Light Cruisers: Bremen Class

[Brian James]

The ill fated Bremen Class Light Cruiser SMS Leipzig pictured coaling ship at Guaymas,Mexico on September 8th 1914,exactly one month later,she was sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands,December 8th 1914.

[Brian James]

Bremen Class Light Cruiser SMS Hamburg pictured c1910.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Light Cruiser SMS Bremen pictured at Galveston,Texas c1907.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Light Cruiser SMS Bremen pictured off Newport News in 1907.

[designeraccd]

Here is a nice beam view of BREMEN, plus one taken in Hampton Roads (USA) during 1912. She sank after striking a Russian mine in the Baltic, 1915.

Also, a photo of HAMBURG, the longest lived HSF cruiser as she was not scrapped until mid 1950s!!

From WIKI:

" Following Germany's defeat, Hamburg remained in Germany and was among the vessels permitted to the Reichsmarine by the Treaty of Versailles. She was among the first vessels to be recommissioned in 1920 and in 1921, while escorting minesweepers, she engaged Soviet coastal artillery. Her crew assisted in the suppression of unrest in Hamburg in October 1923. Reduced to a training ship in 1926, she embarked on a world cruise, after which she was decommissioned and reduced to a barracks ship. She served in that capacity in Kiel until early 1944, when the Nazi-era Kriegsmarine moved her to Hamburg to be broken up; British bombers sank the ship in April before she could be dismantled. The wreck was raised after the war in 1949 and was finally scrapped by 1956."

DFO

[Brian James]

Bremen Class Light Cruiser SMS Leipzig pictured in 1912...She saw action at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, which saw the destruction of the East Asia Squadron. Leipzig was chased down and sunk on December 8th 1914, by the Cruisers HMS Glasgow and HMS Kent; the majority of her crew was killed in the battle, with only 18 survivors.

[Brian James]

Bremen Class Light Cruiser SMS Berlin pictured c 1910...The design for the Bremen Class was derived from the preceding Gazelle Class, she was armed with a main battery of ten 4.1 inch guns and had a top speed of 22 knots...Berlin served with the main fleet's scouting forces for the majority of her early career; during this period, she conducted unit and fleet training exercises, visits to foreign countries, and in 1908 and 1909, several long-distance training cruises into the central Atlantic. In 1911, she was involved in the Agadir Crisis over the French annexation of part of Morocco, which resulted in a diplomatic defeat for Germany. Berlin was reduced to reserve status in late 1912, remaining out of service until the start of World War I in July 1914. She was used to support German coastal defense forces and to scout for the High Seas Fleet; on two different occasions, she had to tow her sister ship Danzig back to port after the latter struck naval mines, and she had to tow her sister München after that vessel was torpedoed by a Submarine. Berlin was reduced to a tender in early 1917 and saw no further active service for the rest of the war...Among the handful of vessels permitted to Weimar Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, Berlin was initially used as a stationary Training Vessel before being modernized between 1921 and 1922. She thereafter served as a Training Ship for naval cadets, and over the course of the mid-1920s, embarked a series of long-distance training cruises. The furthest of these, lasting from late 1927 to early 1929, saw the ship voyage as far as East Asia. She was decommissioned in March 1929 and kept in reserve until 1935, when she was converted into a Barracks Ship, a role she filled through World War II. After the war, she was loaded with chemical weapons and scuttled in the Skagerrak in 1947.

[Brian James]

One of ten SK/40 4.1inch guns on Lead Ship, Light Cruiser SMS Bremen pictured c 1908.