Has anyone located the wreck of KM Karlsruhe

[Ross Hackett]

Has anyone located the wreck of the KM Karlsruhe sunk in 1940 or even better dived on it with ROVs

[culverin]

Her location is known but has not been sighted.

Much more interesting would be the wreck of the cruiser SMS Karlsruhe lost on 4th November 1914 some 200 miles east of Trinidad.
Much conjecture and supposition has surrounded her demise, despite the survivors accounts.
Doubtful if any efforts will be made to find her remains.

The next SMS Karlsruhe resides 100' down on her starboard side in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland. Scutttled 21st June 1919.

[RF]

Doubtful if any efforts will be made to find her remains.

Unless the likes of Robert Ballard can be persuaded.

[aurora]

Karlsruhe was a German K class light cruiser of World war II. She was attacked and disabled by the British submarine Truant. She was then torpedoed by the German torpedo boat Greif.

Nearby cities: Aalborg, Skien, Randers
Coordinates: 58°4'1"N 8°3'59"E

[KevinD]

Doubtful if any efforts will be made to find her remains.

Unless the likes of Robert Ballard can be persuaded.

Unfortunately, Ballard has stated numerous times that he will no longer search for 'modern' wrecks, but concentrate on very old wrecks, i.e. many centuries old as it were.

[Byron Angel]

Has anyone ever confirmed whether or not Karlsruhe took aboard any of the dynamite that was discovered aboard the Condor when it was taken at sea? Several authors have implied that the dynamite was or may have been attractive to Captain Kohler (of Karlsruhe) as an aid to his commerce raiding activities and one author states that some of Condor's dynamite cargo was in fact used to scuttle her.

If the dynamite was indeed taken aboard Karlsruhe, it might well be considered as an alternate possible cause of her loss. I have had some difficulty with the theory that she fell victim to spontaneous detonation of defective ammunition.

B

[aurora]

After being torpedoed-the flooding disabled her engines and electricity generators, which cut off power to the pumps that were trying to keep pace with the progressively worsening flooding. With the pumps shut off, there was no hope to save Karlsruhe, and so her commander, Friedrich Rieve issued the order to abandon her two hours after the attack. The torpedo boat Greif took off her crew and fired two more torpedoes into the ship to ensure that she sank.

Rieve and his executive officer were both severely criticized for failing to take all possible steps to save Karlsruhe in a later investigation into the sinking. "The report concluded that since the ship was still afloat after two hours, and two torpedoes were required to sink her, it might have been possible to take her under tow back to Kristiansand or another port". In addition, "the forward pumps still had power", and so the flooding could have been slowed enough to permit a return to a safe harbour.

Four torpedoes to sink a light cruiser does raise an element of doubt