A GERMAN ADMIRAL'S LETTER

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1917, Page 2

A GERMAN ADMIRAL'S LETTER

VON SPEE'S ACCOUNT OF CORONEL. Tlie Daily Mail prints the following description by Admiral von Spec, the German commander, of the Battle of Curonel. fought oil' the Chilian coast on November 1, 1914, when the British i-ruisers Good Hope and Monmouth were Mink with all their men, and the British eonimander, Read-Admiral Sir C. Oiidock, wan killed, 'i'ln; document is of extreme interest, as von Spec perished a. few week-: after hi.; victory in the battlo of the Falkland Islands. ' It is a letter from him, which was sent to Europe in a neutral ship before he met with disaster, and which is now published in England for the first time. It has appeared in Admiral Kirehoff's recent book ''Dor Sockrieg, 1(114-15." November 2, 1914.

Yesterday was AH Saints' Day and a lucky day for us. I wis cruising with the. squadron southwards along the coast when I received intelligence that an English cruiser had put into Coronel, a small coaling harbor near Coneepeion. As :t warship cannot stay longer than twenty-four hours in a neutral port X determined to intercept her. 1 placed my sl ,; ps so that Nurnberg .should run. up b"foro the harbor to see If. the enemy ship was still there, while my remaining ships waited somewhat further out. At 4.25 my squadron was somewhat spread out, when it was reported that two ships had been sighted in the west-south-west. Ordering the other ships to join me I held in that direction, for it was evident that they must be enemy ships—in fact, the Monmouth and Glasgow. Soon afterwards the auxiliary cruiser Otranto appeared and then a little later the armored cruiser Good Hope. The enemy attempted some manouvres with the object; I believe, of getting nearer to the coast, which would have been very harmful to me. I immediately ordered Scharnhorsi and Gnciseiiau to get all tluir boilers to work, and in fifteen minutes I was running at twenty knots against a heavy ses. and got parallel to the enemy, but had to await the other ships. The enemy was so obliging as not to disturb me in this undertaking. r :he distance between us was about 18,('O0 yards. When, my ships;—except the Nurnberg, which was nowhere in sight—had come up at ten minutes past six, I began to diminish the distance. And when we were about 10,000 yards oil' 1 ordered firing, to commence. The battle had begun,' and with a few changes of course I led the line quite calmly. I had manoeuvred so that the sun in the west could not disturb me The moon in the east was not yet full, but promised a bright night. ' There were .scuds of rain in various directions. My ships fired rapidly and with success against' the big ships Seharnhorst engaged Good Hope (Admiral Cradock's flagship); Gnciseiiau fired en the Monmouth, Leipzig against Glasgow, and the Diesdon against Otranto. The lastnamed ship left the lino after a time uiid, 1 believe, escaped.

MONMOUTH'S END. Fires broke out in Good Hope and Monmouth. There was a tremendous explosion ■in the former which looked like a splendid firework display against trie dark sky. The glowing white flames mingled with bright green stars shot up to a great height. 1 felt sure that the ship would sink; but no, she was still afloat, and the fight went on uninterrvptedly. Meanwhile it had become dark. I had diminished the distance between us to 5000 yards, then I turned so far that it gradually increased. The enemy's ships could only be made out by the fires, but the cannonade was kept up against them and only ceased when the gunners could no longer aim. The enemy fire had censed, and I ordered ihe small cruisers, to take up the pursuit. But as it seemed that he had succeeded in extinguishing the fires on board, no trace of him could be found, and steaming round the enemy's line, in order, to get it into a favorable light, brought no further result. The artillery battle had lasted 52 minutes.

At 5.40 p.m. T was on a -X.W. course and. heard artillery five ahead at a vory great distance (estimated at 10 to 11 miles). I made towards :t to help if necessary. Tt came from the Nurnberg, which'had failed to get into touch with' us and had accidentally fallen in with the Monmouth in flight. The latter listed heavily to the starboard side. Number" we,nt close in (ging dicht lieram) and finished her off with gunfire. Monmouth turned over and went down. Unfortunately the heavy seas rendered rescue work impossible, added' to which Xiirnbcrg thought she lino seen Good H(.pc in the vicinity—an assumption which was doubtless incorrect. Probably in the moonlight, a! a great distance, she mistook one of our cruisers for the Hood Hope. Ido uot know what became of the latter. Lieutenant <!.. who had opportunity to o'uervo, believed that she too had a heavy 1-st, and when 1 recall the incidents T am inclined to think he was right, altlw.gh during the battle 1 believed it to have been an appearance caused by the movements of the ship in a heavy sea.. It is (inilc possible that she sank; in any case she vaa completely disabled. Tin- Glasgow could hardlv be seen; it is supposed that she got hit, too, but in my opinion she r.ir.de good her escape. I Thus we are victorious along the vliole line, and I thank God for the victory. We have been Protected m an absolutely marvellous manner; we have no losses' to mourn. There were a few cf.es of slightly wourded in Gneisenau; the small "cruisers did not receive a siiiffle bit, while the hits scored on Ncliarnhor.it and Gneisenau have inflicted hardly anv damage at all. I found one Kin shell in the steersman's cabin in the Scharnhorst; it had bored through an nnarmored spot, broken a lot of thm"s. but fortunately hud not exploded and lav there, as a kind of greeting. One funnel was hit, but not so badly as to prevent it performing its functions. Similar trivialities occurred in GneiseGEEMAN ENTHUSIASM. I do not know what unfortunate circumstances could have ire\ailed with the opponent which deprived him of any and every success. The enthusiasm among our men is enormous. I was especially pleased that the Nurnberg, which, through no fault of her own, took no part in the battle itself, was still able at the end to contribute to our success.

li' Good Hope has escaped, then, in ray opinion, she will be compelled by her injuries to put into a Chilian harbor. In order to find out I am going to-morrow with Gneisenau and Numbers into Valparaiso. Should the Good Hope have sought refuge there I shall endeavor to huve her disarmed and interned by the Cliilian authorities, and shell then be rid of two strong opponents. Good Hope is bigger than Scharnhorst, but her artillery is not so powerful, It

is true she lias heavy guns, but only two of them. Monmouth, on the other hand, is inferior to the Seftarnhcrst, as alio had only (iin guns. The English have another ship out here like the Monmouth, and I believe, further, "a ship of the line (Queen's class), with 12in guns. Against tht- latter we could hardly do anything at all. If the English had kept their forces to.ffether then we should certainly have got the worst of it.

You can hardly imagine the ioy which prevails among us. At lesst we have been able to add to the glory of our arms.