Light Cruisers of Von Spee's East Asia Squadron (1914)
Qingdao, a German colony founded in 1898 on the south shore of the Shandong Peninsula (map), was a red-roofed slice of old Germany incongruously recreated in a choice part of North China. An excellent brewery (still producing Tsingtao Beer), gabled roofs straight out of Stuttgart, oom-pah bands and abundant busts of the Kaiser marked the close control of the Imperial German government. The all-white downtown was populated by a tightly-knit group of merchant colonists and laborers who had emigrated to "do good but stayed to do well," as the saying goes.* Enforcing German law and protecting the territorial integrity of the greater German Reich was the job of the Imperial Navy's East Asia squadron of 5 modern cruisers, homeported at Qingdao (above) but periodically visiting the Kaiser's far-flung possessions in the western Pacific. First among the squadron were the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, powerful 500-foot sister ships armed with eight 8.2" guns each. Among them also were four small cruisers, fast 3,500-ton vessels armed with ten 4.1" guns each. Their fate is described briefly on this page; for they too made the epic voyage described elsewhere, to fight bravely against hopeless odds. A great number of their crewmen made the supreme sacrifice for Kaiser and country, and all the survivors spent 4 years as prisoners of war. However, they mad emore of a splash than if they had remained at Qingdao to defend teh territory against an overwhelming attack by the Japanese. This battle, known as the Siege of Qingdao, had been foreseen by von Spee. It provided a fittingly valorous climax to the brief but colorful tale of German colonialism in China.
* A most enjoyable sketch of life in the German colony -- and how the colony came to belong to Germany -- may be found in Robert K. Massie's Castles of Steel (NY: Presidio, 2003), pp. 179-184. Your Armchair Admiral is indebted to this compendious source for much of material used in the present account of WWI naval affairs. The detailed and beautifully written tale in Castles of Count Spee's voyage and the Battle of the Falklands is the completest yet seen by this writer, and comes highly recommended. --Ed.
The East Asia Squadron steams out of Valparaíso to its doom, Nov. 4, 1914. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau lead while Dresden is just visible behind them. A considerable part of the Chilean fleet is visible in the foreground, including the Esmeralda and O'Higgins. Following their stay in Valparaíso the Germans spent almost 3 weeks hanging around the desolate rocks at Más Afuera before weighing anchor for the trip back to Europe.
SMS Nürnberg was a Königsberg class cruiser, built in 1908. She joined von Spee at Ponape, fresh from Honolulu and bringing intelligence to the Squadron. You can see she is virtually identical to the Emden except in the uneven spacing of the funnels. This was the result of one of the members of her class being outfitted with turbine engines (Stettin). As the 4 cruisers covered are so similar, we will make do with Nürnberg's statistics. Curious readers will find all the stats and specs at worldwar1.co.uk -- and all the pictures here!
Specifications for the Nürnberg: 378'4" OA x 43'4" x 17'3" (115.3m OA x 13.2m x 5.24m.) Displacement: 3,390 tons standard; 3,990 tons deep laden. Armament: (10) 4.1"/40cal (105mm), (8) 2" (52mm), 2 45cm (17.7") torpedo tubes. Armor: 2.5"/0.5" deck (63.5/12.7 mm); 2" gun shields (51 mm). Propulsion: 2 vertical triple expansion engines developing 13,200 IHP, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 23.4 knots (43.34 km/hr). Complement: 322.
SMS Leipzig in the Baltic. Although all Spee's light cruisers came from different classes, they were very similar in size, speed, and armament, and also homogeneous in their dates of completion. Leipzig was one of the later members of the Bremen class, built at the Weser yard in Bremen which had earlier constructed the name ship, and completed in 1907.
A rare photo of the Squadron rounding Cape Horn in the teeth of a gale.
SMS Dresden.
SMS Dresden, one of the 3 light cruisers accompanying Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in their partial circumnavigation. The others were the Leipzig and Nürnberg. As the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were being battered to death by British battlecruisers, Nürnberg was chased and eventually hunted down and sunk by HMS Kent and Leipzig by HMS Cornwall. The Dresden skulked in the rocky archipelagos of Patagonia all summer, until discovered at Más Afuera, off the coast of Chile, where the Squadron had begun their thrust into the Atlantic. She was found by Kent and Glasgow March 14. After a brief exchange of fire, the Dresden's crew surrendered their ship and then exploded her magazines and turned themselves in for internment by the Chilean authorities. Dresden's demise set the seal on the most complete British victory of the war at sea. The white flag of surrender can be seen flying from the cruiser's foretop in the photo below.
Cruise of the Emden
The Emden at Qingdao Naval Station before the War, above. Below, in the Kiel Canal. (Both: Bundesarchiv)
The Emden, sister ship of the Dresden, was a long-time member of the Asiatic Squadron and nicknamed "Swan of the East". Before Spee began his epic voyage, he detached Emden for commerce raiding in the Pacific -- an assignment at which she excelled, under the command of Capt. Karl von Müller. She raided Madras, India, blowing up the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's tank farm and terrifying the city. She took a brace of colliers to keep her fueled; she sank a cargo of copper and rubber worth a cool million quid. She put into Penang, blew up the old Russian cruiser Zhemchug with gunfire and a torpedo, then shot up and sank 2 French destroyers. News of the Emden's exploits froze Britain's colonial commerce: ships remained in port rather than risk being taken by the jovial pirates. The Kaiser awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class to von Müller -- and to 50 of his men, captain's choice. All this was accomplished with remarkably little loss of life, and with a chivalrous demeanor that impressed his victims.
Artist's conception of he Emden at sea in peacetime colours.
After 6 weeks of rich cruising and many prizes, Emden met up with HMS Sydney (above), a Town-class cruiser armed with 6" guns, outranging the Emden's 4.1s. Sydney made short work of the German warship. The Emdens fought at a disadvantage: half the crew was ashore raiding North Keeling Island stores and wrecking communications. Those captured on the wreck of the Emden -- grounded on a coral reef to keep from sinking (below) -- spent the war as guests of H.M. Government; Müller was no exception. But a large portion of the crew, after watching their ship's demise from shore, escaped on the 47-ton barquentine Ayesha. After crossing the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, they succeeded in vagabonding overland to Constantinople and thence by rail to Berlin, where they received a hero's welcome. Lt. Mücke masterminded the entire escape and lived up to the fearless example set by his captain.
