Acknowledgements
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As we have seen, the first major naval encounter of the war was the First Battle of Heligoland Bight, fought in August. This was a clear victory for the British Navy – as was to be expected – though, behind the scenes of jubilation (in the corridors of power), there was some real concern about defective staff work, the lack of a clear command structure, and some of the tactics employed. The second major encounter, however, the Battle of Coronel, was quite a different matter. Fought in the distant waters of the South Pacific, close to the coast of Chile, it was, for the British, a complete, unmitigated disaster, ending in the loss of two armoured cruisers and the lives of 1,600 men, including Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, commander of the British squadron. In contrast, seven German seamen were wounded. It was the first time in over a century that the British navy had been defeated, and so decisively.
When the war broke out, it was a comparatively easy task for the British to blockade the German High Seas Fleet, the biggest threat to Britain’s home waters. Constant surveillance of the German ports along a small stretch of coast line near Heligoland Bight, together with total command of the Straits of Dover, meant that German warships could be kept locked in, and merchant shipping – munitions and food supplies – could be kept locked out of the North Sea. But it was a different story in the Far East, where the Germans had quite a large presence of warships, aimed at attacking merchant shipping and the vessels being used to bring Allied troops to the Western Front. Prime among this force was the Eas
t Asiatic Squadron, commanded by Vice-
THE BATTLE OF CORONEL, NOVEMBER 1914
The Allies needed to keep an eye on this particular squadron, but this proved easier said than done. It was known that it left Tsingtao at the end of June, and it was assumed that it was making for Java, from where it could attack Allied merchant and naval shipping in the Indian Ocean. It was not in fact until early October that it was reported that the Spee squadron had bombarded Tahiti and, in fact, was clearly heading for American waters to attack shipping on the trade routes along the west coast of South America. Rear-
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In such circumstances, Cradock faced a dilemma. Should he take on an enemy he could not possibly defeat and lose ships as a consequence, or should he avoid an encounter altogether? Fully aware that his friend, Rear Admiral Ernest Trowbridge, was at this very time awaiting a court martial for “failing to engage the enemy”, he felt duty bound to fight to the end. Ironically, in the meantime, Baron Fisher, the First Sea Lord, had sent him a message stating that he was not expected to fight if he did not have the support of HMS Canopus. He never received that message! As a consequence, the battle took place on the 1st November, off the Chilean port of Coronel, and was over in a matter of hours. Both the flagship HMS Good Hope and the Monmouth were badly damaged and then destroyed, with the loss of all hands.
THE BATTLE OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS, DECEMBER 1914
This was an outstanding victory for the German Imperial Navy, but, as Vice Admiral von Spee was well aware, a formidabl force would be swiftly on its way to seek revenge. After a 24 hour stay at Valparaiso – the time permitted in a neutral port – he took his squadron around Cape Horn to Mas-
was immediately bombarded by the 12-
Incidentally, when Admiral von Spee stopped off at Valparaiso following his victory at Coronel, he was congratulated on his success and presented with a bouquet of flowers. The flowers, he quipped, would do nicely for his grave. He had no illusions as to the British response! As the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, later wrote: “He was a cut-
…… Ironicallyxenough, a week after the Battle of the Falkland Islands, way down in the South Atlantic, a German task force, including four battle cruisers, evaded the British Grand Fleet in home waters – the North Sea! – and bombarded the English seaside towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby. In the attack, over 130 civilians were killed and nearly 600 were wounded. The attack resulted in a public outcry against the incompetence of the Royal Navy, and became a rallying cry for a huge recruitment campaign. And, as we shall see, it also led to The Battle of Dogger Bank in February 1915.
AdmiralxMaximilian von Spee (1861-
914) entered the German navy in 1878. Over 1887 and 1888, he commanded the port of Duala in the German colony of Kamerun, and in 1899 took part in the Boxer Rebellion. He was made chief of staff of the North Sea Fleet in 1908 and then, at the end of 1912, was selected to command the East Asia Squadron, a prestigious appointment which gave him a wide field of operation. At the outbreak of war his squadron included two armoured cruisers, SMS Scharnhorst (his flagship) and SMS Gneisenau, and two light cruisers, SMS Emden and SMS Nürenberg. He had plans to operate in the China Sea, but following Japan’s declaration of war against Germany, he assessed the likely dangers (including the strength of the Royal Australian Navy), and decided it was best to search out Allied commercial shipping along the west coast of South America. He crossed the Pacific, attacking the French colony of Tahiti en route, and it was off the coast of Chile that he won his outstanding victory at the Battle of Coronel. It was a victory for which he was going to pay dearly. Having moved his squadron into the South Atlantic to launch an attack upon the Falkland Islands, he was met by a substantially reinforced British fleet. Overtaken and seriously outgunned, the Sharnhorst went down with all hands. (And the Spee family also lost their two sons who had been serving in other vessels!). ….. Twenty-
This British victory did much to restore the navy’s prestige and to keep open vital trade routes in the South Atlantic and South Pacific. And it gave a morale boost to the Entente at a time when the war was not going too well on the Western Front. The Battle of Coronel had been avenged, but, needless to say, it was never to be forgotten by the Admiralty.
And the Battle of the Falkland Islands marked, too, the end of the threat posed by the German cruiser against Allied shipping. From now on it was to be the u-
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