 After the outbreak of World War I at the beginning of August 1914 , she and several other cruisers were tasked with patrol duties in the Heligoland Bight . The cruisers were divided with the torpedo boat flotillas , and assigned to rotate through nightly patrols into the North Sea . From 1 to 7 August , Cöln lay in the Schillig roadstead . She thereafter went to the mouth of the Weser , where she was joined by the cruiser Hamburg and the IV Torpedo @-@ boat Flotilla . As part of the patrol operations , Cöln conducted a sortie on the night of 15 August with Stuttgart and the I and II Torpedo @-@ boat Flotillas , without incident . 
