SMS Königsberg (1905)

For other German cruisers named Königsberg, see SMS Königsberg.

SMS Königsberg
Career
Ordered:	1903/4
Laid down:	12 January 1905
Launched:	12 December 1905
Commissioned:	4 June 1906
Fate:	Scuttled 11 July 1915
General characteristics
Displacement:	3,400 tons, 3,814 tons full load
Length:	115.3 m
Beam:	13.2 m
Draft:	5.29 m
Propulsion:	Twin triple expansion engines, 13,200 ihp
Speed:	24.1 knots ()
Complement:	322
Armament:	10 Quick Firing 10.5 cm (4.1") L/35, 10 Quick Firing 5.2 cm (2"), 2 45 cm Torpedo Tubes

SMS Königsberg was the lead ship of her class of light cruisers of the Imperial German Navy, most notable for her activities in and around German East Africa during World War I. After threatening British shipping, she was blockaded for months and eventually sunk in the delta of the Rufiji River.

Before World War I

Commissioned in 1906, Königsberg was then one of the German navy's most modern ships. Soon after her commissioning, she was tasked for to escort the Royal Yacht Hohenzollern when the Kaiser made a state visit to Britain. In 1914, captained by Commander Max Looff, she arrived in German East Africa on a mission to show the flag. She was considered quite impressive by the colonial subjects in Africa, who were stunned by the gleaming surfaces and incredible broadsides of the ship, the likes of which had not been seen before. Most notable were her three funnels, as the Africans equated funnels with naval power, and three was an unprecedented number. The ship acquired the nickname Manowari na bomba tatu, or "the man of war with three pipes".

As tensions rose immediately preceding the war, a squadron of British ships arrived with the intention of bottling Königsberg up at Dar es Salaam. Looff had the ship ready to sail, however, and left port on 31 July 1914, the British in hot pursuit, determined not to let her out of sight. Looff was able to give the squadron the slip, and by the time war was declared, he was out of sight.

Offensive Career and Rufiji Delta Refuge

Königsberg now embarked on a brief career as a commerce raider, intercepting and sinking the British ship City of Winchester off the coast of Oman. The collier Somali followed the raider around the Indian Ocean, but eventually a shortage of coal forced Königsberg to take hide in the Rufiji Delta and await supplies from Dar es Salaam.

On 20 September 1914 she destroyed HMS Pegasus, an elderly cruiser sent to hunt her, in Zanzibar harbor. An engine failure forced Königsberg to abandon plans to return to Germany and to retreat once more into the Rufiji Delta with Somali to carry out repairs. During this time, an avenging British squadron spent its time tracking down leads to the cruiser's whereabouts. Eventually, the search bore fruit when the Präsident, rumored to be supplying Konisberg and Somali, was discovered at Lindi. Although the Präsident was marked as a hospital ship, the British ignored protests and boarded, finding no medical supplies and documentation of supplies unloaded in the Rufiji Delta. There Königsberg was discovered by the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Chatham at the end of October.

Meanwhile, the engine repairs had proven too much for the tools and know-how the ship carried. Looff came to the conclusion that his immobilized ship's engines needed the attention of a real shipyard, such as the one in Dar es Salaam, some 100 miles away. His novel solution was to dismantle the engines, put them on wooden sledges, and drag them there and back. Meanwhile, he fortified the water approaches to the ship, detaching the 47mm secondary armament, and placing them on the delta's water approaches, along with a garrison of observers and troops, nicknamed the "Delta Force".

Just before the repaired engines were returned and installed, two additional British cruisers, HMS Dartmouth and HMS Weymouth arrived to assist with the blockade. Where Königsberg might have been able to escape from the superior Chatham, the infusion of force meant that the German cruiser was now bottled up. On the other hand, the bigger British ships had too much of a draft to navigate the delta, meaning that they couldn't get within effective range of the German ship. This was not for lack of trying, however. On one occasion in early November, Chatham came close to scoring long-range hits; while the Somali was sunk, the Königsberg simply moved further up the river. The situation was at an impasse.

Blockade and Sinking

The British now employed grab-bag of methods to sink or render useless the Königsberg. An attempt was made to slip a shallow-draft torpedo boat (with escorts) within range, an operation easily repulsed by the force in the delta. A blockship, the Newbridge, was successfully sunk by the British across one of the delta mouths to prevent her escape; it was soon realized that the Königsberg could still escape through the delta's other channels, however. Dummy mines were laid in some of these alternates, but they were considered a doubtful deterrent. A civilian pilot named Cutler was convinced to bring his Curtiss seaplane for reconnaissance; his plane and another soon crashed, although they verified the presence of the illusive cruiser. A pair of Royal Naval Air Service Sopwiths were brought up with the intention of scouting and even bombing the ship. They soon fell apart in the tropical conditions. A trio of Short seaplanes fared a little better, managing even to take photographs of the ship before they were grounded by the glue-melting tropical heat and German fire.

Attempts to use the 12-inch (305 mm) guns of the old battleship HMS Goliath to sink the cruiser were unsuccessful, once again because the shallow waters prevented the battleship from getting within range.

In the meantime, conditions were deteriorating on the Königsberg. There were shortages of coal, ammunition, food, and medical supplies. Although safe from the British, the crew was ravaged by malaria and other tropical ailments. Generally cut off from the outside world, the morale of the sailors fell. However, the situation was marginally improved with a scheme to resupply the ship and give her a fighting chance to return home. A captured British merchant ship, Rubens, was renamed Kronborg. It was given a Danish flag, papers, and a crew of German sailors specially selected for their ability to speak Danish. It was then packed with coal, field guns, ammunition, fresh water, and the like. After successfully infiltrating to the waters of East Africa, it was intercepted by the alerted Hyacinth, who chased it to Manza Bay. The trapped ship was eventually sunk, burnt, and left for scrap. Astonishingly, upon investigation by the Germans, much of her cargo was deemed salvageable, and made its way to Königsberg on the backs of African porters.

Wreck of Königsberg

Finally, in late May 1915, the equipment necessary for a successful attack was brought together by the British. Two shallow draft monitors, HMS Mersey and HMS Severn, were towed to the Rufiji from Britain by way of Malta and the Red Sea. With nonessential items removed, added armour bolted on, and a full bombardment by the rest of the fleet, they ran the gauntlet. Aided by a squadron of 4 land planes (two Caudrons and two Henry Farmans) based at Mafia Island to spot the fall of shells, they engaged in a long-range duel with Königsberg, which was assisted by shore-based spotters. Although Mersey was hit and the monitors were unable to score on the first day, they returned again on 11 July. Finally, their 6-inch (152 mm) guns seriously knocked out Königsberg's armament and then reduced her to a wreck. At around 2 pm, Looff ordered her scuttled with a torpedo.

Afterword

The next day, 33 German dead were buried by the 188 remaining crewmen. A plaque was placed near the graves, reading "Beim Untergang S.M.S. Königsberg am 11.7.15 gefallen..." followed by a list of the dead. The armament and all other useful equipment and material were removed from the wreck and, together with the ship's crew, went on to see service in the East African land campaign under General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. The 4.2 inch guns especially played prominent roles for the Germans for the rest of the war, acting as the theater's heaviest field artillery, used in harbor fortifications (at Dar es Salaam, for instance), and even remounted on the Götzen, the German "capital ship" of the inland Lake Tanganyika fleet. The wreck itself, submerged to the main deck, lay in the river for fifty years and eventually disappeared into the mud in 1966.

A new light cruiser built in 1916 was also named SMS Königsberg to honor her predecessor. A third light cruiser Königsberg, commissioned in 1929, was sunk in World War II during the German invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung).

References

• Barnes C.H. & James D.N. Shorts Aircraft since 1900. London (1989): Putnam. p. 560. ISBN 0-85177-819-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
• Patience, Kevin. Konigsberg - A German East African Raider. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Patience, Kevin. Shipwrecks and Salvage on the East African Coast. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)