Commissioned in 1908, the SMS Augsburg, one of four Kolberg-class light cruisers in the Kaiserliche Marine, had been detailed to train torpedo and gun crews for the High Seas Fleet. Meanwhile, her three sisters, Kolberg, Mainz, and Cöln were assigned to the II Scouting Group and made ready to fight the British once the lights went out in Europe.
Fate being a funny thing, Augsburg was able to get into combat before her sisters when, on the night of 2 August 1914, the second day of the Great War, detailed along with the light cruiser Magdeburg, she bombarded the Russian harbor of Libau (today’s Liepaja, Latvia). She also apparently crossed swords with one of the Tsar’s torpedo boats, with neither suffering any reportable damage.
Augsburg famously wired in the open a series of three messages, which were duly picked up in neutral Sweden and Denmark and repeated worldwide:
“Am bombarding the naval harbor at Libau on the Baltic Sea.”
“Am engaged with enemy’s cruiser.”
“Port Libau is in flames.”
The Russians quickly did damage control, and reported that Libau only suffered minor damage and counterclaimed a heroic torpedo boat had sent Augsburg to the bottom before she could flee into the night.
One of the first naval actions of the war, German artists made sure to flood the market with celebratory martial postcards and pulp illustrations which were duly snapped up and kept for generations.
To be sure, each embellished the “battle.”
Kreuzer Augsburg beschiesst Libau Magdeburg Wilhelm Jonas
Kreuzer Augsburg beschiesst Libau Magdeburg Hans Bohrdt
Note that she now only has two large funnels rather than three thin ones, and sports a profile more akin to a Nassau-class battleship
Kreuzer Augsburg beschiesst Libau Magdeburg, Harry Heusser
Kleinen Kreuzer SMS AUGSBURG. Illustrierte Geschichte des Weltkrieges 1914-15
Kreuzer Augsburg beschiesst Libau, C Schon, Berlin August 1914
Kreuzer Augsburg beschiesst Libau, Willy Stower, 1915
Der Krieg 1914-19 in Wort und Bild, published 1919,
Moving past her minor engagement at Libau, Augsburg held on to her luck. While she was reported sunk at least two other times by the Russians in the course of the war, and two of her sisters (Cöln and Mainz) actually were sent to the bottom by the Royal Navy, the postcard hero survived the war, albeit flying a red flag for the last few weeks of it.
Post-Versailles, Augsburg was awarded to Japan as a war prize ship “Y” but the Emperor had no use for her and she was immediately sold for scrap, never leaving Europe.