World war 1
The Battle of Cocos
The naval Battle of Cocos took place on 9 November 1914 during World War I off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, in the north east Indian Ocean.
The German light cruiser SMS Emden attacked the British telegraph relay station on Direction Island and was engaged several hours later by HMAS Sydney, an Australian light cruiser. The battle was the first ship-against-ship engagement for the Royal Australian Navy.
[edit] Background
| [hide] The Command of the Oceans, 1914-1918 |
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| Penang – Coronel – Cocos – Falkland Islands - Königsberg |
Emden was launched in 1908, and became the Kaiserliche Marine's representative at the German colony of Tsingtao, in China, and was part of the German East Asia Squadron. After war broke out on August 4, 1914, the squadron was ordered to avoid the superior Allied naval forces in the Pacific, and it headed for Germany, by way of Cape Horn. The sole exception was the Emden, under Korvettenkapitän (Lt Commander) Karl von Müller, which headed towards the Indian Ocean, with the objective of raiding Allied shipping. Müller frequently made use of a fake fourth smokestack, which — when the ship flew the Royal Navy ensign — made it resemble the British cruiser HMS Yarmouth and similar vessels.
Within three months, Emden had sunk 30 Allied merchant vessels and warships. It had also shelled and damaged British oil tanks at Madras, in India. A collier named Buresk, was captured with its cargo intact, and was re-crewed with German seamen to accompany the Emden as a supply vessel. Other victims of the Emden included an obsolescent Russian cruiser and a French destroyer off Malaya, at the Battle of Penang, on 28 October. By the end of October, no less than 60 Allied warships were looking for the Emden.
Coincidentally, on 1 November, a convoy carrying the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) to Egypt, left Albany, Western Australia. The escort was four cruisers: the Australian Sydney and HMAS Melbourne, the British HMS Minotaur and the Imperial Japanese Navy's Ibuki.
[edit] The action
The radio and telegraph station at Direction Island was a critical component of Allied communication in and across the Indian Ocean. Müller decided to destroy the station's radio tower and equipment.
When Emden reached the island at 6am on 9 November, the Eastern Telegraph Company staff quickly realised they were under attack and sent a message saying "Strange ship in entrance" and "SOS, Emden here". A German shore party of 50 seamen with small arms, under Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke was quickly landed. The civilian staff on the island offered no resistance, and Mücke even agreed to take care that the 54 metre (176 ft) tall radio tower did not fall into the island's tennis court, when its base was blown up. Emden signalled the Buresk to join it.
The ANZAC convoy happened to be only 50 miles (80 km) away and it was decided to detach a vessel in response to the SOS signals. Despite intense lobbying from the commander of Ibuki, the Sydney was despatched at 7am. The RAN ship was a state-of-the-art Town class light cruiser, commissioned in 1913 and commanded by Captain John Glossop, an RN officer.
When lookouts on Emden spotted Sydney approaching, Müller had no choice but to raise anchor and engage the Australian cruiser, leaving Mücke and his landing party on Direction Island.
Sydney was larger, faster and better armed — 6 inch (152mm) guns — than Emden, which had 104mm (4.1 inch) guns. However, the German gunners fired first at 9.40am from 10km away and scored hits soon afterwards, knocking out Sydney's rangefinder and one gun. After that, Glossop used his speed and the superior range of his guns to stay out of reach of the German guns and avoided further damage and casualties. Meanwhile, his own gunners gradually found their marks, inflicting sustained and increasingly accurate fire on Emden.
By 10.20am the Germans had lost their steering, electrics and radio. Nevertheless, the battle went on for almost another hour. After taking extremely heavy damage from almost 100 hits, and suffering dozens of casualties, Müller decided to beach Emden on North Keeling Island to avoid sinking at 11.15am. Sydney then pursued Buresk, which was scuttled to avoid re-capture. Müller had neglected to strike his colours after beaching and when Sydney returned, Glossop signalled Emden to surrender. As no reply was received, he ordered his gunners to resume firing, after which a white flag was run up.
The survivors from Emden were then captured and Emden was destroyed. Emden's crew suffered 131 killed and 65 wounded, from a total complement of 360. Sydney had three killed and eight wounded. Glossop later said that he "felt like a murderer" for ordering the last salvoes at the helpless ship, but had no choice under the circumstances.
In the meantime, Mücke and his men had seized the 123-ton three-masted schooner Ayesha and some supplies and made for Padang on Sumatra, in the neutral territory of the Dutch East Indies, where they rendezvoused with a German merchant vessel on 13 December. Mücke's party made their way to Turkey by way of the Red Sea, arriving on 5 May 1915. From there they travelled overland, eventually reaching Germany.
Yes i did Copy and paste just to save time.
The Battle of Jutland (known as the Battle of Skagerrak in Germany), fought between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet in 1916, was the largest surface naval battle of the metal ship era, the only major fleet action of World War 1, and the last major fleet action that the participants will ever fight. It also played a key role in the demise of the reputation of battlecruiser, saw the first use of a carrier based aircraft in battle and is one of the most controversial naval actions in the Royal Navy's long history.
The Royal Navy started the war with a numerical advantage in capital ships over the Germans. The Germans realised that they were likely to lose a full fleet battle and so determined to even the odds by luring smaller parts of the Grand Fleet into traps to eventually bring about equality with the British, at which point they felt confident they would defeat them.
In the spring of 1916 the U-Boat offensive against merchant shipping was restricted to prize rules, giving Scheer, the German C-in-C, more submarines than usual to use against warships. He decided to station them off the major British naval basses and then entice the Grand Fleet out of harbour and over the waiting U-Boats.
Initially Scheer planned to raid Sunderland to draw out the Grand Fleet, but this relied on Zeppelin scouting and the weather ruled this out, so an alternative plan was used. He planed to send the battlecruisers, under by Hipper, to the Skagerrak (the sea between southern Norway and Denmark), threatening British patrols and merchant ships in the area. On the morning of 31 May the High Seas Fleet made for sea.
| SMS Westfalen leads a line of German battleships in 1915. She was part of the Nassau class, all four of which were at Jutland. Germanys first Dreadnoughts, like the ships which followed them, had less firepower but greater protection than their British equivalents. Westfalen led the German van during the night sinking four destroyers. |  |
The British had by the morning of 30 May received indications that the Germans were assembling, this along with increased U-Boat activity and a decoded (but not interpreted) operational signal led the British to suppose that the High Seas Fleet was going to put to sea. By 10.30 PM on 30 May the Grand Fleet was at sea, two and a half hours before the Germans.
Of the ten U-Boats off British bases only U66 and U32 sighted British ships, U32 reporting two battleships, two cruisers and several destroyers and U66 reporting eight battleships, light cruisers and destroyers. Only U32 launches an attack with no success. The Germans did not interpret this as the whole Grand Fleet being at sea.
On the morning of 31 May Jellicoe, the British C-in-C, received incorrect intelligence from the Admiralty that the German Flagship was still in port, resulting in him to deduce that the German operation would be a cruiser sweep with the High Seas Fleet only providing distant cover. When he found this later to be incorrect it shook his confidence in the intelligence provided, with important consequences for the outcome of the battle.
On the afternoon of 31 May the British battlecruisers, under Beatty, were on a course that at 4.30 PM would take them 20 miles ahead of the German Battlefleet and 40 miles astern of their battlecruisers. Fortunately, for Beatty, the Danish steamer N.J.Fjord was steaming between the cruiser screens of both battlecruiser fleets. At 2.00 PM the Elbing sighted her and sent B109 and B110 to investigate. Galatea and Phaeton also went to investigate. At 3.20 PM Galatea signalled "Enemy in sight" and eight minutes later the British light cruisers opened fire.
Beatty turned his battlecruisers south-south-east to engage the enemy. Unfortunately for the British, owing to a mixture of bad initial positioning, sloppy signalling, lack of initiative and bad luck the powerful 5th Battle Squadron turned in the other direction and carried on for nearly ten minutes increasing the range from the enemy and depriving Beatty of the most powerful squadron in the world during the early part of the Battle of Jutland.
On November 11 1914 the battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible under Admiral Sturdee left for the Falkland Islands. HMS Princess Royal was dispatched to the Caribbean to guard the Panama Canal. The shock of the defeat at Coronel had made the Royal Navy take decisive action to destroy Spee and the battlecruisers were the chosen means for retribution.
After his victory Spee coaled and then loitered in the Pacific whilst he decided what to do next, little did he realise that this indecision would prove fatal. Eventually he decided to enter the Atlantic and try to make it home. The squadron had passed Cape Horn by December 1 and on the following day they captured the Drummuir carrying coal. They then rested for three days at Pictou Island. Spee wanted to raid the Falkland Islands but his captains were opposed to the idea, however in the end Spee decided to go ahead anyway, another decision he was to regret.
HMS Canopus was now beached at Port Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, as guard ship. On December 7 Sturdee arrived, bringing the British warships at Port Stanley to the pre-dreadnought Canopus, the battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible, the armoured cruisers Kent, Carnarvon and Cornwall, the light cruisers Bristol and Glasgow and the armed merchant cruiser Macedonia.
On the morning of December 8 1914 Gneisenau and Nürnberg were detached from the main squadron, which followed about fifteen miles behind, to attack the wireless station and port facilities at Port Stanley. At 0830 they sighted the wireless mast and smoke from Macedonia returning from patrol.
They didn't know that at 0750 they had been sighted by a hill top spotter which signalled Canopus which then signalled Invincible, flagship, via Glasgow. The British ships were still coaling and most ships, including the battlecruisers, would take a couple of hours to get up steam. If the Germans attacked the British ships would be stationary targets and any ship which tried to leave harbour would face the concentrated fire of the full German squadron, if they were sunk whilst leaving harbour the rest of the squadron would be trapped in port. Sturdee kept calm, ordered steam to be raised and then went and had breakfast!
0900 the Germans made out the tripod masts of capital ships. They were unsure of what theses ships were but they knew Canopus was in the area and they hoped that these were pre-dreadnoughts, which they could easily outrun.
Canopus was beached out of site of the German ships, behind hills but had set up a system for targeting using land based spotters. At 13,000 yards her forward turret fired but was well short, the massive shell splashes astonished the German ships who could see no enemy warships. The rear turret then fired using practice rounds which were already loaded for an expected practice shoot later. The blank shells ricocheted off the sea, one of them hitting the rearmost funnel of Gneisenau. The two German ships turned away. Canopus didn't fire again but she saved the British from a perilous situation.
| HMS Canopus. It is doubtful if her presence at Coronel would have saved the British from defeat but at the Falklands she fired the first shots of the battle and saved the British from a dire situation. |  |
By 0945 Bristol had left harbour, followed 15 minutes later by Invincible, Inflexible, Kent, Carnarvon and Cornwall, Bristol and Macedonia stayed behind. The German squadron had a 15-20 mile lead but with over eight hours of daylight left and fine weather the battlecruisers would be in action in a couple of hours.
The German lookouts could now tell that the tripod masts belonged to battlecruisers which at c25 knots were considerably faster than the 20 knots the in need of refit German ships could manage. Spee set course to the South East in the hope of finding bad weather.
At first the British squadron stayed together but the battlecruisers were being slowed down by the other ships and so pulled ahead on their own.
At 1247 at 16,500 yards the battlecruisers opened fire, with little accuracy, taking half an hour to straddle the rear ship, Leipzig. Spee realised he was caught and turned his armoured cruisers to slow the British whilst ordering his light cruisers to try and escape. Sturdee had made contingency plans for this and Invincible, Inflexible and the trailing Carnarvon engaged the armoured cruisers whilst the rest of the force set off after the light cruisers.
The battlecruisers turned onto a parallel course to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at 14,000 yards. The Germans had the advantage of being in the lee position of the wind, the British gunnery was badly affected by their own smoke. The German shooting was excellent but at this long range their shells did little damage to the battlecruisers. The British also scored a few hits which did more damage but they were unaware of this as the visibility prevented them from seeing these.
In an attempt to gain the lee (smoke free) position Sturdee made a sharp turn to starboard towards Spee's stern. Whilst performing this turn the British were shrouded in their own smoke and Spee took this opportunity to turn south, pulling out of firing range. It took the British another 45 minute stern chase before they could resume firing.
At 1450 the battlecruisers turned to port to bring their broadsides to bear. Spee decided that his only chance was to close the range and use his superior secondary armament but his change of course made the smoke much less of a problem for the British. Their firing became much more accurate and both German ships, but especially Scharnhorst suffered severe damage and casualties. By had received over fifty hits, three funnels were down, she was on fire and listing. The range kept falling and at 1604 Scharnhorst listed suddenly to port and by 1617 she had disappeared. As Gneisenau was still firing no rescue attempts were possible and her entire crew including Spee were lost. Invincible had received 22 hits, over half 8.2 inch, but these caused no serious damage and only one crew member was injured.
Gneisenau kept on alone, zigzagging to the south west. At 1715 she scored her last hit on Invincible before her ammunition ran out. The British stopped firing soon afterwards and the burning German ship ground to a halt, her crew opening the sea-cocks and abandoning ship, 190 crew from a total of 765 were rescued but many of these died from their wounds. Inflexible was only hit 3 times and had 1 killed and 3 injured.
 | Inflexible stopped to pick up survivors from Gneisenau. There were few survivors from the German squadron as the German ships took a lot of damage before sinking, resulting in heavy onboard casualties. Warship lifeboats were often landed in times as war so that they wouldn't be turned into dangerous splinters when hit, as any that were left onboard usually were if a ship was sunk. The British stopped to pick up survivors where possible but in battle it was often not possible. |
Whilst the big ships were fighting the smaller cruisers were having their own battles. The German light cruisers were in the order Dresden leading followed by Nürnberg and Leipzig whilst the British were led by Glasgow with Cornwall and Kent trying to keep up with her.
At 1445 Glasgow opened fire on Leipzig, Leipzig turning to port to reply, scoring two early ships whilst Glasgow's fell short. Glasgow had to turn away, allowing Leipzig to resume her earlier course. The other German ships had not turned to help Leipzig but had carried on their escape attempt.
Glasgow fired on Leipzig again, but this time the other German cruisers changed course, Dresden to the South West and Nürnberg to the South East. Glasgow's ploy of forcing Leipzig to turn and fire succeeded in slowing her so that at 1617 Cornwall had her in range, Kent setting off after Nürnberg.
Leipzig's firing was good but she didn't hit Glasgow and her shells didn't do much damage to Cornwall. By 1900 Leipzig's mainmast and two funnels were down and she was on fire. When her ammunition was exhausted she made an unsuccessful torpedo attack on Cornwall and then her crew prepared to abandon ship.
Glasgow closed the range to finish her off as her flag was still flying, stopping when two green flares were fired by the crippled German cruiser. At 2120 she rolled over and sank leaving eighteen survivors.
Cornwall had received eighteen hits but no casualties. Glasgow had received no damage after the two early hits which killed one and four wounded. Her boilers were damaged which reduced her speed enough for there to be no chance of catching Dresden which escaped.
Nürnberg had a 10 mile led on Kent and was, on paper, faster, but Nürnberg needed an engine overhaul and Kent's crew worked so hard that the old cruiser exceeded her designed horsepower, reaching 25 knots, being forced to burn all available wood on board and causing the whole ship to vibrate violently.
By 1700 the range was down to 12,000 yards and Nürnberg opened fire with the by now expected superb accuracy. When Kent returned fire ten minutes later her shells fell short. Once the range had fallen to 7,000 yards both sides started to score regular hits and Nürnberg gave up her escape attempt and turned to bring her broadside to action.
By 1730 the range was down to 3,000 yards and Kent's heavier shells and thicker armour gave her the upper hand. An hour later, just as bad weather arrived which may have saved her, two of Nürnberg's boilers exploded, reducing her speed. Kent was now able to easily outmanoeuvre her opponent and within half an hour Nürnberg was dead in the water, at 1926 she rolled over to starboard and sank with only twelve survivors.
Kent had received thirty eight hits but only sixteen casualties.
Whilst these battles had gone on Bristol and Macedonia had sunk Spee's colliers Baden and Santa Isabel, the other collier, Seydlitz escaped, eventually being interned in Argentina.
| Damage to Kent seen after the battle. Despite receiving many hits the British squadron had light casualties and little damage, the shells of the German cruisers were not powerful enough to do serious damage to their larger British opponents. The German navy continued arming it's light cruisers with 4.1 inch guns well after the British had switched to larger 6 inch weapons. Although the German guns were excellent, often having longer range than the British 6 inch guns, in the end the greater hitting power of the 6 inch gun persuaded them to switch, throughout the various battles of Spee, Emden, Königsberg and Karlsruhe the most heavily armed warship won all of the battles. |  |
Sturdee searched for the Dresden before returning to the UK with the battlecruisers. There was some criticism (mainly from the 1st Sea Lord Fisher) of him for letting Dresden escape and for the heavy ammunition expenditure of his battlecruisers (Invincible 513 12 inch rounds, Inflexible 661 12 inch rounds fired) but generally his clear victory was welcomed. He had destroyed Spee's squadron without any serious damage to any of his ships and their shooting (c.6.5%) was considerably better than was managed by British (and German) battlecruisers at Dogger Bank and Jutland.
The hunt for the Dresden took months as she made her way into the Pacific pursued by British cruisers. They eventually caught up with her at Mas a Tierra on March 13 by Glasgow, Kent and the armed merchant cruiser Orama. Glasgow had escaped from Dresden at Coronel, Dresden evaded Glasgow at the Falklands but it was Glasgow and Captain Luce who were to be final victors.
Glasgow infringed Chilean neutrality by opening fire on Dresden whilst she was anchored in Chilean waters. After five minutes Dresden was heavily hit and surrendered. Whilst surrender talks were going on the Germans abandoned ship and scuttling charges detonated her magazine, ending the last of Spee's squadron. Dresden suffered eight killed and sixteen wounded.
WORLD WAR 1 HISTORY
The rise of nationalism. Europe avoided major wars in the 100 years before World War 1 began. In the 1800's, a force swept across the continent that helped bring about the Great War. The force was nationalism - the belief that loyalty to a person's nation and its political and economic goals comes before any other public loyalty. During the 1800's nationalism took hold among people who shared a common language, history, or culture. Such people began to view themselves as members a national group or nation. Nationalism led to the creation of two new powers - Italy and Germany - through the uniting of many small states. War had a major role in achieving nation unification in Italy and Germany. On the other hand, nationalism weakened the eastern European empires of Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Ottoman Turkey. Those empires ruled many national groups that clamored for independence. The Balkan Peninsula or the "Powder Keg of Europe" caused tensions and therefore threatened to ignite a major war. Rivalry for control of the Balkans added to the tensions that erupted into World War 1.
it. Advances in technology helped aid in making military forces stronger. Machine guns and other new arms fired more accurately and more rapidly than earlier weapons. By the end of the 1800's, technology enabled countries to fight longer and bear greater losses that ever before. 
The Archduke's assassination triggered the outbreak of World War 1. On July 28 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Because of Austria-Hungary's alliance with Germany, Serbia sought help from Russia. In 1914 Russia vowed to stand behind Serbia, but first Russia gained support from France. Germany declared war on Russia on Aug. 1, 1914, in response to Russia’s mobilization. Two days later Germany declared war on France. The German Army swept into Belgium on its way to France. The invasion of Belgium caused Britain to declare war on Germany on Aug. 4. Germanys plan for a quick defeat of France while Russia slowly mobilized was called the Schlieffen Plan. This plan called for two wings of the German army to crush the French army in a pincers movement. A small left wing would defend Germany along its frontier with France. A much larger right wing would invade France through Belgium; encircle and capture Paris; and them move east. Belgium’s army fought bravely but held up the Germans for only a short time. By Aug 16,1914, the right wing of Germany could begin its pincers motion. It drove back French and British forces in southern Belgium and swept info France. But instead of swinging west around Paris, one part of the right wing pursued retreating French troops toward the Marne River. This maneuver left the Germans exposed to attacks form the rear. 
enough for two men to pass. Dugouts in the sides of the trenches protected men during enemy fire. Barbed wire helped protect the firing trench from surprise attacks. Between the enemy lines lay a stretch of ground called "no man's land." Soldiers generally served at the front line from a few days to a week and then rotated to the rear for a rest. The smell of dead bodies lingered in the air, and rats were a constant problem. This combination made life in the trenches miserable. Soldiers had trouble keeping dry, especially in areas of Belgium. Except during an attack, life fell into a dull routine. Some soldiers stood guard. Others repaired the trenches, kept telephone lines in order, brought food from behind the battle lines, or did other jobs. At night, patrols fixed the barbed wire and tried to get information about the enemy. Both the Allies and the Central Powers developed new weapons, which they hoped would break the deadlock. In April 1915, the Germans first released poison gas over Allied lines in the Second Battle of Ypres. The fumes caused vomiting and suffocation. After the introduction of the poison, gas masks were used. Another new weapon was the flamethrower, which shot out a stream of burning fuel. 
of French forces in December 1916. Nivelle planned a major offensive near the Aisne River and predicted he would smash through the German line within two days. Germany's pullback to the Siegfried Line did not shake Nivelle's confidence. Nivelle's offensive opened on April 16,1917. By the end of the day, it was clear that the assault had failed, but the fighting continued into May. Petain replaced Nivelle in May 1917. Petain improved soldier's living conditions and restored order. He promised France would be on the defensive until it was ready to fight again. Meanwhile, it was up to the British to hold back any further offensives on the Western Front. General Haig was hopeful that a British offensive near Ypres would lead to victory. The third battle of Ypres began on July 31, 1917. For three months, British and French troops pounded the Germans in an especially terrible campaign. Heavy Allied bombardment before the infantry attacked began had destroyed the drainage system around Ypres. Drenching rains then turned the waterlogged land into a swamp were thousands of British soldiers drowned. Snow and ice finally halted the disastrous battle on November 10. In late November, Britain used tanks to bread through the Siegfried Line. But the failure at Ypres had used up the troops Britain needed to follow up that success. In 1917, first France and then Britain saw their hopes of victory shattered. Austria-Hungary drove the Italians out of its territory in the Battle of Caporetto in the fall and revolution in Russia made the Allied situation seem even more hopeless. 
soldiers helped France stop the German advance at the town of Chateau-Thierry, less than 50 miles northeast of Paris. During June, US troops drove the Germans out of Belleau Wood, a forested area near the Marne. On July 15 German troops crossed the Marne. On July 18 Foch ordered a counterattack near the town of Soissons. The turning point in World War 1 was the Second Battle of Marne. This battle was fought from July 15 through August 6, 1918. After winning the battle, the Allies advanced steadily. On August 8, Britain and France attacked the Germans near Amiens. By early September, Germany had lost all the territory it had gained since spring. In mid-September, Pershing led US forces to an easy victory at St.-Mihiel. The last offensive of World War 1 began on September 26, 1918. Almost 900000 US troops participated in heavy fighting between the Argonne Forrest and the Meuse River. Ludendorff realized that Germany could no longer overcome the superior strength of the Allies.