through the end of the month, after which she returned to the Baltic for training maneuvers. On 17–19 November, Leipzig covered a minelaying operation in the North Sea. She joined Deutschland, Köln, and three torpedo boats for a sweep in the Skagerrak for Allied shipping on 21–22 November. Leipzig was tasked with escorting the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau through the Skagerrak, and with covering their return on the 27th. On 13 December, Leipzig was tasked with escorting a flotilla of destroyers and other small vessels as they proceeded through the Skagerrak to lay a minefield. While en route, the British submarine attacked the German warships, and at 11:25, hit Leipzig with a torpedo. The torpedo hit Leipzig just below the waterline, where a bulkhead separated two of the ship's three boiler rooms. The explosion bent her armored deck and damaged her keel; some of water flooded the ship, and the damage cut electrical power to the ship's pumping system. The two boiler rooms were flooded, steam lines were damaged, and the port turbine was shut down. At around the same time, her sister Nürnberg was also torpedoed. A pair of destroyers arrived to escort the damaged cruisers back to port; an hour after Leipzig was torpedoed, one of the escorting destroyers was also torpedoed, just outside the mouth of the Elbe. Another torpedo passed just ahead of Leipzig, nearly hitting the damaged cruiser. While en route back to Germany on 14 December, Nürnberg and Leipzig came under attack from the British Royal Air Force (RAF). Approximately 20 Vickers Wellington bombers from No. 99 Squadron were intercepted by fighters from II. Gruppe (2nd group) of Jagdgeschwader 77 (JG 77—77th Fighter Wing) under the leadership of Oberstleutnant Carl-Alfred Schumacher in the vicinity of Spiekeroog and Wangerooge. The RAF bombers failed to further damage the cruisers as JG 77 pilots claimed seven and one probable bomber shot down, including one claimed by Unteroffizier Herbert Kutscha. RAF records indicate that six bombers were lost in the attack. After safely returning to port in Kiel, Leipzig was taken into the Deutsche Werke shipyard for repairs. She was decommissioned while under repair and reclassified as a training ship. To accommodate additional training crews, four of the ship's boilers were removed. She returned to service in late 1940. 1941–1946 In early June 1941, she escorted the heavy cruiser Lützow (formerly Deutschland) to Norway. After she returned to