 The ship was ordered on 10 November 1934 and laid down at Germania , Kiel on 12 October 1935 as yard number G539 . She was launched on 18 March 1937 and completed on 28 August 1939 . Erich Koellner was still on sea trials when World War II began and did not become operational until early January 1940 when she was assigned to the 8th Destroyer Division ( 8 . Zerstörerdivision ) . Led by Commander ( Fregattenkapitän ) Erich Bey , Erich Koellner and her sisters Bruno Heinemann , and Wolfgang Zenker laid a minefield off Cromer during the night of 11 / 12 January that sank three ships totalling 11 @,@ 153 Gross Register Tons ( GRT ) . The same three ships laid 157 mines near the Haisborough Sands off Cromer on the night of 9 / 10 February . This minefield sank three ships of 11 @,@ 885 GRT . During Operation Wikinger , an attempt to capture British fishing trawlers operating off the Dogger Bank on 22 February , two German destroyers hit newly laid British mines in the supposedly mine @-@ free channel and sank . Koellner lost one man overboard while attempting to rescue sailors from the two sunken ships and succeeded in rescuing 24 men . 
