The Story of the Königsberg-Germany's Most Fragile Cruiser

[@ImportantNavalHistory]

What do you all think about the K class? I don’t think they were necessarily bad ships. They were constrained due to the treaty limitations placed on them. Although, I think there is an argument to be made that the designers tried to do too much with the amount of tonnage they had. Also, I make a point to look up pronunciations and try to do them as correctly as possible, so I apologize if I butcher any.

[@marksebesta9625]

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[@AndrewGivens]

You did a lovely job. As an English viewer, the only thing I would point out is that it was (for the sake of historical accuracy) the 1st S-boat Flotilla, being that it was the German organisation and their nomenclature for the small torpedo boats was S-boot. 'E-boat' is a historical brevity code used by British and Allied forces to describe or identify almost any small fast German motor craft, including Luftwaffe rescue launches. British ignorance of S-boat types & characteristics at the time was extremely notable and they didn't know exactly what they were fighting against in most cases until the surrender - the first time most RN crews had even seen an S-boat. So, E-boat is a term borne largely of dismissive ignorance, like 'Betty', 'Val', 'Zeke', 'Fishbed', 'Backfire' and 'Guideline' - all just made-up. So, we should really try to avoid using the outdated term 'E-boat' where possible, certainly when discussing the German perspective, to be more accurate, respectful and clear about what we are discussing. Without hostile criticism at all; otherwise lovely video.

[@ImportantNavalHistory]

@@AndrewGivens I appreciate the well articulated criticism. I understand the term E boat isn’t exactly the best but the sources I used described them as such (including German sources) and if I were to do more detailed videos on them I would distinguish them better. Anyway thanks again for the correction.

[@AndrewGivens]

@@ImportantNavalHistory You're very welcome and thank you enormously for replying! I hope you keep up the good work & keep on enjoying it.

[@michaelnaisbitt7926]

Normally I am critical of pronouncing words from different languag3 BUT IN THIS CASE you did an excellent job and I enjoyed the clip keep up good wo4k

[@Backwardlooking]

My late father who served in the Royal Navy in W.W.2 purchased some official literature that showed the ship’s destruction. It sparked my lifetime interest in warships and especially the war. He also served briefly aboard the South Dakota when she and her sister ship coordinated with the Home Fleet which he was responsible among others for communicating with Scapa Flow. 👍🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇺🇸

[@craigfazekas3923]

@17:45 ? That photo is one of a series of photos taken at that time. Other shots of this scene show an airman sitting on the plane's pontoons, legs crossed & reading a book- totally unconcerned about what's happening a few hundred yards away.... Also, for anybody interested in this theater of WWII- particularly Norway ? Author Geirr Haarr's books are a must read. Truly !! He has a way of conveying facts & history, in that theater, that is engaging. You'll have gained much knowledge concerning Norway, and the German attempt at taking over & England's role in trying to stop it. He covers it all & does it very, very well !! 🚬😎👍

[@kidmohair8151]

thank you! I have been waiting for someone to cover these rather odd attempts at "light' cruisers.

[@mistysowards7365]

Great video, your probably the only one to showcase this class, and at a detailed level. Thanks. Hand your dealt indeed.

[@1987phillybilly]

Awesome one! Didnt know a lot of History of the K cruisers. Thanks!

[@deaks25]

I think every navy has a ship that was either too light or had too much crammed onto it (Mogami and Atlanta are the cruiser examples that immediately spring to mind), and I think the Konigsberg's are definitely examples of this. The German's knew they couldn't build a lot of ships but they needed a ship that could do the merchant raiding/protection of a Leander, have the speed and fire power of a La Galisonniere, the minelaying capability of a Manxman on a hull of an Arethusa class. Where the Allies, particularly the Royal Navy, had the funds and industry to put these various capabilities on different ships, the German's realised they had to cram it all into one place. As peace-time vessels, they were great; impressive, modern and highly capable. However the war put a big spotlight on the flaws of the design.

[@whatdadogdoin8457]

Deserve more attention!!! Good stuff

[@glencrandall7051]

Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

[@kohinarec6580]

My grandfather was in the Finnish merchant navy. Their ship was detained in Bergen harbour when Königsberg was attacked and sunk. He managed to take some long distance photos of the attack. We also have his port-pass signed by a German Oberleutnant-zur-See.

[@VictorianTimeTraveler]

(Edit: this actually wasn't what I was looking for I just realized. It's still massively interesting though) I'm reading the book African Kaiser and I just need to get a clear picture in my head what this ship looks like. Right now they're dragging the boilers across the jungle too friendly lines where they can get them repaired

[@thomaslinton5765]

Had Konigsburg class been more durable, how would that have effected history to any significant extent?

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

Sounds like the USN's littoral ships😅😂

[@sebastian-FX357Z1]

K class cruisers r still much better than those Japanese light-cruisers.

[@kjellg6532]

Kriegsmarine never used the KMS prefix. «KMS Königsberg» never existed

[@ImportantNavalHistory]

The prefix is an easy way to distinguish her from the Königsberg of the First World War. It’s not perfect but it helps to separate the two. Have a great day :)

[@kjellg6532]

@@ImportantNavalHistory Now you have the cruisers: - Königsberg (1905) - Königsberg (1915) - Königsberg (1927) Who knows, maybe there will be another Königsberg someday. How do you distinguish US or UK ships related to their era?

[@ImportantNavalHistory]

Like I said in my previous comment, it’s not a perfect system as for any nation. I used the prefix here because it’s commonly used by reputable sources as in the ones I have in my description.

[@briannicholas2757]

A well done video. Does anyone else find it amusing when you hear of nazi warships making "good will" visits.

[@iankingsleys2818]

"each carrying a 1,000 ton bomb" That's quite a load for a Skua

[@ImportantNavalHistory]

I thought the same thing, but that's what Gerhard Koop and Klaus-Peter Schmolke report. Edit: I definitely say 1000 pound bomb. But your comment brings up an interesting point about sources differing on the exact weight of the bombs. Some say 1000 and others 500.

[@tigerland4328]

​@@ImportantNavalHistorya British 1,000 lb bomb would be considered a 500 kg bomb to the Germans due to them using the metric system so this might explain the confusion in the sources

[@Robjillt]

Koop and Schmolke in their book German Light Cruisers state a 100lb bomb was used though this maybe a missprint in the book. M.J.Whitley in his book German Cruisers of WWII states it was 500lb bombs (227kg). Wiki gives the Skua as capable of carrying either a 250lb or 500lb bomb in the dive-bombing roll. So I think 1000lb bomb not the case.@@ImportantNavalHistory

[@ImportantNavalHistory]

@@Robjillt After having read more on the subject it’s more than likely the Skuas were carrying 500 lbs bombs as that particular squadron of Skuas had just departed Ark Royal. Edit: I can’t believe I misread 100lb as 1000lb so many times… I might need to have my eyes checked.

[@johndell3642]

@@ImportantNavalHistory The biggest bomb that could be carried by a Skua was only 500 lbs. The combat reports of the Skua pilots specifically state 500 Ib SAP bombs were used. - Aircraft bombs are designated by the weight of the bomb, regardless of the amount of explosive they carry (unless they a nuclear weapons). The British 500 Ib semi-armour piercing (SAP) bomb had only 20% of its weight made up of explosive, the rest of the weight being the heavy metal casing required for the bomb to punch through armour. Thus the explosive content of the bomb was 100 Ibs. This may be the reason why some early books on the subject classified it as a "100 Ib bomb". The Skua Squadrons had been used as fighters guarding the anchorage at Scapa Flow since mid-December 1939, some 4 months earlier.

[@Marek-w5i]

Donaleźli go w zatoce w Polsce

[@TTTT-oc4eb]

Emden was worse.

[@thomaslinton5765]

Ca diz' not Caw diz.

[@anonymusum]

This is a way more objective comment about the K-cruisers than KZbinr Drachinifel usually posts, cause you can´t evaluate these ships if you ignore the treaties and the period of time when they were built.

[@mathewkelly9968]

Hey neo naughty ww2 German........ when did Drac do that ? These ships where over armed for the tonnage they where limited to , and even when they cheated aka the Hippers and Bismarks they just wasted tonnage , imagine a 18,000 tons County 😂

[@anonymusum]

@@mathewkelly9968 First of all please read Christopher Clark´s book "The Sleepwalkers" and then tell me with what right the Allies forced Germany to obey to all of their restrictions? Secondly - yes, the constructions were not very convincing but after the time span during which they couldn´t construct anything they couldn´t keep pace with international developments. And of course these restrictions worked as the Allies prevented Germany from building competative ships. With what right? And secondly the German navy tried to put the priority on quality instead of quantity as they knew that they couldn´t outbuild Great Britain - a similar situation happened in Japan by the way. In the end many ships could fulfill a lot of tasks but were overweight. So yes, the German navy cheated with the Hippers, the Deutschlands and the Hippers by trying to give them every kind of ability they thought was needed. Just look at the seaplane facilities etc. In the end it wasn´t about WW1 anymore. It was about the endeavor to weaken a potential rival in a way that he would never recover. We both know where that led to.