Laid down: 4/11/3
Commissioned 2/11/35
Full Load Displacement: 9,040 tons
Draft: 21 ft
Speed: 32 kts
Range: 2,400 nautical miles at 13 kts
Armor: 50mm side, 40mm deck
Armament: 9x 150mm (120-166 rpg), 8x 88mm (400 rpg), 8x 37mm (1200 rpg), 12x 533mm, torpedo tubes (+ 12 reloads), 120 mines, 2 floatplanes.

Nurnberg spent the first month of the war laying mines in the North Sea. On November 13, 1939 she escorted mine-laying destroyers off the coast of England along with the light cruiser Konigsberg and four torpedo boats. In a similar mission with the light cruisers Koln and Leipzig on December 13, Nurnberg had her bow blown off by a torpedo from the British submarine Salmon. Arriving back at Brunsbuttel the next day, she was repaired by spring of 1940.

On June 13, Nurnberg arrived at Trondheim. She sailed from there on the 25th with four destroyers to escort the damaged battleship Gneisenau back to Kiel. They arrived two days later, after which the Nurnberg was used for training in the Baltic.

Nurnberg departed from Swinemunde on September 23, 1941 with the battleship Tirpitz, the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, the light cruiser Koln, three destroyers, and five torpedo boats to wait near the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia for Soviet ships expected to flee for Sweden, as mentioned before.

At some point during 1941 the Nurnberg had six of her torpedo tubes removed. From February of 1942 until August of that year she underwent a refit that replaced her turbines, removed her floatplanes and catapult, and added two 37mm and nine 20mm weapons to her AA outfit. In November she sailed for Norway, eventually arriving at Narvik on December 2. She left Harstad with one destroyer and two torpedo boats on April 27, 1943, eventually arriving on May 4.

After a refit at Wilhelmshaven, she was relegated to training in the Baltic. In 1944 two of her 37mm guns were removed and two 40mm and sixteen 20mm guns added. Her only other action was when she departed from Swinemunde on January 3, 1945 with the minelayer Linz to lay mines in the Skagerrak. The Nurnberg then lay idle at Copenhagen until the end of the war.

More WWII German Light Cruisers

Introduction
Emden
Konigsberg
Karlsruhe
Koln
Leipzig
Nurnberg