SMS Kolberg SMS " Kolberg " was a light cruiser of the German " Kaiserliche Marine " ( Imperial Navy ) during the First World War , the lead ship of her class . She had three sister ships , , , and . She was built by the Schichau - Werke ; her hull was laid down in early 1908 and she was launched later that year , in November . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in June 1910 . She was armed with a main battery of twelve 10 . 5 cm SK L / 45 guns and had a top speed of . " Kolberg " saw action in several engagements with the British during the war , including the raid on Scarborough , Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914 and the Battle of Dogger Bank the following month . She also saw action against the Russians on two occasions , during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915 and Operation Albion in November 1917 . After the end of the war , she was ceded to France as a war prize and renamed " Colmar " . She served only briefly in the French Navy , including a deployment to Asia in 1924 . She was stricken in 1927 and broken up two years later . Design . " Kolberg " was ordered under the contract name " Ersatz " and was laid down in early 1908 at the Schichau - Werke shipyard in Danzig . She was launched on 14 November 1908 , after which fitting - out work commenced . She was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 21 June 1910 . 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 Melms & Pfenniger steam turbines driving four propellers . They were designed to give . These were powered by fifteen coal - fired Marine water - tube boilers . These gave the ship a top speed of . " Kolberg " carried of coal that gave her a range of approximately at . " Kolberg " had a crew of eighteen officers and 349 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 were side by side aft . These were replaced in 1916 – 1917 with six 15 cm SK L / 45 guns . She also carried four 5 . 2 cm SK L / 55 anti - aircraft guns , though these were replaced with a pair of two 8 . 8 cm SK L / 45 anti - aircraft guns in 1918 . She was also equipped with a pair of torpedo tube s submerged in the hull . Two deck - mounted torpedo tube launchers were added in 1918 . She could also carry 100 mines . The conning tower had thick sides , and the deck was covered with up to thick armor plate . Service history . After her commissioning in 1910 , " Kolberg " served with the reconnaissance forces of the German fleet . On 14 October 1914 , " Kolberg " and the minelaying cruiser steamed into the North Sea to lay a minefield off the Firth of Forth , but upon realizing British forces were operating off the Dogger Bank , they broke off the operation and returned to port . " Kolberg " s first major action of World War I was the raid on Scarborough , Hartlepool and Whitby on 15 – 16 December 1914 . She was assigned to the II Scouting Group with three other light cruisers , tasked with screening for the battlecruiser s of the I Scouting Group , commanded by Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper . While the battlecruisers were conducting the bombardments of the towns , " Kolberg " laid a field of 100 mines off the British coast . When the German forces withdrew , the weather became bad enough that Hipper ordered the other light cruisers to steam independently to the rendezvous with the main fleet ; " Kolberg " had meanwhile joined up with the battlecruisers and proceeded with them . A little over a month later , she saw action at the Battle of Dogger Bank , on 24 January 1915 . The engagement began when " Kolberg " encountered the British cruiser ; both ships opened fire , drawing the British and German battlecruiser squadrons to the action . " Kolberg " quickly scored two hits on " Aurora " , which replied with two hits of her own . One of the shells struck " Kolberg " below the waterline and the other shell hit the ship above the waterline ; the hits killed two men . In August 1915 , the ship went into the Baltic to participate in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga . She was assigned to serve as a flotilla leader for three and a half flotillas of torpedo boats , as part of an assault force into the Gulf of Riga . On the 10th , she joined the battlecruiser to shell the island of Utö , though numerous reports of submarine s in the area convinced the Germans to withdraw . On either 15 or 16 August 1915 , a Russian submarine fired a single torpedo at " Kolberg " which missed . In November 1917 , " Kolberg " returned to the Baltic , for another attack on the Gulf of Riga , Operation Albion . By this point , she had been assigned as the flagship of the VI Scouting Group along with her sister and . At 06 : 00 on 14 October 1917 , the three ships left Libau to escort minesweeping operations in the Gulf of Riga . They were attacked by Russian coastal guns on their approach and were temporarily forced to turn away . By 08 : 45 , however , they had anchored off the Mikailovsk Bank and the minesweepers began to clear a path in the minefields . Two days later , " Strassburg " and " Kolberg " joined the dreadnought s and for a sweep of the Gulf of Riga . In the ensuing Battle of Moon Sound , the battleships destroyed the old pre - dreadnought and forced the pre - dreadnought to leave the Gulf . Later that day , " Kolberg " moved into the Gulf and engaged a Russian coastal battery at Woi on Moon Island for ten minutes , starting at 13 : 35 . The Russian guns did not return fire , so " Kolberg " ceased firing , and at 14 : 25 , anchored in the Kleinen Sound with " Strassburg " . A landing party of forty men was assembled to capture the Russian guns at Woi ; they landed on the island at 15 : 45 and by 17 : 30 , the landing party had captured the guns and rendered them inoperable . By 1918 , " Kolberg " was reduced to serve as a coastal defense ship . She was stricken from the naval register on 5 November 1919 , and subsequently surrendered to the French in Cherbourg on 28 April 1920 , under the name " W " . She was commissioned in the French Navy as " Colmar " . In 1924 , she was assigned to a colonial tour in Asia , along with the old armored cruiser . In September 1924 , the two French ships contributed to a multi - national landing party of around 1 , 800 men drawn together due to violence in Shanghai . She remained in French service for only a few years , until she was stricken on 21 July 1927 . Ultimately , she was broken up for scrap two years later in Brest , France .