NAVAL BATTLES

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1932, Page 8

NAVAL BATTLES

VON EPEE'S BIG MISTAKE. , FALKLAND’S RAID. Ia connectiop with the controversy ■concerning Admiral von Spee -the following facts will help to clear the air 1 by ihe perspective, shewn.: - i-"--Bo.n at Copmu.agen in 1861, Maximilian Count . von Spee was. one of 1 the creators ■, of the German Navy, in which lie served. 'He commanded the Far Eastern Squadron in 1914. Owing to the failure of the .British mipalty, before the ; war to build i suffi--1 cient fast- cruiser's .and to place them in the proper strategic positions, there was considerable trouble caused in .the distant seas. . Von Spee, whqj - 'com* manded the formidable German cruiser squadron in- the • Far East, was a particularly dangerous antagonist" from the high quality of the gunnery in • his -two. large armoured cruisers Sdhamliorst and Gneisenau, which had won) the Kaiser’s cup for shooting in two consecutive years before’the war; i Leaving luao-chau -; whom relations became strained, von Spee vanished to' £V remote island in the northern Pacific and fhere waited for the outbreak of war. When it came he' crossed the Pacific to the neigbourhood of The' west coast •of South America, and threatened the nitrate traffic, which was extremely important, because nitrates were ■•tne.i indispensable for mailing munitions and were only manufactured' synthetically by obtaining nitrogenj from the air, on a small scale in Germany and Norway in. 1914. ' ■ _ ■;: , The sent against Spec’s powerful Admiral Cradock witlij C small and weak squadron, the crews of which were for the most part com-r posed. oj| reservists and most .-dangeroualv infer’ftr to the Germans in gum-. t ,ner.V., -Indeed, the Good Hope, Admiral Gradock’s flagship, was an old vessel which had seen almost continuous service as a flagship of cruiser squadrons •from 1902-12, and was again commissioned for service in August 1914. . 1 : HOPELESS ODDS AT CORONEL i - i Interpifiting a bad'ly-woi*ded telegram from London as an order to a't-'i tack, Admiral Cradock steamed uy the west coast of Chile with the- Good Hope, the Monmouth, on old armoiired cryiser the Glasgow, a modem light cruiser," but useless against armoured antagonists, and an armed . merchantman, the Otranto. Off Coro ,tel lie met von Spee, whoso armoured. ofuisars were each in batfeiy markedly ■sliperior tcany vessel in the British squadron. 'material superiority Was rendered still’ more crushing by the superior skill of their gunners. Tiije engagement / that followed on November 1, 1914, was utterly disastrous tq the weaker force. The Ger-I mans, without themselves receiving a single serious hit, shot the Good Hope' and Monmouth into tangles of steel ; wreckage. Their salvoes' beat with ap, palling rapidity every fifteen seconds' on the two doomed British ships, which, labouring in a Heavy sea, could not work guns,* and so were farther handicapped. What happened on board them no man knows, for all in them perished. But) from the German' ships if was seen that-great " fires broke out in them, as all evidence suggests, from the extreme inflammability; of the'aim rfiunition they carried. Violent explosions were also observed. .Fifty-three rriinutes alter the action had opened, the Good Hope in the tumultuous sea. IShe must have foundered with all om board. The Monmouth sank a little later, fighting to the very end against hopeless odds; the other two British ships escaped. An .admiral, two cruisers, and 1653 officers and men were lost. Before the result of this battle was known Lord Fisheij had become First Sea Lord, and' immediately he heard of the disaster he took measures to make an end of Spee. He detached from the Grand Fleet in British wat4 ers, two battle' cruisers. He did this in: the face' iff strong remonstrances, ; arid boldly took the risk that in the absence of two all-important ships the German main flerit might attempt a blow in the North Sea. He placed them under Admiral Sturdee, whom he sent to .Falkland Islands, off the souih-cast coast of South- America, v itli instruction to sink every slop in | Sife’s force. After his Ccronel victory Spee bore himself gallantly and modestly. But he, too, now commit- | ted one. of those mistakes which are i so cruelly punished in war.

DISASTROUS FALKLANDS RAID

Against the advice of one of his most experienced officers, Captain Mueiker, he determined' to steam to the FalklSfnds, seize ’the Governor as a 1 hostage for the* German- Governor of Samoa, who had been captured by the British,-and destroy the British (oaling station in these, islands. He optdred upon his plan having no suspicion of . the surprise that awaited him. Early bri December 8, 1914, he was off the Falkland®, where Admiral Stiirdde had just- arrived with two battle cruisers. 'Dense clouds of smoke rose from' ;the interior'of the harbour a s - the Germans - appodchedii They were heall?'Caused by the' British raising steam for battle, but they led some of the German officers to imagine that great success' was at 1 hand. and. that the Britisli were burning their coal and stores as the preliminaiy. to surrender. One or two of the Germans; how ■? ever, thought 'they ■ could discern through the smoke tripod masts.