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns . She was also equipped with four torpedo tube s with eight torpedo es . Two were submerged in the hull on the broadside and two were mounted on the deck amidships . She could also carry 120 mines . The ship was protected by a waterline armored belt that was thick amidships . The conning tower had thick sides , and the deck was covered with up to 60 mm thick armor plate . Service history . The first operation in which " Frankfurt " saw action was the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24 April 1916 . " Frankfurt " was assigned to the reconnaissance screen for the battlecruiser s of the I Scouting Group , temporarily under the command of " Konteradmiral " Friedrich Bödicker ' s . During the raid , " Frankfurt " attacked and sank a British armed patrol boat off the English coast . Due to reports of British submarines and torpedo attacks , Bödicker broke off the chase , and turned back east towards the High Seas Fleet . At this point , Scheer , who had been warned of the Grand Fleet ' s sortie from Scapa Flow , turned back towards Germany . Battle of Jutland . At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916 , " Frankfurt " served as Bödicker ' s flagship , the commander of the II Scouting Group . The II Scouting Group was again screening for the I Scouting Group battlecruisers , again commanded by " Vizeadmiral " Franz von Hipper . " Frankfurt " was engaged in the first action of the battle , when the cruiser screens of the German and British battlecruiser squadrons encountered each other . " Frankfurt " , , and briefly fired on the British light cruisers at 16 : 17 until the British ships turned away . Half an hour later , the fast battleship s of the 5th Battle Squadron had reached the scene and opened fire on " Frankfurt " and the other German cruisers , though the ships quickly fled under a smokescreen and were not hit . Shortly before 18 : 00 , the British destroyer s and attempted to attack the German battlecruisers . Heavy fire from " Frankfurt " and " Pillau " forced the British ships to break off the attack . At around 18 : 30 , " Frankfurt " and the rest of the II Scouting Group encountered the cruiser ; they opened fire and scored several hits on the ship . Rear Admiral Horace Hood ' s three battlecruisers intervened , however , and scored a hit on that disabled the ship . About an hour later , " Chester " scored four hits on " Frankfurt " in quick succession : two hits in the area of " Frankfurt " s mainmast and a pair of hits . One of the 4 - inch shells hit forward , well above the waterline , and the second exploded in the water near the stern and damaged both screws . " Frankfurt " and " Pillau " spotted the cruiser and several destroyers shortly before 23 : 00 . They each fired a torpedo at the British cruiser before turning back toward the German line without using their searchlights or guns to avoid drawing the British toward the German battleships . Almost two hours later , " Frankfurt " encountered a pair of British destroyers and fired on them briefly until they retreated at full speed . By 04 : 00 on 1 June , the German fleet had evaded the British fleet and reached Horns Reef . " Frankfurt " had three men killed and eighteen wounded in the course of the engagement . She had fired 379 rounds of 15 cm ammunition and a pair of 8 . 8 cm shells , and launched a single torpedo . Subsequent operations . The ship participated in Operation Albion in October 1917 , an operation to eliminate the Russian naval forces that still held the Gulf of Riga . The ship was part of the II Scouting Group , commanded by Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter . The following month , " Frankfurt " and the rest of the II Scouting Group were engaged during the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight . Along with three other cruisers from the II Scouting Group , " Königsberg " escorted minesweepers clearing paths in minefields laid by the British . The dreadnought battleship s and stood by in distant support . During the battle , " Frankfurt " fired torpedoes at the attacking British cruisers , but failed to score any hits . The British broke off the attack when the German battleships arrived on the scene , after which the Germans also withdrew . In the final weeks of the war , " Großadmiral " Reinhard Scheer and Hipper 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 . The unrest ultimately forced Hipper and Scheer to cancel the operation . Most of the High Seas Fleet ' s ships , including " Frankfurt " , were interned in the British naval base in Scapa Flow , under the command of Reuter . Fate . 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 scuttle his ships . British sailors boarded " Frankfurt " and beached her before she could sink . She was raised the following month and thereafter transferred to the US Navy as a war prize . She was formally taken over on 11 March 1920 in England and commissioned into the US Navy on 4 June . " Frankfurt " was towed to the United States . The ship was ultimately expended as a bomb target on 18 July 1921 by the Army Air Force and Navy bombers off Cape Henry , Virginia . The attacks started with small and bombs , which caused minor hull damage . The bombers then changed over to larger and bombs ; Air Force MB - 2 bombers hit " Frankfurt " with several of the 600 lb bombs and sank the ship at 18 : 25 .