The Wagner geared steam turbines were designed to produce 70,000 metric horsepower (51,000 kW; 69,000 shp) which would propel the ship at 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph).

Erich Koellner carried a maximum of 752 metric tons (740 long tons) of fuel oil which was intended to give a range of 4,400 nautical miles (8,100 km; 5,100 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), but the ship proved top-heavy in service and 30% of the fuel had to be retained as ballast low in the ship.

[7] 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.

[Note 1] When the destroyers arrived at the Ofotfjord, west of Narvik, on the early morning of 9 April, the three ships of the 4th Flotilla, under the command of Commander Erich Bey, were ordered to land their troops in the Herjangsfjord (a northern branch of the Ofotfjord) in order to capture a Norwegian Army armory at Elvegårdsmoen.

Later in the day, Koellner moved to Narvik harbor, but was not able to refuel before she was ordered to return to the Herjangsfjord well before dawn together with her sisters Wolfgang Zenker and Erich Giese.

The Germans opened fire first, but the gunnery for both sides was not effective due to the mist and the smoke screen laid by the British as they retreated down the Ofotfjord.

[15] Commander Bey was ordered during the afternoon of 10 April to return to Germany with all seaworthy ships that evening, but Koellner needed more time to refuel and make repairs.

Koellner could not be repaired with the resources available to the Germans so she was ordered to Tårstad, inside the Ramnes Narrows at the mouth of the Ofotfjord, to act as a floating battery in case of British attack.

The water at Tårstad was too shallow to use torpedoes, so they were off-loaded and transferred to her sisters Bernd von Arnim and Theodor Riedel .

[16] That night he received word to expect an attack the following day by British capital ships escorted by a large number of destroyers and supported by carrier aircraft.

The battleship HMS Warspite and nine destroyers duly appeared on 13 April, although earlier than Commander Bey had expected, and caught the Germans by surprise.

Koellner had not been able to reach Tårstad and Lieutenant Commander (Fregattenkapitän) Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, the ship's captain, had decided to anchor near Djupvik on the south side of the fjord instead.

The captured crewmen were first incarcerated in Vardøhus Fortress in Finnmark and later transferred to Skorpa prisoner of war camp in Troms until released after the end of the Norwegian Campaign.