The German light cruiser Leipzig
was the lead ship of her class (Nurnberg
was her improved sister ship). She was the fourth
German warship to carry the name of the city of
Leipzig.
She was built at Wilhelmshaven and launched
on 18 October 1929. During the Spanish Civil
War Leipzig conducted several patrols as part
of the international naval blockade.
On 13 December 1939 she was torpedoed by the
Royal Navy submarine Salmon and severely damaged.
Two completely destroyed boiler rooms were restored
as living quarters only and Leipzig was converted
into a training ship. She was recommissioned
on 1 December 1940. When Germany attacked the
Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation "Barbarossa"),
the cruiser took part in the shelling of the
islands Osel and Dago in the Baltic
Sea, before returning to her duties as a training
vessel. She remained in the Baltic Sea and on
15 October 1944 was accidentally rammed amidships
by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in heavy fog.
Heavily damaged and effectively immobilised,
she continued to serve as a training, barracks
and flak ship. In March 1945 she shelled advancing
Soviet army units near Gdynia, but was then
moved to Apenrade at the end of March.
At the end of World War II Leipzig was surrendered
to British forces, moved to Wilhelmshaven, and
scuttled in the North Sea with a cargo of gas
munitions on 16 December 1946.
