SMS Augsburg

Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, she was assigned to the Baltic Sea,[5] under the command of Rear Admiral Robert Mischke. On 2 August, Augsburg laid a minefield outside the Russian harbor of Libau, while Magdeburg shelled the port. The Russians had in fact already left Libau, which was seized by the German Army. The minefield laid by Augsburg was poorly marked and hindered German operations more than Russian efforts. Augsburg and the rest of the Baltic light forces then conducted a series of bombardments of Russian positions. On 17 August, Augsburg, Magdeburg, three destroyers, and the minelayer Deutschland encountered a pair of powerful Russian armored cruisers, Admiral Makarov and Gromoboi. The Russian commander, under the mistaken assumption that the German armored cruisers Roon and Prinz Heinrich were present, did not attack and both forces withdrew.[6]

In September, the light forces in the Baltic were reinforced with the IV Battle Squadron, composed of the older Braunschweig and Wittelsbach-class battleships, and the large armored cruiser Blücher. Starting on 3 September, the combined German force conducted a sweep into the Baltic. During the operation, Augsburg spotted the Russian cruisers Pallada and Bayan. She attempted to draw them closer to Blücher, but the Russians refused to take the bait and withdrew. On 7 September, Augsburg and the torpedo boat V25 steamed into the Gulf of Bothnia and sank a Russian steamer off Raumo. By the 9th, the German fleet had returned to port.[7]

On the night of 24–25 January 1915, Augsburg ran into a Russian minefield off Bornholm and struck a mine. The crew kept the ship afloat, and she was towed back to port for repairs. Augsburg was back in service by April, ready for a major operation against Libau. The German Army planned to seize the port as a distraction from the main Austro-German effort at Gorlice–Tarnów. They requested naval support, and so the Navy organized a force comprising the coastal defense ship Beowulf, three armored cruisers, three light cruisers, including Augsburg, and a large number of torpedo boats and minesweepers. In addition, the IV Scouting Group, consisting of four light cruisers and twenty-one torpedo boats, was sent from the North Sea to reinforce the operation. The German Army captured Libau in May, and it was subsequently turned into an advance base for the German Navy.[8] Later that month, the Navy assigned a mine-laying operation to Augsburg and Lübeck; they were to lay a minefield near the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. A submarine attack on the cruiser Thetis, however, prompted the German naval command to cancel the operation.[9]

On 1 June, Augsburg, Roon, Lübeck, and seven torpedo boats escorted the minelaying cruiser SMS Albatross while she laid a field off Bogskär. Augsburg served as the flagship of Commodore Johannes von Karpf, the commander of the operation. After finishing laying the minefield, Karpf sent a wireless transmission informing headquarters he had accomplished the mission, and was returning to port. This message was intercepted by the Russians, allowing them to intercept the Germans. Four Russian armored cruisers, with the powerful armored cruiser Rurik steaming in support, attempted to ambush the German squadron. Karpf dispersed his force shortly before encountering the Russians; Augsburg, Albatross, and three torpedo boats steamed to Rixhöft while the remainder went to Libau. Shortly after 06:30 on 2 June, lookouts on Augsburg spotted the Russian force; Karpf ordered the slower Albatross to seek refuge in neutral Swedish waters, while Augsburg and the torpedo boats used their high speed to escape the Russians. In the engagement that followed, Albatross was badly damaged and ran aground in Swedish waters. The Russians then turned to engage the second German force, but were low on ammunition after the engagement with Augsburg and Albatross and broke off the engagement.[10]

The Russian Kasatka-class submarine Okun fired two torpedoes at Augsburg on the night of 28 June, though both missed.[11] Augsburg was assigned to the forces that took part in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. A significant detachment from the High Seas Fleet, including eight dreadnoughts and three battlecruisers, went into the Baltic to clear the Gulf of Riga of Russian naval forces. Augsburg participated in the second attack on 16 August, led by the dreadnoughts Nassau and Posen. On the night of 19 August, Augsburg encountered a pair of Russian gunboats—Sivutch and Korietz; Augsburg and Posen sank Sivutch, though Korietz managed to escape. The Russian surface forces had by this time withdrawn to Moon Sound, and the threat of Russian submarines and mines still in the Gulf prompted the Germans to retreat.[12] On 13 October, an unknown submarine fired a torpedo at Augsburg, though it did not hit her. In September 1916, Augsburg participated in an attempt to force the Irben Strait into the Gulf of Riga in September 1916. Heavy Russian resistance, primarily from the old battleship Slava, forced the Germans to retreat from the Gulf.[13]

In November 1917, Augsburg participated in another attack on the Gulf of Riga, Operation Albion. By this point, she had been assigned to the VI Scouting Group along with Strassburg and her sister Kolberg. At 06:00 on 14 October 1917, the three ships left Libau to escort minesweeping operations in the Gulf of Riga. They were attacked by Russian 12-inch (300 mm) coastal guns on their approach and were temporarily forced to turn away. By 08:45, however, they had anchored off the Mikailovsk Bank and the minesweepers began to clear a path in the minefields. Two days later, Augsburg joined the dreadnoughts König and Kronprinz for a sweep of the Gulf of Riga. While the battleships engaged the Russian naval forces, Augsburg was tasked with supervising the occupation of Arensburg.[14]

According to the Armistice that ended the war, Augsburg and the rest of the German fleet not interned in Scapa Flow were to be returned to the main German ports and disarmed.[15] In the subsequent Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the conflict, Augsburg was listed as a warship to be surrendered to the Allied powers; she was to be disarmed in accordance with the terms of the Armistice, but her guns were to remain on board.[16] After the end of World War I, Augsburg was surrendered to Japan as a war prize on 3 September 1920, under the name "Y". The Japanese had no use for the ship, and so she was broken up in Dordrecht in 1922.[5]