Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	January 1905
Launched:
Commissioned:
Fate:	scuttled
General characteristics
Displacement:
Length:
Beam:	13.2 m
Draft:
Propulsion:	2 shaft triple expansion engines, 13,200 ihp
Speed:
Complement:	322
Armament:

SMS Königsberg was a Kaiserliche Marine light cruiser, which was in German East Africa at the start of World War I. She operated in her design role as a raider of merchant shipping. After the sinking of the ship, her crew and guns fought on as part of General Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck's unbeaten East African campaign which tied down many troops and ships of the British Empire. Download high resolution version (956x580, 59 KB)SMS Königsberg This image was scanned from a public domain text by the Great War Primary Documents Archive and is made available by them for any purpose provided that they are credited and a link is given to the Photos of the... The Kaiserliche Marine or Imperial Navy was the German Navy created by the formation of the German Empire and existed between 1871 and 1919; it grew out of the Prussian Navy and the Norddeutsche Bundesmarine. ... A light cruiser is a warship that is not so large and powerful as a regular (or heavy) cruiser, but still larger than ships like destroyers. ... German East Africa was Germanys colony in East Africa, including what is now Burundi, Rwanda, and the mainland part of Tanzania. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... General Paul Erich von Lettow-Vorbeck (March 20, 1870 - March 9, 1964) was the commander of the German East Africa campaign in World War I, the only campaign of that war where Germany remained undefeated. ... Categories: Africa geography stubs | Eastern Africa ... A database query syntax error has occurred. ...

In September 1914 she sunk HMS Pegasus, a ship sent to hunt her, in the harbour at Zanzibar. Engine problems forced Königsberg to abandon plans to return to Germany and to hide in the Rufiji River delta in German East Africa hoping for repairs. September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Map of Zanzibars main island Zanzibar, Tanzania, comprises a pair of islands off the east coast of Africa called Zanzibar (Unguja) (1994 est. ... The Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is one of the worlds leading industrialised countries, located in the heart of Europe. ... The Rufiji River lies entirely within the African nation of Tanzania. ...

In October and November the Royal Navy cruisers Chatham, Dartmouth and Weymouth closed in, forcing Königsberg further up the river. Königsberg's coal ship was destroyed closing her raiding career. A blockship was sunk at the river mouth to prevent her escape. Shore batteries were set up. A civilian Curtiss flying boat and later two Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith seaplanes were used to try locate Königsberg. Royal Navy Ensign The Royal Navy is the navy of the United Kingdom. ... Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company went public in 1916 with Glenn Curtiss as president. ... Boeing 314 A flying boat is an aircraft that is designed to take off and land on water, in particular a type of seaplane which uses its fuselage as a floating hull (instead of pontoons mounted below the fuselage). ... The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of World War I. When the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was founded on April 13, 1912 it was intended to encompass all military flying. ... The Sopwith Aviation Company was a British aircraft company that manufactured aeroplanes for the British Military in the first world war, most famously the Sopwith Camel. ...

Attempts were made to use the big guns of an old battleship, HMS Goliath, to sink the cruiser. That did not work because the shallow water of the Rufiji prevented the large battleship from travelling up river and the thick vegetation hid the German ship. Eventually two monitors, HMS Mersey and HMS Severn were towed from Britain. The heavy guns and shallow draughts of these warships allowed them to seriously damage Königsberg in July 1915. The Germans decided to scuttle her in the Rufiji delta after removing her guns and crew for use in the continuing land campaign. She was eventually broken up in 1962. HMS Goliath (1898) was one of the six Canopus-class battleships built by the British Royal Navy in the late 18th century. ... USS Monitor became the prototype of a form of ship built by several navies for coastal defence in the 1860s and 1870s and known as a monitor. ... In 1914 during the First World War, the Royal Navy procured three Amazon-class monitors built by Vickers for Brazil. ... The word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK) the island of Great Britain, which consists of the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales sometimes the Roman province called Britain or Britannia The word British generally means belonging to or associated with Britain in one of the... July is the seventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...