 Augsburg at anchor, 4 August 1914
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Name | SMS Augsburg |
| Namesake | Augsburg |
| Laid down | 22 August 1908 |
| Launched | 10 July 1909 |
| Completed | 1 October 1910 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Kolberg-class cruiser |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 130.50 m (428 ft 2 in) |
| Beam | 14 m (45 ft 11 in) |
| Draft | 5.38–5.58 m (17 ft 8 in – 18 ft 4 in) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) |
| Complement | 367 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
SMS Augsburg was a Kolberg-class light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) during the First World War. She had three sister ships, SMS Kolberg, Mainz, and Cöln. The ship was built by the Kaiserliche Werft in Kiel; her hull was laid down in 1908 and she was launched in July 1909. Augsburg was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in October 1910. She was armed with a main battery of twelve 10.5 cm SK L/45 guns and had a top speed of 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph).
After her commissioning, Augsburg spent her peacetime career first as a torpedo test ship and then as a gunnery training ship. After the outbreak of World War I, she was assigned to the Baltic Sea, where she spent the entire war. On 2 August 1914, she participated in an operation that saw the first shots of the war with Russia fired, and she later took part in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915 and Operation Albion in October 1917, as well as numerous smaller engagements throughout the war. She struck a mine, once, in January 1915, though the ship was again operational in a few months. After the end of the war, Augsburg was ceded to Japan as a war prize, and was subsequently broken up for scrap in 1922.