PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1914, Page 8

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

THREE GERMAN CRUISERS SUNK END OF THE SCHARNHORST AND GNEISENAU. The city was 'thrilled 10-dny forenoon by the newß of the sinking of tho three German cruisers. The glow of patriotism is natural, but it will bo tempered with a feeling of respect for theso German crews, who evidently met deatli bravely — as bravely as ours did, at their hands, off the coast of Chili. Tho Scharnhorst (flagship of Vice-Ad-miral Yon Spec) and tho Gneiscnau stnnd in a class by themselves. They wero sisters in all respects, excopt that somo alterations to the Scharnhorst (following a mishap) had reduced her speed. Tho •Gneiscnau was credited with 23.8 knots, the Scharnhorst with 22.5. They wero j armoured cruisers of 11,420 tons each, and wero remarkablo for thoir heavy gun armament. Each had ciglit 8.2-inch guns (six available on broadside), six 5.9-inch, and twenty 3.4-inch. Thoso 8.2-inch guns soon destroyed tho British armoured cruisers Good ilopo and Monmouth (two 9.2-inch guns and a number of 6-inch) in tho fight off Chili. j In China waters at the outbreak of the war Germany had theso two strongly offensive armoured cruisers, and ft number of smaller light cruisers of the fast commerce-destroying type, carrying 4.1inch guns. Of theso latter, Iho Jffmclcri moved from China waters into (ho Indian Ocean, and had a destructive career there till both sho and tho Konigsberg were accounted for—tho l-lindon destroy- ! ed, -the Kotiigsb'erg bottled up in a channel behind Mttllo, Island. THEIR TRACK AOUOSS THE PACIFIC. Other ships of tho German China fleet, escaping from Kiao-clrtiu, enmo across the Pacific. i Tho big fellows, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, crossed tho big ocean via Samoa, And Tahiti (French) to Chilian waters. At Apia. (Samoa) they trained their guns on tho entrenched Now Zealand contingent, but did not lire. Suggested reasons aro (1) that they did not wish to damage German property in and about Apia and to incite a Chinese rising; (2) that thoy feared the presence \ in tho vicinity of British warships, in- J eluding tho battlccruisei' Australia, with her eight 12-inch guns. At Papeete (Tahiti) ' they burned some ammunition, snnk tho old gunboat Zelce and the German ship Walkuro, and damaged- the town. Few, if any, prizes seem to have fallen to their lot, but the cruisers of tho other typo more or less associated with them (tho Nurnberg and the Leipzig) did some damage in the Pacific. The next notable event wk the battle off Chili, an American account of which appeared in last Saturday's issue. At this time the two big armoured cruisers seem to have been accompanied by three of the lesser raiding class — the Nurnberg, Leipzig, and Bremen. Establishing a base on Juan Fernandez, also wireless connection with tho "neutral" Republics on the South American mainland, the Germans, it is stated, heard of a British rendezvous off Coronel (Chili), and were able to anticipate the arrival of British ships and inflict a defeat in detail. The Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau easily • outgunned the Good Hope and the Monmouth in the absence of the battleship Canopus ; and the light cruiser Glasgow and the converted Orient liner Otranto were clearly out-matched by the Nurnberg, Leipzig, and Bremen. The Good Hope and Monmouth were sunk; the- Glasgow and Otranto escaped. '• In naval • warfare it is tho business of the superior 'navy to be superior at points of contact. For some reason or other, (whether, British blundering or j non-preventible leak of British instructions) the British wero distinctly inferior in the Chilian battle, and they paid the penalty. Admiral Craddock and the men of the Good Hope and the Monmouth went to, their death like ' heroes. -And no doubt the same may be said of Vice-Admiral Yon Spec and thebra?e German crews of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Leipzig. Of the (about) 1437 officers and men on the Good Hope and the Monmouth, not one, it seems, wae saved — owing, it is said, to heavy weather. Of the (about) 1586 officers and men on the three sunken German ships, "some survivors" were saved from the j Gneisenau and Leipzig. ? That is all that is known of survivors at time of writing. There are at present no details of the strength ' of the British squadron, but j as "our casualties^ aTe very Blight," it must have been much stronger* than the enemy. As already remarked, it is the business of - the ■ superior navy to be stronger. ' To attack or pursue in inferior strength may be" magnificent, but it is not war.- < On the otjher, hand, the inferior navy generally has no" choice^ Certainly ViceAdmiral Von 1 Spec had no choice. Far removed . from the locked-up German fleet, with no bases save improvised ones, 'and no fuel or ammunition supplies except what might be arranged for from hand-to-mouth, his ultimate fate was certain. " Battle with a superior squadron must inevitably come. He had simply to make the best fight he could, and he evidently did. Nemesis overtook him. off the Falkland Islands, in -the far South Atlantic, off the Patagonian coa6t of South America. But for, British misadventure, it would' have tracked him down weeks before, on. the Pacific side of South America, off' Chili. Hats off to the 1400 brave British and the 1500 equally brave Germans who played the game and lost. , "Beside sinking the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Leipzig, and capturing two colliers, the British pursued the other light cruisers Nurnberg (the Fanning Island cable raider) and Dresden. As the battle began in the "morning and probably did not last long, the capture of the Nurnberg and Dresden appears to be probable. There' is no word of the Bremen and the Karlsruhe. ' The Bremen was reported to have been with her consorts off Chili, and the Karlsruhe has been raiding the South Atlantic for some time. AMMUNITION SUPPLIES. . Possibly it will be found that the Chilian battle • and the bombardment of Papeete depleted the German ammunition supplies. Whatever the circumstances, it is a great relief for the Empire that the back of the German fight-ing-and-raiding force has been broken. Once the 8-inch guns of the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau were comparatively close to these coasts. Now they slumber at the bottom of the Atlantic. Vice-Admiral Sir F. C. D. Sturdee was in command of the British squadron. A search of the records indicates that Vice-Admiral Sturdee has been employed at the Admiralty, and his last sea-going command appears to have been the Shannon, as flagship of the Second Cruiser Squadron. This may be some clue to his present command. The Second Cruiser Squadron consists of the Shannon, Achilles, Cochrane, and Natal. The last three are sisters, completed in 1907. The Shannon was completed in 1908, and is a sister of the Minotaur (which some time ago arrived in Wellington with the Ibuki to form the convoy of our Expeditionary Force). The main armament of all these armoured cruisers is 9.2-inch and 7.5-inch guns. Tho Shannon (14.600 tono) h«e ■iSHli'liSt-ilil 6 !.. .

(13,550 tons) has six 9.2 and four 7.5. It -will 'bo- seen that the Shannon, Achilles, Cochrane^ and Natal aro a much heavier combination than the Good Hope and Monmouth. Even one ship of this type, such as the Minotaur, would have made a. big difference in the Chilian battle. ' The later report that the British had only throe casualties tends to confirm tho impression that the German fire was deficient. THE EASTERN THEATRE. Berlin enthused over the capture of Lodz, but even in the Berlin version itself there is little to suggest that the Russians sustained any great losses. A Berlin official cablegram says that 5000 Russians, with guns, were taken prisoners. On the other hand, the Russians claim that, in the earlier fighting, many units of the enveloped Germans were cut to pieces, and no less than 20,000 Bin-rendered. Also, notwithstanding the German advance at Lodz, "thus far the Grand Duke Nicholas has not been obliged to relax the attack on Crawcow."' The Russian reason for evacuating Lodz is that it formed a salient. Lodz is on a branch railway that probably does not count, but tho adjacent main, railway (Warsaw-Czenstochovva) is a highway of importance. New engagements in the *at south (in Galicia, below Cracow), and" in the far north (in. tho Ml aw a district, between Warsaw and the East Prussian frontier), suggest a German double-en-veloping movement. All the fighting is ovqr old ground. The Novogeorgievsk fortress and the Narew River protect Warsaw on tho north. The operations appear to bo assuming a scale that will make the Lodz reverse of comparatively small account. Tho Servians — who, let us hope, are improving in the science of veracity — report that the Austrian invading army is retreating everywhere and abandoning guns. The Kaiser seems to be physically and mentally ill, and Berlin is not, nearly so confident as it was. The waters of tho Va-al appear to have closed over the traitorous head of Beyers.