Career
Shipyard:
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	16 May 1911
Commissioned:	1912
Fate:	Mined & sunk off Imbros, 20 January, 1918
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	4,550 tons
Length:	446 ft
Beam:	43 ft 11 in
Draught:	16 ft 10 in
Propulsion:	4 screws, 16 Schulz-Thorneycroft boilers, 25,000 hp
Speed:	25 knots
Range:
Complement:	370
Armament:	7 x 5.9-in, 50 calibre 2 x 22-pdr anti-aircraft 4 x torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	None
Motto:

The SMS Breslau was a Magdeburg-class light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine, commissioned in 1912.

In 1912 Breslau was attached to the German Mittelmeerdivision (Mediterranean Division) along with the battlecruiser SMS Goeben under the command of Admiral Wilhelm Souchon. At the outbreak of the First World War, Breslau and Goeben were to interdict French transports transfering troops from Algeria to France however, due to concentrations of French and British warships, Breslau only succeeded in conducting a nuisance bombardment of the embarkation port of Bône on 4 August, 1914.

The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau by the British Mediterranean Fleet lasted until 10 August when the two ships passed through the Dardanelles en route to Constantinople where they were transfered to the Turkish Navy, Breslau being renamed the Medilli though retaining her German crew.

For most of the war Breslau operated in concert with Goeben in the Black Sea. On 20 January, 1918 Breslau and Goeben returned through the Dardanelles to the Aegean where they engaged the Royal Navy flotilla that was stationed there to intercept them. The German ships out-gunned their opposition, sinking two monitors, M28 and HMS Raglan, but disaster struck when they ran into a minefield — Breslau struck a mine and sank immediately, Goeben was damaged but managed to escape.