The Royal Navy will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Coronel this week. The clash was an ignominious chapter in the senior service’s unique history that saw British warships heavily outgunned by the vastly superior ships of the Imperial German Navy resulting in a humiliating defeat for Britain when two warships were sunk with a heavy loss of life.

A combination of bad luck and faulty intelligence led to the Royal Navy’s biggest defeat in 100 years.

On June 20, 1914, the Imperial German Navy’s “Die Ostasiengeschwader “(The East Asia Squadron) sailed from its naval base at Tsingtao, situated in China’s Chandong province, on a trans-Pacific voyage to the South American coast.

Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee commanded the squadron, Germany’s only blue water squadron, comprising of the ships Scharnhorst, Nurnberg, Dresden, Gneisenau, and Leipzig. The ships made their way slowly across the vast ocean calling at several islands enroute to store and refuel.

When war was declared on August 4, 1914, von Spee’s orders were to attack British shipping off South America.

His British adversary Rear-Admiral Christopher Cradock, commanded the Royal Navy’s 4th Cruiser Squadron comprising of HM ships Good Hope, Monmouth, Glasgow and the Armed Merchant Cruiser Otranto. His orders were to protect British shipping in the South Atlantic. His ageing warships had been taken out of the Reserve Fleet.

From the outset Cradock’s masters at the Admiralty were continually moving the goalposts regarding the composition of ships in his group. The admiral was in many ways a scapegoat sent on an important mission with obsolete ships against a vastly superior enemy.

Cradock knew that his ships were no match for the German squadron if they should meet on the high seas. 

He received various contradictory messages from the Admiralty and embassies in Rio and Montevideo as to the whereabouts of the German ships.

He decided to sail from the Falkland Islands to Coronel in central Chile where the German ships had been seen. 

Winston Churchill issued orders to Craddock on October 28 instructing him to halt. It is a moot point as to whether Cradock actually received Churchill’s instructions; in any event he shortly afterwards ordered his squadron to adopt an attacking formation.

After a game of cat and mouse, the opposing fleets finally met off Coronel, south of Valparaiso in heavy seas. At 1900 hours on November 1, the German ships attacked. An hour later Monmouth and Good Hope had come under sustained heavy fire. Good Hope, already damaged by 40 direct hits, was on fire when a huge explosion ripped through the fore part.

She heeled over sinking with all hands. Monmouth suffered the same fate shortly afterwards. A total of 1,600 men perished. Glasgow and Otranto realising they would suffer the same fate were ordered by Cradock to escape moments before his ship sank. An officer onboard Glasgow wrote: “We felt so bitterly ashamed of ourselves for we had let down the King; we had let down the Admiralty; we had let down England. What would the British people think of the Royal Navy?”

Local men onboard Monmouth who lost their lives were William Brewer and William Newstead and Mr C Andrew, a stoker, adopted son of Mr and Mrs Snell of Wellington Place along with Jack Bennett of Mylor, an artificer.

Von Spee later wrote in his diary: “Good Hope looked like a splendid firework display against a dark sky. The glowing white flames mingled with the bright green stars, shot up to a great height.”

The Germans quickly left the scene heading for Valparaiso. Von Spee said the weather was too bad to search for any survivors from the British ships.

Von Spee relaxed with friends at the German Club in Valparaiso when one guest proposed a toast “Damnation to the Royal Navy!” Von Spee declined and proposed his own toast to “To the memory of a brave and gallant enemy” before returning to his flagship.

The defeat at Coronel sent shock waves through the British High Command. 

To restore England’s pride and domination of the sea, Admiral of the Fleet John Fisher and First Sea Lord Winston Churchill sent a seven strong battle fleet to South American to hunt, find and annihilate von Spee and the East Asia Squadron.

In late November von Spee’s squadron was enroute to attack the Falkland Islands, where unbeknown to him the British ships were already in the area.

The Battle of the Falkland began on December 8, 1914 – the rest as they say is history. The Royal Navy annihilated the German squadron with just one enemy ship, the Dresden, escaping. Following a three-month search, the Royal Navy eventually cornered Dresden.

Falmouth Packet:

Rear-admiral Cradock

Falmouth Packet:

Vice-admiral von Spee