Constructed from a German project, the ships of this class followed the lines of the German cruisers of the time. Begun in 1916, its construction was delayed, and ships commissioned almost 10 years after onset, when their mounts with shields were already obsolete. Java, ironically, was sunk by a Japanese torpedo-Lance Long, at the Battle of the Java Sea. The Sumatra has been used in escort missions and transportation to the war, being sold as scrap in the 50s.