FALKLAND ISLANDS FIGHT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2386, 16 February 1915, Page 6

FALKLAND ISLANDS FIGHT

GERMAN PLAN TO SEIZE GROUP AS A BASE

A GARRISON AFLOAT

It is just n-s well, wrote the naval correspondent of the London ".rimes" last month, to take some of the picturesque accounts of the battle off tho Falklands which are now coming homo with a grain of salt. There arc descriptive touches in these stories which require explanation. Striped, too, df their garnish, the narratives add but little to the official accounts which wero published on December 10 and 11., What we learn for the first time is that the battle-cruisers Invincible and Inflexible had been sent out from home to deal with the German squadron, and that tho secret of this move was wo 11 kept. The date ou which these vessels left is not stated, but it must have been in ,the second week of Novombcr, or within a few days of the news arriving of Cradock's defeat.' It is also clear that thay only arrived at Port Stanley on December 7, or just in time, since ou the following morning the German squadron turned up. It was a fine piece of, work, calculated with the utmost nicety, and a splendid tribute not only to. those who devised the stroke, but to the ships which wore selected to carry it into effect, and their officers and men, particularly the engineering staffs. , A distance of 14,000 miles at high speed had' to be covered by t'he ships on their journey, and their arrival on the spot to the minute constitutes an unparalleled feat.

It is clear that the German admiral was well supplied with information about the movements of the ships in South American waters. The knowledge that- an_ Anglo-Japanese souadron was approaching from the north must have warned him that lie had come to the end of his tether in the Pacific. Doubtless, he know or guessed that the C'anopus was sheltering at the Falklands, and Port Stanley, if it could be captured, offered facilities, with its store of coal and wireless station, as an admirable base for raiding purposes. It is reported that the' German admiral had several thousand reservists with him on board the Prinz Eitel Frederick to form a garrison, and had he sue-, ceedod in his enterprise it would have taken a fairly large force to regain the islands. Incidentally he hoped, •no doubt, to, send a few more warships to the bottom. The Canopus was the cheese in the mouse-trap. Just when the prize seemed within his grasp the appearance of the two great, battlecruisers mu6t have been a severe disappointment. It was-a triumph for tlie policy of mystification, for which the Admiralty have sometimes been taken to task.

Tt is when one looks for details in order to reconstruct the action that these American narratives are found so bald and unconvincing. For example, it the Germans were really within range of the smaller British cruisers and made,such good shooting, how is it that there were no casualties in thfcse light vessels? It is moro in accordance with tlio official statement® that the fight took.the character of a chase rather than, that, as we are now told, the German armoured cruisers fought broadside to' broadsido, and that their, shells "rattled vainly" against tho heavy' armour of the British battle-cruisers. It is at least more likely that the former were separately overhauled and destroyed, the Gneiseuau two hours after the iiagsllip had been sent to the bottom.

The White Flag Story. - It is alsp said that after an action of two hours between'the Glasgow and the Leipzig the latter hauled down her colours, ( and hoisted the white flag. A white flag is unnecessary as a signal of surrender afloat, and if it were not that .there is a story in the "British Australasian" of the sinking of the Em-den-which, says thatthi3 German cruiser also hoisted the white flag, one would be disinclined to give credit to 6uch an incident. If it be true, the German cruisers must be the first ships' of any nation to take a white flag to sea with them for the purposo of denoting surrender.' It seems to indicate that they expected such a termination to their careers. Probably hot ali the ships' were alike, since the captain of the Nurnbergl refused to surrender and fought till his vessel sank. It will be remembered that Captain Schonberg is reported to have said at. Honolulu, "The Nurnberg will very likely be our coffin, but we are ready to fight to the last." With the! officers of the Glasgow, we must hope that the shot fired from the Leipzig after she had surrendered was accidental, but from other incidents of the war it is questionable whether the Germans deserve to.be given the benefit of tlie doubt in such a case.