The British Navy in Battle by Arthur H. Pollen

Author:Arthur H. Pollen [Pollen, Arthur H.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
Published: 2017-07-29T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

180

CHAPTER XII

Battle of the Falkland Islands (I)

THE CAREER OF VON SPEE (II)

The Battle of the Falkland Islands was fought on December 8th by a squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir F. Doveton Sturdee, K.C.B., C.V.O., C.M.G., against the German China Squadron—less Emden, but strengthened by the addition of the cruiser Dresden. Admiral Sturdee’s despatch was not published until about three months after the action, but in the meantime several accounts appeared in various newspapers, and since the despatch was published others have been printed in different magazines. Of no other action in the war have we such various or full information as about this. It will perhaps be a convenient way of dealing with this extremely instructive and important engagement to reproduce the Vice-Admiral’s despatch textually, and to supplement it by explanatory notes, and incorporate in these what is most material of the additional information which is available.

The despatch begins with the tabulation of the sections into which the despatch is divided:

A. Preliminary Movements.

B. Action with the Armoured Cruisers.

C. Action with the Light Cruisers.

D. Action with the Enemy’s Transports.

“The squadron, consisting of H.M. ships Invincible, flying my flag, Flag Captain Percy T. H. Beamish;181 Inflexible, Captain Richard F. Phillimore; Carnarvon flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Archibald P. Stoddart, Flag Captain Harry L. d’E. Skipwith; Cornwall, Captain Walter M. Ellerton; Kent, Captain John D. Allen; Glasgow, Captain John Luce; Bristol, Captain Basil H. Fanshawe; and Macedonia, Captain Bertram S. Evans—arrived at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, at 10:30 A.M. on Monday, the 7th December, 1914. Coaling was commenced at once, in order that the ships should be ready to resume the search for the enemy’s squadron the next evening, the 8th December.”

The account previously given of the Graf von Spee’s movements leading up to and subsequent to the action off Coronel, will have made the general strategic position in the Eastern Pacific and Southern Atlantic more or less plain. Of his ships, however, this should be added. The clear light and prevalence of smooth water on the China Station has always proved an incentive to good gunnery, and indeed the performances of the Terrible, when Vice-Admiral Sir Percy Scott commanded her as captain, may be regarded as the starting point of all modern gunnery skill. It is not surprising, therefore, that both of Von Spee’s ships should have stood, as they in fact did, at the head of the German Fleet in order of gunnery merit. And it was clear from their performances that their skill was not merely limited to good gun-laying. Both at Coronel and at Falkland Islands they gave conclusive evidence of being perfect masters of such fire control as they possessed, and on the first occasion shot superbly in very rough weather. They therefore constituted an extremely formidable combination. The German 8.2 shell of the latest type—with which these ships were armed—fired a projectile very nearly as heavy as did182 the British 9.2’s—the actual weights are 320 pounds and 380. The percentage is roughly 8.4 to 10. These

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.