Continuing Germany in the Thiarian Universe:
4. Kolberg and Augsburg as minelayers
Of the eight small cruisers retained by Germany, six were progressively scrapped during the 1920s and early 1930s as six replacements of the Emden-, K- and Leipzig-classes were commissioned (these are the same as in reality here). In 1935, only the two newest largest ones - Augsburg and Kolberg - remained. They had been refurbished for further service between 1924 and 1927 by replacing the coal-burning boilers with oil-burners, removing the forefunnel, installing a new flared bow for better seakeeping, installing twin torpedo tube sets instead of the singles, removing the underwater tubes and fitting a new bridge with a tube mast and new fire-control equipment. With these alterations, their hulls had become badly overweight, and the poop was cut down to save weight. For better weight distribution and added firepower, the forward pair of beam-mounted 150mm guns were removed and installed fore and aft, superfiring the guns already there and increasing the broadside from four to five guns. In 1926, Kolberg looked like this:
By the time all six newer light cruisers were available, Hitler was already in power, and the Kolbergs, which were to be decommissioned according to the treaty of Versailles, remained in service. In 1934, they received eight 20mm and four 37mm flaks and replaced 500mm torpedo tubes with 533mm ones. Their turbines, which could not produce more than 22 knots at that time, were replaced with new engines of 30.000hp. The proposed installation of a catapult for a single airplane was never implemented due to topweight issues. To combat their tendency to roll, they received bilge keels. By the end of this modernization, Augsburg looked like this:
Due to their slow speed - even with totally refurbished turbines, they were only good for 26 knots - they were not suitable for service with the fleet; they were rated as poor sea boats, and their accomodations were considered positively apalling. As early as December 1939, their conversion to cruiser minelayers was approved. They lost both torpedo twins and all 150mm singles; the 88mm singles were replaced by 88/76 twins and mounted where the aft beam guns used to be. Two 150mm L/48 twin mounts of the destroyer type were installed as new main armament; several of these had become free when the decision was made in 1940 to fit all further 1936A destroyers after Z32 with six 128mm (rather than five 150mm) LA guns to cut topweight and improve seakeeping. The mine rails aft were lengthened all the way to the forefunnel, tripling mine capacity. In this guise, the Kolbergs were still overweight, but as they were not supposed to operate in the open ocean, this was deemed acceptable. The refit took till late 1940; when it was complete, Kolberg looked like this:
Both sprang into action when the attack on the Soviet Union commenced, paying frequent nightly visits to soviet held Baltic ports. As the Soviets had been busy laying defensive minefields as well, this duty was very hazardous, and Augsburg had her bow forward of turret A blown off by a Soviet mine on September 7th, 1941. As soon as the Baltic coast was secured all the way to Tallinn, Kolberg went to the North Sea and made some nightly sorties towards the channel to lay offensive minefields. These were however cancelled in March 1942 as too dangerous when she had come under attack by British MTBs and was hit by a 457mm torpedo, which however did little damage. Kolberg sank one MTB with 37mm fire and ran over another one on that mission; these would remain her only direct kills. For the remainder of 1942, Kolberg received repairs; she was rejoined by Augsburg in September, after the latter had been repaired, receiving radar and two 20mm quads. Her new bow was more flared and had a more pronounced clipper shape than previously, significantly increasing her seakeeping, and she was considered fit to deploy to northern Norway. Kolberg was taken in hand for a similar conversion in November 1942; while she was docked for repairs in Kiel in January 1943, she was hit by three bombs during a heavy British air raid and burned mostly out. She was declared a constructive total loss in February 1943 and broken up. Augsburg had meanwhile performed three mining missions beyond the North Cape; in February 1943 she was assigned to the main surface fleet and teamed up with the slow battleship Claus von Beveren (ex Dutch Willem de Zwijger), which was mostly used to cover German surface battlegroups on the return leg if they were pursued by (usually superior) British forces. Due to the presence of U-Boats and land-based air, the British never pressed the pursuit so far that the German backup forces had to engage; they were however repeatedly under attack by British and Russian submarines. In August 1943, Claus vön Beveren, the heavy cruiser Blücher and the Augsburg embarked on Operation Sizilien and destroyed an allied base on Spitzbergen. The next sortie was Operation Wunderland II in late September 1943, in another attempt to sink some large Soviet icebreakers without whom no Soviet convoys along the Siberian northern coast would be possible. This attack ended quite disastrously. The German squadron split up to search for the Soviets, and Augsburg succeded, facing an escort group of three Soviet destroyers and engaging them, while the Beveren - incredibly placed to the south of Augsburg despite the ice situation - was sixty miles away. The Soviets started to turn the convoy and the invaluable icebreakers around, while Augsburg proceeded to sink the Soviet destroyer Razumniy, whose return fire was ineffectual due to the lack of modern fire control and whose torpedoes malfunctioned due to the cold. Augsburg's skipper informed Admiral Kummetz of his contact, and he ordered Augsburg to pursue despite the fact that the convoy was so slow that the Beveren, which was an icebreaker of sorts, could have easily intercepted it at no risk to herself. The inevitable happened, and Augsburg got stuck in the ice and damaged her hull. Kummetz, who could have engaged the convoy from where he was at long range and saved Augsburg later, decided to tow Augsburg clear first, while the Russians screamed for help on radio. The salvage ate up six vital hours, and by the time it was done, the Russians were far out of range and covered by night. Kummetz then called off the operation and headed back for Norway. On the return leg, the Soviet submarine K21 fired six torpedoes at the Germans and hit each of them once. Augsburg, which already had 500 tons of water in her hull, foundered after a few minutes and went down practically with all hands. At the time of her loss, she looked like this:
Greetings
GD
Thank you Kim for the crest
