世界航海/海軍歷史 原汁生肉 Battle of the Falkland Islands - Von Spee's Last Stand

Coronel的戰爭對於皇家軍隊來說是一場愚蠢的醒晨 計劃如此,以及公眾的期望 指出英軍部隊必須儘快清理對方海上部隊的海域 然後相關部隊會回家 重新支援對方海上部隊封鎖的大戰艦 其他部隊則將對方海上部隊的殖民地清理掉 大戰艦將對方海上部隊摧毀 或封鎖得太緊密,無法進出 在任何情況下,對方海上部隊的重要貿易區域都會安全 同時,Admiral Craddock的部隊也被Coronel摧毀 Craddock的戰艦和他的軍隊的生存者 Light Cruiser HMS Glasgow Armed Merchant Cruiser Atranto 和舊的Pre-Dreadnought HMS Canopus 正在逃逸回到南美 舊戰艦的驅動力達到17kts 現在Craddock的航空母艦已經意識到 航空母艦的航空工程師 早前發生了緊張的衝突 這可能會拯救Craddock 在航空母艦早前被捕時 航空母艦的速度已經被Atranto限制 而Canopus的真正的速度 會讓它保持 但這已經是過去的事 有些事情必須做 免得航空母艦摧毀了 與南美的重要貿易區域 Meanwhile, Von Spee himself was in a dark mood especially considering his earlier victory He was fated upon entering Valparaiso Harbor if only because the concentration of Germans thanks to almost three dozen German merchant ships stuck in the harbor meant that there were quite a few people who were quite enthusiastic about his victory But as he moved down the Chilean coast he knew a number of things Their old home port, Tsingtao had fallen to an Allied assault The cruiser SMS Emden detached before they'd left the Western Pacific had made a legendary run but had recently been hunted down and destroyed by HMAS Sydney He himself was having issues getting coal for his ships due to a number of problems He could only stay in a neutral port for 24 hours at a time There wasn't that much coal available anyway relative to his needs and British agents were putting pressure on local suppliers not to sell to him sometimes even buying coal stocks simply to ensure that they weren't available to the Germans although they themselves had no practical use for the coal apart from selling it on a little bit later to some other vessel His big ships had also used half of their ammunition and there was absolutely no way to replenish that All of his vessels were fouled after their long voyage and their speed had dropped off somewhat Their engines weren't in the best of shape either And he knew the British were unlikely to simply roll over and accept the defeat His force at this point was also somewhat scattered as not only was there a time limit on being in a neutral port No more than three warships from the same power could be in any one port at a time So Leipzig and Dresden were detached to ensure that the time spent waiting for resupply was not doubled Then he received two bits of further unwelcome news The Japanese were apparently sailing for American waters having found the lack of German ships to shoot at in the western Pacific disturbing And then he got the following message from Berlin Lines of rendezvous with German colliers in the Atlantic are all compromised All trade routes are being strongly patrolled In the Atlantic cruiser warfare can only be carried out by ships operating in groups Karlsruhe and Kronprinz Wilhelm have orders to combine It is intended to concentrate all forces and order them to break through for home in groups Quite how a small collection of worn out cruisers and various gathered armed merchant cruisers were supposed to fight their way past the Grand Fleet was not included in the instructions Nor was any further wisdom forthcoming when the next day's signal specifically ordered Von Spee to head for home At least one item of this long list of apparent woe was resolved when they found a British collier captured her and took on as much coal as the squadron could carry But Von Spee's concern now was what British forces might be waiting for him on the other side of South America He had no idea where Canopus had gone and that worried him It might not be able to defeat his entire squadron alone but if it still had Glasgow in company then even if he technically won the engagement the engagement would probably destroy his squadron as an operational unit Additionally his intelligence suggested three more armoured cruisers Cornwall, Carnarvon and Defence were basing themselves on the west coast of South America specifically near the trade hub of the River Plate Cornwall was the sister of the ill-fated HMS Monmouth which Von Spee had already sunk but was also in much better condition than Monmouth had been and was a regular service vessel not one plucked out of the reserves and crewed by scratch force The Devonshire-class Carnarvon was significantly more heavily armed not an equal to his two armoured cruisers but a definite threat and much more powerful than his protected cruisers Defence was the biggest threat It handily outgunned either of his own largest ships and in a pinch it could technically exchange broad sides with both of his armoured cruisers at the same time and still have a firepower advantage as long as it maintained range Safe of course for the fact that it would be under approximately double the amount of fire that it was dishing out to any individual target If those three ships found him or worse still they met up with Canopus and then found him his ships would never reach home Opinion in his squadron was split on what to do next Should they attack British shipping off South America Should they run directly for home Or should they attack the British coaling and wireless station at the Falkland Islands He didn't need more coal immediately thanks to the capture of the collier and the arrival of three more German colliers that had managed to sneak out of South American ports But perhaps crippling the British ability to communicate with their ships in the far reaches of the South Atlantic would give him an element of stealth and surprise as he headed north And burning the coal stocks might leave them unable to easily follow en masse as well He had also received yet another signal from Berlin This time telling him he was now to conduct cruiser warfare in the Atlantic instead of their original instructions to head home immediately Although it also appeared that someone back home had cottoned on to the fact that there was a blockade in the North Sea as the signal ended with a request for him to give Berlin notice in good time of when he eventually wanted to come home as the plan was apparently now to potentially use a mass sortie of the high seas fleet to break a hole in the British blockade line long enough for his ships to join up with them and then get home In many ways Berlin's micromanaging of Von Spee's efforts was beginning to resemble the Admiralty's attempts to do the same to Craddock and that had in part been responsible for forcing the disaster at Coronel But despite all the arguments within his squadron Von Spee was the Admiral and with the support of two other captains and the acquiescence of the others the ship set course for the Falklands Critical to his decision and argument was an apparent communique from German intelligence claiming that there were no British ships present at the Falklands Supposedly a large force made up of Defence Cornwall, Carnarvon, Bristol Glasgow and Canopus had been there but had been diverted to South Africa to deal with a Boer uprising In fact it seems that based on later testimony the British had cracked a code being used to communicate with Von Spee and sent a false signal to this effect Albeit that the officers responsible for doing this don't appear to have actually told anyone else in the Admiralty what they were doing at the time Back in Britain Admiral Fisher was back as First Sea Lord and he was scrambling what he had always advocated for as the solution to this kind of problem his precious battlecruisers specifically the invincible and inflexible From his office came the signal Order invincible and inflexible to fill up with coal at once and proceed to Bear Haven with all dispatch They are urgently needed for foreign service He also saw this as a chance to clear house for a while at the Admiralty The somewhat freethinking Admiral Sturdy was the Chief of Staff but had also been one of the Admirals who had advocated for Fisher's previous removal from the post that he had now reoccupied Since he was technically able to lay some of the blame for Coronel partially at Sturdy's feet and desperate to just get Sturdy out of the building Churchill was relatively easily able to persuade Fisher to assign Sturdy to command of the Invincible and its new squadron and to go and clear up the mess Sturdy was not exactly opposed to this appointment That would at least get Sturdy out of the Admiralty for several months as Fisher had bigger things to worry about Initially there were some delays getting the ships ready prompting another signal Admiralty to CNC Devonport Ships are to sail on Wednesday They're needed for war service and dockyard arrangements must be made to conform If necessary dockyard men should be sent away in the ships You are held responsible for the speed dispatch of these ships in a thoroughly efficient condition Acknowledge Sailing south Sturdy met up with Rear Admiral Stoddart who Fisher had ordered to assemble every other warship in the South Atlantic and meet the battle cruisers off Brazil And this force reached the Falklands by the 7th of December The collection of ships was now highly varied From Coronel had come Canopus which was now grounded as a guard ship inside the harbour with spotters and communication cables run to allow it to fire over land at targets that it could not itself see and which could not see it as she'd been camouflaged and had removed the upper portions of her masts This was in accordance with another Admiralty signal Canopus to remain in Stanley Harbour Moor the ship so that your guns command the entrance Extemporise mines outside the entrance Be prepared for bombardment from outside the harbour Send down your topmasts Stimulate the Governor to organise all local forces and make determined defence Arrange observation stations onshore to enable you to direct fire onto ships outside Land guns or use torpedoes to sink a blocking ship before she reaches the narrows No objection to your grounding the ship to obtain a good berth Repair your defects Atranto had been assigned to patrol the South American coast but Glasgow had been retained She was joined by her sister ship HMS Bristol the Carnarvon and Cornwall mentioned earlier along with HMS Kent another regular crewed Monmouth class armoured cruiser plus the armed merchant cruiser HMS Macedonia and of course the two battlecruisers Missing was HMS Defence She'd met up with the battlecruisers but with most of the Royal Navy's South Atlantic assets heading for or already at the Falklands she was diverted to help provide escort for a troop convoy near South Africa after having donated long range radio equipment to the invincible However this summary doesn't quite appreciate just how boxed in Von Spee was A return to the Pacific was impossible The Imperial Japanese Navy was waiting for him in strength in the Western Pacific The American coast was actually populated by a variety of allied ships including the battlecruiser HMAS Australia Defence had joined the powerful armoured cruiser Minotaur the town class Dartmouth and Weymouth and the battleship Albion for her escort mission as South Africa was about to launch an invasion of German South West Africa the supposed Boer rebellion being of course nothing but a fiction The battlecruiser Princess Royal awaited in the Caribbean in case anyone came through the Panama Canal along with the battleship Glory and the cruisers Berwick Lancaster and Conda And West Africa was guarded by the battleship Vengeance the armoured cruisers Warrior and Black Prince and the protected cruisers Don Eagle, High Fly and Cumberland And that wasn't counting a scattering of French warships or various patrols of armed merchant cruisers the latter of which could at least give sightings of any passage made by hostile ships Having fouled one of Invincible's screws with a cable from a towed target they'd been using for gunnery practice at sea and relatively sure that Von Spee wasn't nearby Sturdy ordered the two light cruisers that he had to moor deep in the harbour The three armoured and two battlecruisers stayed in the outer, deeper harbour and HMS Macedonia got to patrol outside whilst everybody else took on coal Invincible cleared its propeller shaft and the various ships took the chance to give their engines a quick overhaul in anticipation of a high-speed chase For all the politics involved in his assignment to this role Sturdy was also one of the most free-thinking and tactically adept admirals in the navy Some even said maverick to the extent that in later years his command would be kept close to the fleet flagships specifically to stop him going off and trying something interesting But the Germans were a lot closer than anyone had guessed The plan that Von Spee had arranged for was as follows When Gneisenau and Nurnberg are detached they will proceed at 14 knots to a point to the east of Cape Pembroke from which Stanley Harbour can be overlooked If the harbour is clear of enemy ships Nurnberg will reconnoiter as far north as Berkeley Sound while Gneisenau off Port William lowers boats to sweep the entrance clear of mines Nurnberg will then proceed in as far as Port Stanley in rear of the boats and will embark stores and do destruction Gneisenau will follow as far as the channel connecting Port William with Port Stanley She will anchor there and send armed cutters to the town side under the command of Lieutenant Cotthouse who is to deliver an ultimatum to the governor and try to bring him back to the ship The cutters will be covered by Nurnberg The two ships will rejoin the squadron not later than 19.30 The main part of the force was then to follow 15 miles aft with the colliers still further back Thus in the morning of the 8th of December the Germans spotted the Falklands to the north around half past two in the morning At half past five the force was called to action and began to increase speed Just before eight o'clock in the morning one of Canopus's shore-based spotting parties sighted the first two of Von Spee's ships in the distance and sounded the alarm Canopus hoisted enemy in sight but there was no line of sight from the ship to Sturdy's flagship Instead they signaled HMS Glasgow who relayed the signal to Invincible Busy finishing off coaling including coaling from the Hulk of the old SS Great Britain In another age the first iron-hulled screw-driven ship in the world Brunel's massive over-engineering skills meaning that she was still afloat after decades of neglect Invincible's crew didn't notice until Glasgow fired her signal gun at them As the Germans came up from the south and bore around the eastern coast of East Falkland a helpful sheep farmer and her maids also kept an eye on them and phoned back to the port to keep Sturdy updated Now the British ship scrambled to raise steam the smoke from the hastily stoked fires rising above the headland and briefly causing Spey to believe that the British were burning their coal stocks instead of letting him have them which solved half the mission he'd set for himself already But as his spotters gained sight of the outer harbour they spotted a chilling sight Two sets of paired tripod masts Only a few British warships had tripod masts at all Fewer still had two Dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers And only one class had the tripod legs of the two masts set in opposition to their opposite number And that was the Invincible class of battlecruisers Von Spey had literally gone halfway around the world to avoid action with one similar vessel the indefatigable class HMAS Australia Now there were two such vessels and he was heading right for them Coupled with this realisation before any real idea of potentially trying to hit the stationary ships before they had enough steam pressure to move could form or maybe trying to sink the first ship that emerged and thus block the harbour Four huge fountains of water erupted near the Gneisenau and Nurnberg Shortly thereafter another four plumes surged out of the sea The Germans were startled Plumes that size could only come from a capital ship but they couldn't see any out there that had line of sight to them The unlikely saviour of the situation was HMAS Canopus Firing based on reported sightings her two salvos fell short but were enough to persuade Von Spey that discretion was the better part of valour and all of his ships turned east and began to accelerate away He had no idea where the gunfire was coming from but he did know that if any of his ships took a hit from a shell that size they'd likely become sitting ducks for anything that then subsequently emerged By some accounts this was particularly spurred on by Gneisenau taking a hit The story going that the aft turret of Canopus had preloaded with inert practice rounds the previous night in preparation for a practice shoot The call to action meaning that there was no time to swap the rounds for live ones it was just expedient to fire the guns anyway Whilst the short fall of the salvo had meant that the live rounds from the forward turrets had exploded on contact One of the practice rounds apparently skipped off the water and slammed into the base of the German cruiser's aft funnel Regardless the rest of Von Spee's ships had also been spotted and Sturdee knew that his quarry had obligingly enough come to him With Von Spee's ships now bearing away and HMS Kent which had been on its way to relieve the Macedonia and thus had steam pressure raised ordered to pursue and observe Sturdee sent his other ships' crews to breakfast They had the time now that the Germans were running and it would take a while to get steam pressure up enough to sail anyway HMS Bristol was frantically trying to reassemble the dismantled engine as well as raise its own steam pressure The first sighting of Von Spee's ships had been just before 0800 local time The encounter with Canopus's guns had been a bit over an hour later just after 0900 and just after 1000 the British formation began emerging from Port Stanley By which time Spee had a 15-mile lead and was heading southeast Bristol was the last ship to emerge about 45 minutes after the others and lookouts had spotted other German ships to the south As she was well behind the rest of the formation she was ordered south along with the Macedonia to investigate Meanwhile, up ahead the chase was on Poor old Carnarvon could only make 18 knots and began to fall behind leaving Cornwall, Kent, Glasgow invincible and inflexible as the core of Sturdee's force Gradually the distance began to close The battlecruisers and Glasgow had a 3-knot advantage over the Scharnhorsts on paper and in practice this was somewhat greater thanks to the condition of the German ships They had 8 hours of daylight ahead of them and under the circumstances calculated that Von Spee only had 2-3 hours lead before they'd catch up Still, the chase wore on without much else happening as lunchtime passed and Sturdee slowed slightly to arrange his formation and let some of the slower ships catch up Then, at 12.20 Sturdee increased speed with his battlecruisers and the Glasgow and at about 13.00 the straggling SMS Leipzig came under fire first from the Glasgow and then from speculative shots from the forward guns of the battlecruisers Realising that a fight was now unavoidable Von Spee ordered his smaller ships to break and scatter at 13.20 The two larger ships would try and buy them time But this was no dash for a quick heroic end Von Spee had noticed the difficulty the British had in getting range on the Leipzig The battlecruisers had the weather gauge which in the age of sail would have been decisive But in the age of steam and steel all it meant was that the northwest breeze blew their own funnel and gun smoke ahead and to starboard obscuring their view of the German ships and affecting their gunnery Showing the same mastery of seaborne manoeuvre warfare as he had at Coronel Von Spee sought to exploit this by remaining within this arc of disruption Sturdy, much like Craddock before him recognised the disadvantageous position and tried to work around to a better one But as with the run up to Coronel Von Spee steered his ships to his own best advantage This time the speed and firepower advantage was with the British But with Von Spee on the inside track the margin of swiftness was not enough to overcome Von Spee's positioning quickly Sturdy had anticipated this particular set of manoeuvres in his pre-issued fighting instructions which read The maximum enemy squadron likely to be met consists of two armoured cruisers three light cruisers and possibly some colliers The main duty of the battle cruisers is to deal with the armoured cruisers The British armoured and light cruisers should not seek action with the enemy's armoured cruisers in the early stages but in the event of the enemy's light cruisers separating or trying to escape make it their business to deal with them The battle cruisers will seek out the enemy's armoured cruisers and engage them at between 12,000 and 10,000 yards closing to 8,000 yards as fire becomes effective The armoured cruisers should avoid action with the enemy's armoured cruisers until the latter have been damaged or, owing to a superior tactical position their fire can be effectively used Thus, without the need for any further signals Glasgow, Kent and Cornwall swung away after Nurnberg, Dresden and Leipzig Three protected cruisers slowed by fouling an engine wear versus two armoured cruisers and a light cruiser was never going to be a fair fight but a fair fight was the last thing that anyone was actually looking for Carnarvon continued to try and catch up with the battle cruisers recognising that its own lack of speed would not be particularly useful chasing the smaller ships whilst Invincible closed on Scharnhorst and Inflexible set itself against Gneisenau Twenty minutes after Glasgow had opened the engagement the first 12-inch shells began to fall around Von Spee's flagship Von Spee returned fire shortly thereafter and thanks to his advantageous gunnery position as well as the excellent gunners aboard the wind confounding the British doing the opposite for the Germans and keeping their sights clear soon German shells were impacting on the battle cruisers but this was the fight Fisher had built these ships for and the first on-target 210mm shell exploded harmlessly against Invincible's belt armour Sturdy decided to open the range a little hoping to find a range band where he was in range with his big 12-inch guns but Von Spee wasn't The ship's vitals might be fine against the incoming fire but since the Germans had their range there was no point in needlessly inviting casualties and damage to the less well-protected parts of the ship He also, for similar reasons didn't want to let the range close so that both sides' secondaries could come into play Von Spee took advantage of this and broke south The two pairs of ships were now on wildly diverging courses and there was a small hope that with the persistent smoke issues Sturdy might not notice in time and this might allow Von Spee to also make an escape But it was not to be and the British ships turned to pursue The battle was joined again and Von Spee decided to double back on his previous idea now also turning to close The rapid rate the distance was being eaten up allowed him to bring his 5.9-inch secondary guns into play as well as his primary At this point everyone was very briefly distracted by what at first might have been thought to be a ghost appearing on the port beam of the engagement The ship was in fact a French sail-powered merchant ship running with all canvas spread Having left Europe in July and with no radio equipment she had no idea that anyone was even at war and quickly turned around to get away from the random high-speed naval battle that she'd wandered into With that relic of a bygone age out of the picture and back in the action as the British now matched course at the new closer range they were now headed east by northeast This change meant that the wind was no longer entirely in Von Spee's favour The northwest breeze now somewhat clearing British sights compared to before and slightly obscuring the German ones As a result of this and the closer ranges hits began to come in thick and fast on both sides But 5.9 and 8.3 inch hits to the battle cruisers seemed to be having little effect Whereas the 12 inch shells that were now smashing into the German cruisers were having something of the opposite effect Fire and speed both began to drop off on both German ships as shells smashed into machinery spaces upset guns and started pyres amongst the debris The battle shifted onto a southerly course and the breeze was now clearing both sides' gun sights With the speed of the German ships falling Sturdy ordered his ships to conduct a 360 degree turn just after 1500 to try and let the breeze take the remaining haze south and away from them The battle had drifted onto a southeast course once again and the British emerged from the turn heading southwest having cut across the German ship's sterns Von Spee also turned southwest This allowed him to bring the relatively undamaged starboard sides of his ships into play as there wasn't much left functional on the port sides anymore A brief exchange of signals on the German side was prompted by a British shell blast that cut some of Shan Ho's signal lines causing the Admiral's flag to fall to half mast Gneisenau asked why Was Von Spee dead? The Admiral replied that he was fine so far Both ships then commiserated about how the smoke was now obscuring their vision and Von Spee told Gneisenau's captain that he had after all been right to argue against attacking the Falklands But for all the banter the situation was getting bad aboard both armoured cruisers The official German history recounts that the heavier shells easily penetrated the casement decks of the German ships and played havoc in the compartments below Though the explosive effect was less than one would expect from 12-inch shells the damage increased continually especially in the centre of the Gneisenau The 5.9-inch casements suffered severely and the wireless telegraph room was demolished The No. 1 boiler room was flooded in consequence of a hit below the water line and had to be abandoned No. 3 boiler room also began to fill Fires broke out in the unprotected parts of the ship fore and aft The efforts to put out the fires were aided by the mast high splashes from shells that fell short driving water through the shell holes onto the decks The range continued to drop and more shells smashed home By 1600 Scharnhorst was downed by the bow listing to port and had a funnel shot away amongst other damage Gneisenau was also down a funnel three boiler rooms and a propeller As the minutes ticked by it was clear that Scharnhorst was beginning her final plunge the list and the bow dip increasing ever more rapidly Trying to save as many ships as he could von Spee ordered Gneisenau to make a break for it whilst the wallowing flagship tried to launch torpedoes But by this point the engagement had slowed enough that having also cut a number of corners on the way Carnarvon finally arrived and joined in Sturdy recorded At 1604 the Scharnhorst whose flag remained flying to the last suddenly listed heavily to port and within a minute it became clear that she was a doomed ship for the list increased very rapidly until she lay on her beam ends and at 1617 she disappeared The battle moved onwards as the last surviving German armoured cruiser reduced to less than 16 knots grimly blazed away with her remaining guns More hits gradually turned the ship into a blazing hulk and many of these latter hits caused remarkably few casualties albeit for the grim reason that most of the crew in those areas were already dead from previous hits By 1730 the ship had stopped with only one turret left firing its crew apparently unable to receive the orders to cease fire an abandoned ship which resulted in the British bombardment continuing Like her sister Gneisenau rolled over and sank The two ships taking with them the entire 860 man complement of the Scharnhorst and all but 187 men from Gneisenau Several hundred more had made it into the water but the bitterly cold seas claimed them before any boats from the British ships could reach them One of the survivors of Gneisenau recalled The captain called for three cheers for his majesty and the ship was then abandoned I slipped down the bridge from the port side but fell into the water on the starboard side the ship having suddenly capsized When I came to the surface I saw the fore part of the ship rise up again keel uppermost about 30 yards away There were four men sitting on the torpedo tube waving and singing and presently the ship disappeared for the last time carrying them down with her Men clinging to objects around me were singing the song of the flag and other patriotic songs One man gave three cheers for the sunken ship and the cheers were repeatedly taken up by others I estimated that there were 270 to 300 men in the water The temperature of the water was only 39 degrees Fahrenheit and during half an hour's immersion many of my companions perished I and 12 others were clinging to a hammock and a round beam of wood We were all picked up by the inflexible I was amazed at the spirit displayed by the men The British ships were doing their best but it was a race against the elements An officer from Carnarvon wrote Now came the most awful part of it all rescuing the survivors who were in the water When I say that the water was about 46 degrees Fahrenheit and the air about 51 degrees Fahrenheit with an awful cold wind blowing you can imagine how dreadful it was for them We all lowered our boats We got two cutters and a whaler out and they managed to pick up 40 men It was awful when they got back to the ship as a great many were wounded and some were half dead with cold To make matters worse our whaler was smashed against the ship's side and our men and the Germans were in the water again Fortunately one of our cutters was near and managed to rescue all of our men but some of the Germans floated away calling for help which we could not give them It was shocking to see the look on their faces as they drifted away and we could do nothing to save them A great many were drowned We could see them floating past a horrible sight Aboard Inflexible an officer recorded We got about 50 aboard as I think did two of our other ships We rescued their commander and about six other officers The Germans in the water were all waving their arms and shouting not because they wanted to be saved any quicker but because they had been told to do so so as to keep them warm We were busy getting out clothes etc. for them and by dinner time we had several dining in the mess and very nice fellows they are too They cannot give their parole as it is not permitted by their regulations but there are so few that we gave them a good deal of freedom Most of them could not sleep that night The scenes in their ships were so terrible to see one's best friend suddenly torn to bits or rush on deck one huge wound covered with blood and just have time to see him send his love home is terrible Although there was practically no damage to be seen it was impossible for them to get from one end of the ship to the other There was no upper deck or main deck left at all and the lower armored deck was full of holes and very hot That is the result of long range plunging fire But we were all good friends after the fight and both agreed that we did not want to fight at all but had to Over 2000 of them must have been killed or drowned with all their cherished possessions and their good ships But they fought magnificently and their discipline must have been superb The two battle cruisers had proven their original concept in spectacular fashion Invincible had weathered 22 hits but had only minor damage and flooding Inflexible had taken three hits and between them there was only one man dead and five injured The sudden and unexpected nature of the war was further underlined by signals exchanged that evening Sturdy sent a signal over to Inflexible who had picked up the senior surviving German officer The commander in chief is very gratified that your life has been spared and we all feel that the Gneisenau fought in a most plucky manner to the end We so much admire the good gunnery of both ships We sympathize with you in the loss of your admiral and so many officers and men Unfortunately the two countries are at war The officers of both navies who can count friends in the other navy have to carry out their country's duties which your admiral, captain and officers worthily maintained to the end He received in reply In the name of all our officers and men saved I thank your excellency very much for your kind words We regret, as you, the course of the fight As we have personally learned to know during peacetime the English navy and her officers We are all most thankful for our good reception Indeed, so close had been the pre-war relations of the two services that one of the survivors was Rear Admiral Stoddart's first cousin by marriage Elsewhere, however, Von Spee's gambit was now slowly beginning to fall apart The Leipzig was being pursued by HMS Cornwall and HMS Glasgow The German cruiser's small 4.1-inch guns posed a slight threat to Glasgow which overhauled her first and the two began a long-range gunnery duel landing the occasional hit Cornwall, however, trusted in her heavier armour and simply ploughed in at full speed Due to the narrower margin of speed in these engagements these battles mostly took place after the two German armoured cruisers had been sunk Cornwall was fully engaged by 1800 and soon Leipzig was on fire She tried to give as good as she got but Cornwall's captain had been right 18 German hits resulting in no fatalities aboard the British armoured cruiser and Glasgow had only one killed and four injured from a pair of hits Tragedy played out as the German ship refused to strike its colours until it was almost dead in the water and when the crew assembled on deck to abandon the ship the flames prevented anyone from reaching the remaining flag Heat, or possibly a last act of defiance caused a gun to fire and more British shells came in at the apparently still resisting ship cutting down many of the remaining crew now exposed Someone managed to find a flare gun and fired that instead resulting in a cessation of fire and the lowering of boats to assist but as the Leipzig rolled over the shells, flames and cold water left only 18 men to be plucked out of the dark seas since by this point it was around 2100 and the sun had set Kent had gone after Nurnberg instead This battle lasted slightly less time as just after 1730 a couple of Nurnberg's overtaxed boilers had burst and suddenly the two ships were upon each other In a short, sharp blaze of gunfire the Kent's armour kept out most of the 4.1-inch shells whilst its own 6-inch guns tore apart the Nurnberg and by 1835 the latter ship was stopped all guns knocked out and on fire A few of her shells had found some targets One had destroyed Kent's radio transmission equipment Another had managed to explode in one of the upper gun positions And yet another had started a small cordite fire that quick use of a hose and closing up of the magazine doors had managed to contain But overall Kent had only 6 killed and 8 wounded with 10 of those casualties coming from the cordite fire Nurnberg struck her colours shortly after 1900 whilst Kent's crew worked as fast as they could to patch up the splinter holes their erstwhile opponent had punched into their ship's boats But once again cold and shell fire had reaped a terrible toll and only 12 men were pulled from the water and 5 of them would succumb to wounds or hypothermia before too long Off to the south Bristol and Macedonia overhauled the trio of colliers Von Spee had assembled capturing the SS Baden and the SS Santa Isabel taking off the crews and then sinking them The other collier SS Seydlitz escaped and eventually made it to Argentina where she would be interned for the rest of the war She would be the only long-term German survivor of the battle as Dresden breaking south-west when the other two protected cruisers went south-east took advantage of her turbine engines which made her the swiftest German ship of the flotilla to escape into the darkness She remained off the coast of South America for about three months taking on coal where she could and conducting a limited amount of commerce warfare But with her engines wearing out she ran into HMS Kent which was looking for her Kent chased Dresden into Chilean waters and on the 14th of March along with HMS Glasgow entered Cumberland Bay and opened fire apparently not convinced of Dresden's claim to be interned which was actually true in part because the ship was still flying a German flag With almost no fuel and broken engines the ship was quickly overwhelmed struck her colours and scuttled setting off a minor diplomatic incident between Chile and the British at the violation of Chilean neutrality This encounter wrapped up what was left of Von Spee's squadron Fortunately this last fight had only a dozen fatalities Eight in the attack with four later dying of wounds Of almost 2,500 men aboard the ships that had been sunk at the day of battle only 215 survived And raiding commerce on the high seas was now to be left to a handful of German merchant raiders and U-boats Von Spee would be honoured in Germany with the 2nd Mackensen-class battlecruiser named after him Although it wasn't completed before the war ended and would end up being scrapped in 1921 During the interwar period the last Deutschland-class heavy cruiser would also be named after him Famously eventually meeting its fate in the aftermath of the Battle of the River Plate not a million miles away from where Von Spee himself had fought his last engagement One last vessel a former Black Swan-class sloop would be renamed Graf Spee and would serve in the West German Navy in the early 1960s Admiral Sturdy would become a baronet the first such award for a successful naval action since 1911 and would go on to command the 4th Battle Squadron at Jutland eventually ascending to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet upon retirement in 1921 after which he became President of the Society for Nautical Research and would take an active part in efforts to get HMS Victory preserved and into dry dock before his death in 1925 age 66