SMS Regensburg SMS " Regensburg " was a light cruiser of the built by the German " Kaiserliche Marine " ( Imperial Navy ) . She had one sister ship , . The ship was built by the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen , laid down in 1912 , launched in April 1914 , and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in January 1915 . She was named for the German town of Regensburg . The ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns and had a top speed of , though in 1917 she was rearmed with seven 15 cm SK L / 45 guns . " Regensburg " served in the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet during World War I . She saw significant action at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916 , where she served as the leader of the torpedo boat flotillas that screened for the I Scouting Group battlecruiser s . After the end of the war , she was ceded to France in 1920 and renamed " Strasbourg " . In 1928 she took part in the Arctic rescue operations searching for the Airship " Italia " . Removed from service in 1936 , she was used as a barracks ship in Lorient until 1944 , when she was seized by the Germans and scuttled in the harbor to protect the U - boat pen s there . Design . " Regensburg " was ordered under the contract name " " Ersatz " " and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in 1912 and was launched on 25 April 1914 ; the mayor of Regensburg , Hofrat Josef Bleyer , christened the ship . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 3 January 1915 . 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 ten coal - fired Marine - type water - tube boilers and two oil - fired double - ended boilers . These gave the ship a top speed of . " Regensburg " carried of coal , and an additional of oil that gave her a range of approximately at . She had a crew of 21 officers and 364 enlisted men . The ship was armed with twelve 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns in single pedestal mounts . Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle , eight were located amidships , four on either side , and two in a superfiring pair aft . The guns had a maximum elevation of 30 degrees , which allowed them to engage targets out to . These were later replaced with seven 15 cm SK L / 45 guns and two 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns . She was also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s with five torpedo es submerged in the hull on the broadside . Four deck - mounted launchers were added when the gun armament was upgraded , and the submerged tubes were removed . 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 . " Regensburg " completed her trials on 10 March 1915 , and was then assigned to the II Scouting Group . Eleven days later , she bombarded Russian positions near Polangen and Papensee ; the operation lasted until the 24th . Captain Hans Zenker proposed that " Regensburg " and the liner " Cap Polonio " — which was to be armed with 15 cm guns — should be sent out into the Atlantic to replace the commerce raiding cruisers that had been destroyed in the early months of the war . The fleet commander , Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl , argued the ships would eventually be sunk as well , and that any possible successes for the raiders would not equal the loss of a modern light cruiser or a large passenger liner . The suggested plan was therefore abandoned . On 17 – 18 May , " Regensburg " took part in a mine - laying operation in the area of the Dogger Bank . On 25 August , she went into the Baltic to bombard Russian positions again , this time on the island of Dagö , including the lighthouse in St . Andreasberg and the signal station on Cap Ristna . On 11 – 12 May , " Regensburg " participated in another mine - laying operation , this time off Texel . In September , she took part in anti - shipping sweeps in the Skagerrak and the Kattegat . In early 1916 , she continued supporting mine - laying operations and reconnaissance sweeps into the North Sea . On 23 – 24 April , she participated in the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft , conducted by the battlecruiser s of Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper ' s I Scouting Group . Battle of Jutland . In May 1916 , Admiral Reinhard Scheer , the fleet commander , planned to lure a portion of the British fleet away from its bases and destroy it with the entire High Seas Fleet . For the planned operation , " Regensburg " , commanded by Commodore Paul Heinrich , was assigned to serve as the leader of the torpedo boat flotillas that screened for the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group . The squadron left the Jade roadstead at 02 : 00 on 31 May , bound for the waters of the Skagerrak . The main body of the fleet followed an hour and a half later . At around 15 : 30 , the cruiser screens of the I Scouting Group and the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron engaged ; " Regensburg " was on the disengaged side of the German formation , but steamed to reach the head of the line of battle . As she was moving into position , the opposing battlecruisers opened fire ; " Regensburg " was some from the German battlecruisers , still on the disengaged side . Her crew noted that the British shells were falling well over their targets , which placed " Regensburg " in greater danger than the battlecruisers at which the British were aiming . By 17 : 10 , " Regensburg " had reached the head of the line , and the battlecruiser fired several salvos at her , mistaking her for a battlecruiser . As the battlecruiser squadrons closed on each other , " Regensburg " ordered the torpedo boats to make a general attack on the British formation . The British had similarly ordered an attack with their destroyer s , which led to a hard - fought battle at close range between the opposing destroyer forces , supported by light cruisers and the battlecruisers ' secondary guns . Shortly after 19 : 00 , " Regensburg " led an attack with several torpedo boats on the cruiser and four destroyers . She disabled the destroyer and then shifted fire to " Canterbury " , which turned away into the mist . By 20 : 15 , the British and German main fleets had engaged , and Scheer sought a withdrawal ; he therefore ordered the I Scouting Group to charge the British line while the rest of the fleet turned away . This was in turn covered by a massed torpedo boat attack , which forced the British to turn away as well . " Regensburg " and her torpedo boats were ordered to join the attack , but the I Scouting Group had passed in front of his ships , and he realized the British had turned away , which put them out of range of his torpedoes . Having successfully disengaged , Scheer ordered " Regensburg " to organize three torpedo boat flotillas to make attacks on the British fleet during the night . At 21 : 10 , Heinrich dispatched the II Flotilla and XII Half - Flotilla from the rear of the German line to attack the British formation . In the night , the High Seas Fleet successfully passed behind the British fleet and reached Horns Reef by 04 : 00 on 1 June . At 09 : 45 , " Regensburg " and three torpedo boats turned around to rendezvous with the torpedo boats carrying the crew of the scuttled battlecruiser . In the course of the battle , " Regensburg " had fired 372 rounds of 10 . 5 cm ammunition and emerged completely unscathed . Subsequent operations . By 1917 , " Regensburg " had been assigned to the IV Scouting Group , along with and . In late October 1917 , the IV Scouting Group steamed to Pillau , arriving on the 30th . They were tasked with replacing the heavy units of the fleet that had just completed Operation Albion , the conquest of the islands in the Gulf of Riga , along with the battleships of the I Battle Squadron . The risk of mines that had come loose in a recent storm , however , prompted the naval command to cancel the mission , and " Regensburg " and the rest of the IV Scouting Group was ordered to return to the North Sea on 31 October . By October 1918 , " Regensburg " was serving as the flagship of Commodore Johannes von Karpf , commander of the IV Scouting Group . The unit was to participate in a final , climactic attack by the High Seas Fleet . Admirals 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 27 October , days before the operation was scheduled to begin , Karpf ordered " Regensburg " s crew to take on a full load of coal and oil . One division of sailors refused to work and a watch from the engine room personnel changed into their shore - going uniforms and refused to work as well . The ship ' s First Lieutenant arrested the ringleader of the strike , after which the crew returned to work . 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 the battleship and then on several other battleships mutinied . The unrest ultimately forced Hipper and Scheer to cancel the operation . As the mutinies spread , " Regensburg " was sent to Swinemünde , arriving on 7 November . That night , false reports of torpedo boats manned by Communist revolutionaries had sailed to attack his ships reached Karpf . He ordered his ships to be laid up ; the confidential materials carried aboard were destroyed and their ammunition magazines were flooded . When the fleet command learned of the incident , they replaced Karpf with Commodore Rohardt , who set about restoring the ships to seagoing condition . During this process , the IV Scouting Group moved to Stettin . The abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on 9 November , however , which indicated to Rohardt that his ships could no longer fly the Imperial ensign . He therefore placed " Regensburg " and " Brummer " out of commission . A new officer arrived in Stettin to serve as " Regensburg " s commander , but he had few officers and no crew . In December 1918 , " Regensburg " escorted the British battleship , which was carrying the Allied Armistice Commission , to Kiel . French service . " Regensburg " served in the newly reorganized " Reichsmarine " after the end of the war , through 1919 . She was stricken from the naval register on 10 March 1920 and placed out of service . On 4 June 1920 , the ship was surrendered to the Allies in the port of Cherbourg , France and transferred under the name " J " to the French Navy . She was renamed " Strasbourg " and served with the French fleet . She was initially home - ported in Brest , until she was transferred to Toulon in 1923 , where she remained for the next three years . In 1925 , she underwent a major overhaul , after which she made on speed trials . " Strasbourg " participated in the Rif War in the mid 1920s ; on 7 September 1925 , she and the battleship " Paris " and the cruiser " Metz " supported a landing of French troops in North Africa . The three ships provided heavy gunfire support to the landing troops . In early 1928 , a major earthquake struck Corinth , Greece ; " Strassbourg " was among the vessels sent to aid in the relief effort . The international effort provided assistance to 15 , 000 people . Also in 1928 , she assisted in the search effort for the wrecked airship " Italia " , which had crashed on the polar ice northeast of Svalbard . In addition , Roald Amundsen , who had also joined the search effort , went missing himself . " Strassbourg " arrived in Tromsø , Norway , on 19 June , to search for both " Italia " and Amundsen ' s aircraft . The ship ' s bow was not designed to operate in an Arctic environment , and so the crew had to continually fix wood planks to the hull to protect it from the ice . While refueling from the tanker " Durance " , " Strassbourg " took on two FBA 17 seaplanes to assist in the search effort . On 30 August , " Strassbourg " located one of the floats from Amundsen ' s aircraft , confirming the loss of the plane . The search effort was called off on 17 September , and " Strassbourg " returned to Brest by way of Reykjavík , arriving back in France by mid October . She remained in service until 14 June 1936 , when she was placed in reserve . Her name was reused for the new battleship " Strasbourg " , so the old cruiser was renamed " Strassbourg II " . The cruiser was subsequently used as a barracks ship in Lorient until 1944 , when she was seized by the Germans and scuttled in the harbor to protect the U - boat pen s in the harbor from torpedo attack . Barrage balloon s and anti - torpedo net s were attached to the ship to strengthen the defenses of the U - boat pens . Her wreck remains in the harbor , and is visible at low tide .