Admiral von Spee's squadron leaves Pohnpei

On 6 August 1914 the German East Asia Squadron sailed from the island of Pohnpei, then known as Ponape, in the Caroline Islands. It was commanded by Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee. One of the most remarkable naval campaigns of the First World War was beginning.

A squadron at the end of the world

The squadron was normally based at Tsingtao in China. The outbreak of war found its main forces on a cruise around Germany’s Pacific colonies. At Pohnpei there were two armoured cruisers, the flagship Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and the light cruiser Nürnberg. They were among the best-trained ships of the German navy, but they were thousands of miles from home, without safe ports or coal supplies.

Spee first headed for the island of Pagan in the Marianas, where on 11 August he gathered his forces and supply ships. From there he detached the cruiser Emden, which set off on her famous independent raid across the Indian Ocean.

Across the Pacific

When Japan entered the war on the Allied side, remaining in the western Pacific became too dangerous. Spee decided to cross the whole ocean towards the coast of South America, where he could count on coal from neutral ports. On 22 September his ships shelled Papeete on French Tahiti. In October, off Easter Island, he was joined by the light cruisers Dresden and Leipzig, on 12 and 14 October.

Coronel and the Falklands

On 1 November 1914, off the coast of Chile, the squadron destroyed Admiral Cradock’s British force at the Battle of Coronel. It was the Royal Navy’s first defeat in a naval battle in more than a hundred years. The victory proved short-lived, however. On 8 December, while attempting to attack the British base in the Falklands, the squadron ran into battlecruisers sent from Britain. In the Battle of the Falkland Islands most of the German ships were sunk. Admiral von Spee was killed, as were both his sons, who were serving in the squadron.