SMS Emden (1916)

Type

Light Cruiser

Period

20th Century

Nation

Germany

Overview: SMS Emden was a German Königsberg-class light cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine, built during the First World War and named in honor of the famous raider SMS Emden lost at the Battle of Cocos in 1914. She mounted a commemorative Iron Cross on her stem-head and, under Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, served as flagship of the interned German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919. Specifications: She was 151.4 m long overall with a 14.2 m beam and a draft of 5.96 m, displacing 5,440 t normally and up to 7,125 t at full load. Her main battery was eight 15 cm SK L/45 guns, supplemented by two 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns and torpedo tubes, and her twin steam turbines driving two screws gave a top speed of 27.5 knots. Service History: Laid down in December 1914 at AG Weser in Bremen under the contract name "Ersatz Nymphe," she was launched on 1 February 1916 and commissioned on 16 December 1916, after which she served primarily as a torpedo-boat flotilla leader. Her most notable combat action was Operation Albion in October 1917, where she bombarded Russian shore batteries and engaged Russian destroyers in the Baltic, and she also led a minor raid against British shipping in the North Sea in December 1917. Interned at Scapa Flow after the Armistice, she was beached rather than sunk by British sailors during the German fleet's mass scuttling on 21 June 1919. Notable Facts: Awarded to France as a war prize in 1920, Emden was so badly damaged by the scuttling and beaching that the French Navy never placed her in active service, instead using her as an explosives-testing target before scrapping her at Caen in 1926. Her ship's bell is preserved in the Imperial War Museum's collections, and period photographs of her at Scapa Flow remain a popular visual reference for modelers depicting the fleet internment.