German cruiser Leipzig
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| Image:Leipzig h50396.jpg | |
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 1928 |
| Laid down: | April 1928 |
| Launched: | October 1929 |
| Commissioned: | October 1931 |
| Fate: | Scuttled December 1946 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 8,380 tons tons |
| Length: | 177 m |
| Beam: | 16.30 m |
| Draft: | 5.65 m |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbines and Diesel, 3 shafts (Diesel on center shaft), 60,000 shp (45 MW) turbines + 12,400 hp (9.3 MW) diesel |
| Speed: | 32 knots |
| Range: | 5700 nm at 19 knots |
| Complement: | 850 |
| Armament: | 3 × 3 5.9 inch (150 mm) guns 6 × 88 mm guns 8 × 37 mm guns 8 × 20 mm AA guns 12 × 533 mm torpedoes 120 mines |
| Aircraft: | 2 Arado 196 floatplanes |
The German light cruiser Leipzig was the lead ship of her class (Nürnberg was her improved sister ship). She was the fourth German warship to carry the name of the city of Leipzig.
She was built at Wilhelmshaven and launched on 18 October 1929. During the Spanish Civil War Leipzig conducted several patrols as part of the international naval blockade.
On 13 December 1939 she was torpedoed by the Royal Navy submarine Salmon and severely damaged. Two completely destroyed boiler rooms were restored as living quarters only and Leipzig was converted into a training ship. She was recommissioned on 1 December 1940. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation "Barbarossa"), the cruiser took part in the shelling of the islands Ösel and Dagö in the Baltic Sea, before returning to her duties as a training vessel. She remained in the Baltic Sea and on 15 October 1944 was accidentally rammed amidships by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in heavy fog. Heavily damaged and effectively immobilised, she continued to serve as a training, barracks and flak ship. In March 1945 she shelled advancing Soviet army units near Gdynia, but was then moved to Apenrade at the end of March.
At the end of World War II Leipzig was surrendered to British forces, moved to Wilhelmshaven, and scuttled in the North Sea with a cargo of gas munitions on 16 December 1946.
[edit] References
- Gröner, Erich; Jung, Dieter; & Maass, Martin (1990). German Warships 1815-1945: Volume One (1st English ed.). London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-533-0.
[edit] External links
See also
- SMS Leipzig, WW1 cruiser
