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| Description of the Battle |
Rear Admiral Cradock had his squadron reinforced by the armoured cruiser
Good Hope. She had just come out of reserve and was manned by a very
green crew of reservists and cadets but despite this Cradock transferred
his flag to her as she was faster than his current ship. He was then
given the task of finding Graf Spee and so headed for the Pacific.
His squadron now consisted of Good Hope, the armoured cruiser Monmouth,
the light cruiser Glasgow and the armed merchant cruiser Otranto.
The squadron was inferior or the German squadron and so the old pre-dreadnought
battleship Canopus was sent to bolster Cradock. Again she was straight
out of reserve, slow (17 knots max.) and manned by reservists who
had never fired her guns before, the guns being outranged by those
of the German armoured cruisers. HMS Defence, an armoured cruiser,
was also promised but never materialised. The Admiralty falsely gave
Cradock the impression that they thought that this force was adequate
for the task and he should engage Graf Spee if he could. The British
squadron was to be based out of the Falkland Islands. When Canopus
did finally turn up there it turned out that she had engine problems
and was limited to 12 knots. Cradock decided to detach her from his
main squadron, letting her follow at her own pace with his colliers.
On October 29 Glasgow was sent to Coronel to pick up intelligence
and whilst there she picked up radio transmissions between Leipzig
and one of her colliers. The squadron was reformed and spread out
at 20 mile intervals to sweep north. There was little optimism in
the British ships about the outcome should they meet the German squadron
of modern ships with crack crews. Monmouth had an even less experienced
crew than Good hope and was an old design that had a poor reputation
being badly under-armed for a ship of her size and too slow to run
away. Otranto was a converted liner, too slow, armed with old 4.7
inch guns (eight carried) and with a large silhouette and no armour.
Only Glasgow was a decent ship, a modern light cruiser with a regular
crew, decent speed and capable of outgunning the German light cruisers,
but not Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
On November 1 at 1630 Glasgow sighted smoke from Leipzig and then
minutes later the ship and the German armoured cruisers. Spee formed
a battle line in the order Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig and Dresden,
Nurnberg was thirty miles to the north, still returning from Valparaiso.
The British line was ordered Good Hope, Monmouth, Glasgow and Otranto.
Cradock had the opportunity of turning towards Canopus, 300 miles
to the south, there not being sufficient light for Spee to catch him
that day but that risked the losing Spee during the night. The British
turned towards the German line and at about 1930 at 12,000 yards the
German armoured cruisers opened fire. The setting sun silhouetted
the British squadron whilst the German ships were hard to see in the
failing light. The third salvo from Scharnhorst hit Good hope, knocking
out her forward 9.2 inch gun. Monmouth was also hit by the third salvo
from Gneisenau, setting her forward turret on fire. The German gun
crews maintained a rapid and accurate fire, both leading British cruisers
being hit over thirty times, whilst the reply from the British was
very ineffectual. The visibility deteriorated so that the Germans
had to target the fires on the British ships whilst the British had
to make do with aiming at the enemy gun flashes. Leipzig and Glasgow
engaged each other whilst Dresden fired on Otranto which rapidly pulled
out of the line and fled, enabling Dresden to also engage Glasgow.
Cradock closed the range to 5,500 yards to bring his 6 inch guns to
action. Spee interpreted this as an attempt to launch a torpedo attack
and increased the range. At 1950 Good Hope suffered a magazine explosion,
the crippled ship then drifting out of site and sinking soon afterwards.
There were no survivors.
Monmouth was also in a bad way, being on fire and listing to port.
Glasgow had been hit five times and seeing that Monmouth was beyond
help fled to avoid certain destruction and to warn Canopus to turn
back. Monmouth was unable to fire but her White Ensign was still flying.
The newly arrived Nurberg found her and finished her off with gunfire
at point blank, seventy five gun flashes being observed from Glasgow.
Again there were no survivors.
Leipzig and Dresden were detached to find Glasgow and Otranto, both
heading for the Falkland Islands whilst the rest of the squadron made
for Valparaiso to coal and provision.
The British had suffered its first defeat for over a century with
the loss of two armoured cruisers and nearly 1600 crew. The only damage
to the Germans was two hits on Scharnhorst and four hits and three
wounded on Gneisenau. |
The above is the work of Darren Milford and has been copied
from his site WW1
Naval Combat |
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