Battle of the Falkland Islands

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The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a naval engagement between British ships and a German cruiser squadron in the first year of World War I, which ended in victory for the British.

After the British defeat at the Battle of Coronel, First Sea Lord Sir John Fisher sent the battlecruisers HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible south under Vice-Admiral Sir John Sturdee. In addition, the cruisers Cornwall, Kent, Bristol, and Caernarvon were ordered from their stations in the area to defend the Falkland Islands, where Fisher believed the Germans were going to strike next. The light cruiser HMS Glasgow, veteran of the Battle of Coronel, and the old battleship Canopus were already there.

Fisher had guessed right. After replenishing his ships off Chile, Admiral Graf von Spee rounded the Cape Horn early in December and came in sight of the Falklands on December 8. His squadron was comprised of the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisnau and the light cruisers Leipzig, Dresden, and Nurembug. Thinking the British facilities to be only lightly defended, the German ships attacked.

Sailing towards the islands, the ships came under fire from the Canopus. The British cruisers entered the area soon after, and von Spee reoriented his ships for a running battle, hoping to out-maneuver the opposing ships. Once von Spee had committed his forces, the battlecruisers emerged from a covering smoke screen. Von Spee realized he had fallen into a trap, and attempted to escape. The battlecruisers opened fire at 1255 hours. Realizing that escape was impossible, von Spee detached his light cruisers, which kept on racing south. The Scharnhorst and Gneisnau engaged the battlecruisers, but Sturdee had the edge in speed and gun range, and was able to conduct most of the battle outside the range of the German guns. Three hours after engaging, the Scharnhorst sank with all hands, including Admiral von Spee, and the Gneisnau sank an hour and a half later, leaving behind some 200 survivors out of a crew of over 750.

Meanwhile, the Kent, Cornwall, and Glasgow continued chasing the other German ships. The Kent’s crew pushed her engines to the limit, and caught up with the Nuremburg, sinking her at 1930 hours. The Cornwall and Glasgow came within range of the Leipzig at 2030 hours, and finally sank her at 2323. Only the Dresden escaped.

The battle resulted in the destruction of most of Germany’s remaining commerce raiders, and the rest were eliminated soon afterwards. On March 14, 1915 the Dresden would be caught off the coast of Chile and crippled by the Kent and the Glasgow, forcing her crew to scuttle her. After that, the German campaign against British trade was carried out exclusively by U-boats and auxiliary cruisers.

The battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible later saw action in the Battle of Jutland, the Invincible being lost in that engagement.

See also[edit]

• Falklands War

Sources[edit]

• The World’s Great Battleships, by Robert Jackson, Thunder Bay Press, 2000
• A History of War at Sea, by Helmut Pemsel, Naval Institute Press, 1975

Links[edit]

• Battle of the Falkland Islands
• Battles of Coronel and the Falklands -- A Pictorial Look