KMS Koln - From Testing Helicopters to Fighting While Sunk

When it comes to the German surface fleet, a few names overshadow the rest. Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen. Maybe Hipper and the Panzerschiffe, if you go a bit deeper.

That has left the light cruisers, in particular, somewhat underappreciated. Today's video will look at one of those, in the form of Koln. Which I almost certainly mispronounced.

One of the Königsberg-class cruisers, which were an interesting design. A transition period, with a weird main battery layout. Two of the three ships would end up lost off Norway.

Not Koln, however. She would survive the entire war...for a certain value of 'survive'. The cruiser would be sunk in port in early 1945, but the crew remained aboard and continued to use her turrets to the end.

There was also a period where she tested helicopters, of all things, in 1942.

All of which makes her an interesting ship to look at.

Further Reading:

[MrGoesBoom]

Getting sunk then going "Hey, the guns still work, keep going!" then fighting till the war is over is pretty bad ass.

[themagicbeanguy]

Man imagine being a sailor on a ship with the knowledge that a bt-7 can penetrate the belt armor of your ship at its thickest

[JGCR]

Köln's sponsor at launch was none other than the Mayor of Cologne and later Federal Chancellor of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer. In Germany (at least pre WW2) ships were not launched by women but usually by men, sometimes even those they were named after. The three K class and later Leipzig and Nürnberg were all named (as was Emden) after cruisers that went down fighting in WW1. In case of SMS Cöln (back then with C) it was during the battle of Heligoland bight when Cöln under rear admiral Leberecht Maas (who got a destroyer named after him) did not hesitate to race to support the engaged torpedo boats, only to be engaged and sunk by the british battlecruisers with only one survivor. Debris of one of her lifeboats is still displayed in a medieval city gate of Cologne. Her last radio call "Cöln kommt" (Cöln is coming) to her distressed torpedo boats was often used a laconic example of bravery against the odds

[ThePrader]

She was one fine looking ship. While fast, I am not sure as a former naval officer, that I would want to go to war with her. Her almost complete lack of protection from even 5" enemy guns would bother me. I tend to look at her and think, "large destroyer", rather than a light cruiser.

[HighlanderNorth]

When I think of WW2 naval power, 1 ship automatically comes to mind _BEFORE_ all others, and of course I'm talking about the Koln! Her exploits are legendary(probably), and I'll learn all about them for the first time ever over the next 10mins as I watch ^this video. 😉👍

[BHuang]

I played this ship in World of Warships and I say the turrets have some weird angles to shoot at!

[legiran]

The 3.7 cm SK C/30 is arguably the worst medium AA gun ever put on a ship. Imagine a Bofors 40mm that you had to manually hand load, close breech and fire one cartridge at a time.
Bismarck would not have survived a day in the Pacific.

[tomyorke]

"From Testing Helicopters to Fighting While Sunk." Maybe would have been a more cohesive title.

[bkjeong]

Okay, this has to be the first surface ship I have heard of to fight a battle AFTER sinking.

[NightHeronProduction]

Superb and informative video! If I may make a suggestion for a future wreck video? K219 (Yankee class SSBN lost October 1986). A good number of people already know the story but not much is known about the wreck. There used to be some artwork and even a cgi video of the wreck that someone made about a decade ago but all of those depictions seem to have vanished from the internet. I know the Soviets dove on the wreck in 1988 with the newly commissioned Mir submersibles and that the wreck had split in two just aft of the conning tower with all the missile doors open and they're silos empty. But outside of that (which those details seem to be gone from the internet too) there isn't much out there on the wreck. Just a thought!

[ImportantNavalHistory]

There is a rather lengthy account found in "German Light Cruisers of World War Two, Warships of the Kriegsmarine" by Gerhard Koop and Klaus Peter-Schmolke about her final months from the perspective of her chief engineer, very interesting read.

[paullaw]

Thank you. This presentation reveals DKM Koeln to have been a far more interesting ship than I thought she was.
I wonder what plans the Kriegsmarine might have had for the FL - beyond reconnaissance and spotting?

[apis_aculei]

The K class cruisers are not forgotten in german navy history, because they were the first new ships of the Reichsmarine, the new Navy of the new republican Germany after WW1.

[legiran]

This ship's worst enemy is any ocean above Sea State 3.

[Burninhellscrootoob]

Wasnt Koln accidentally rammed by prinz eugen?

[michaelgrenz]

KMS Köln die erste hieß Cöln es gab 5 Schiffe mit diesem Namen.

[Ibuki]

Cool. Now I know why Koln has the helo in Azur Lane.

[JGCR]

Köln ;) Not sure if it is of much use but here's the IPA form of it [kœln]