 Following her commissioning , Nürnberg participated in the non @-@ intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War ; she completed her patrols without major incident and returned to Germany in mid @-@ 1937 . After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 , she was used to lay defensive minefields off the German coast in the North Sea . She was thereafter used to escort offensive mine @-@ layers in the North Sea until she was torpedoed by the British submarine Salmon on 13 December 1939 . After repairs were completed in early 1940 , Nürnberg returned to active duty as a training ship in the Baltic Sea . She performed this role for most of the rest of the war , apart from a short deployment to Norway from November 1942 to April 1943 . In January 1945 , she was assigned to mine @-@ laying duties in the Skaggerak , but severe shortages of fuel permitted only one such operation . 
