Battle of Coronel

The German squadron leaving Valparaiso on 3 November 1914 after the battle, SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the lead, and SMS Nürnberg following. In the middle distance are the Chilean cruisers Esmeralda, O'Higgins and Blanco Encalada, and old battleship Capitán Prat.

Date	1 November 1914
Location	Pacific Ocean off Coronel, Chile
Result	German victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

German Empire

Commanders and leaders

Sir Christopher Cradock †

John Luce

Graf Maximilian von Spee

Strength

2 armoured cruisers
1 light cruiser
1 auxiliary cruiser

2 armoured cruisers
3 light cruisers

Casualties and losses

1,570 men killed
2 armoured cruisers lost

3 wounded

The Battle of Coronel was a First World War Imperial German Naval victory over the Royal Navy on 1 November 1914, off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. The East Asia Squadron (Ostasiengeschwader or Kreuzergeschwader) of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated the British West Indies Squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock.

The engagement probably took place as a result of misunderstandings. Neither admiral expected to meet the other in full force. Once the two met, Cradock understood his orders were to fight to the end, despite the odds heavily against him. Although Spee had an easy victory, destroying two enemy armoured cruisers for just three men injured, the engagement also cost him almost half his supply of ammunition, which was irreplaceable. Shock at the British losses led the Admiralty to send more ships including two modern battlecruisers, which in turn destroyed Spee and the majority of his squadron on 8 December at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

The Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, with assistance from other Allied naval and land forces in the Far East, had captured the German colonies of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, Yap, Nauru and Samoa early in the war, instead of searching for the German East Asiatic Squadron (Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee), which had abandoned its base at the German concession at Tsingtao in China, in the expectation of war with Japan. The East Asiatic Squadron rendezvoused at Pagan Island in the Marianas (early August 1914) and Japan entered the war against Germany on 23 August 1914. Spee intended to establish a temporary domination of the Pacific, paralysing commerce. Eventually, recognising the German squadron's potential for commerce raiding in the Pacific, the British Admiralty decided to destroy the squadron and searched the western Pacific Ocean after the East Asiatic Squadron had conducted the Bombardment of Papeete (22 September 1914), where a French steamer reported its presence.

...
Wikipedia