VON SPEE’S ODYSSEY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4043, 4 May 1938, Page 9

VON SPEE’S ODYSSEY

THE BATTLE OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. The question as to whether the dreadnought battle cruisers Invincible and Inflexible were detached from the Grand Fleet in the North Sea, or from the Mediterranean, to take the principal part in the naval execution of von Spee’s squadron at the Falk- j land Islands, on December 8, 1914. i that has been occasioning some com- . ment and argument, is easily settled : by a reference to Winston Churchill’s ! brilliant history of the Great War. J entitled “ The World Crisis,” volume 1, pages 427-428. Churchill states, in- I ter alia:— But I found Lord Fisher in a bolder : mood. He would take two battle [ cruisers from the Grand Fleet . . . . The question was, What could be ; spared? We measured up our i strength in home waters anxiously, i observing that the Tiger was about to join the first battle-cruiser squadron; that the new battleships, Benbow, Emperor of India, and Queen Elizabeth, were practically ready. We sent forthwith the following order to the Commander in Chief (Admiral Sir John Jellicoe) : “November 4, 1914, 12.40 p.m. “Order Invincible and Inflexible to fill up with coal at once and proceed to Berehaven with all despatch. They are urgently needed for foreign service.” Churchill added that Sir John Jellicoe rose to the occasion, and parted i with his two battle-cruisers without a j word. Fisher, however, in his memories, | those exquisitely written fragments of his wonderful and turbulent life, declared that Jellicoe was not in favour of the project to weaken his fleet, thus adding another confirmation to the legend that this great theoretical naval strategist, the only man who could have lost the war at one stroke —was inclined to be over-cautious. I It may be noted that' the Inflexible ■ was in the Mediterranean, as the flag- ' ship of the commander-in-chief, Sir i Berkeley Milne, on August 4, when the Goeben and Breslau slipped away to I

the Dardanelles. The Defence was also there, but later was detached to join Stoddart’s squadron at Monte Video and finally formed one of Sturdee’s fleet, proceeding to Falkland Islands. The Odyssey of von Spee makes interesting reading, as there can hardly be a doubt that the gallant admiral’s nightmare which forced him from the Western Pacific to the west coast of South America was his fear of the battle-cruiser, Australia (sister ship to the Invincible) and her two submaI rines. I Von Spee left Tsingtau (China) on ! the last week in June, about the same time that the Archduke Franz Ferdi- ! nand was murdered at Sarajevo. Von I Spee was reported on August 7 to be I near the Solomon Islands, and coaling at the Caroline Islands on August 9. Then he vanished in the broad ocean for five weeks, when he appeared off • Samoa on September 14, fifteen days ! after the place had been captured by ■ the New Zealanders. A week later, still travelling eastward, he shelled Papeete and sank the French gunboat Zele. Then, leaving on a northerly course, he again vanished, until October 4, when wireless signals from the Scliarnhorst were picked up at Wellington, New Zealand, and also at Suva. It appeared : from signals that von Spec was steaming for South America. On November 1, the master of a Chilean vessel, reported that he had been stopped by the Nurnberg, live miles off Cape Carranza, and that the Leipzig was at a location eighteen days south, out from Galapagos, on i the west coast of South America. j Then came the battle of Coronel, fought on Sunday, November 1, when I the Good Hope and Monmouth were destroyed with all hands, Craddock, the British admiral, preferring battle to flight, which he easily could have done. After the battle, von Spee paid a call at Valparaiso, whore he s’ayed a few days, and then he'again vanished, | probably for coaling purposes, after I which he steamed slowly down the • coast round Capo Horn, and on De- ! cembor 8, he arrived at the Falkland i Islands, to suffer annihilation at the hands of Admiral Sturdee. 1 His Odyssey was finished.