The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a naval battle fought off the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914 during World War I. The battle saw the destruction of the German East Asia Squadron and the death of its commander, Graf Maximilian von Spee, avenging Britain's recent defeat at the Battle of Coronel
Background[]
Desperate for vengeance following the Battle of Coronel in November 1914, the British Admiralty responded by sending the battlecruisers HMS Invincible and Inflexible, commanded by Vice Admiral Frederick Sturdee, to join the hunt for Graf Spee. Gathering up the five gruisers of the South Atlantic Squadron along the way, Sturdee steamed to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where he stopped to take on coal. Meanwhile, Spee had rounded Cape Horn into the South Atlantic. He headed for the Falklands, intending to raid its wireless station and coal stocks.
Battle[]
On 8 December, Spee's landing ships approached Port Stanley and, to their surprise, were fired upon. Realizing the harbor was full of unidentified warships, Spee fled out to sea. The encounter was as much a surprise to the British as the Germans, but once Sturdee reached the sea the outcome was never in doubt. The British battlecruisers were faster than the German ships and had superior guns and armor. The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau fought a gallant delaying action, attempting to cover the escape of the light cruisers, but both were sunk. The Scharnhorst went down with all hands, including Spee. Some 200 crew were rescued from the Gneisenau. Only one German ship, the Dresden, escaped the British pursuit. The Battle of the Falklands was a powerful assertion of the Royal Navy's dominance, and ended any serious threat to Allied merchant shipping from German surface vessels for the duration of the war.
Aftermath[]
In the course of 1915, scattered German surface raiders were put out of action, while submarines took over the role of attacking merchant shipping. The light cruiser Dresden, which had escaped destruction at the Battle of the Falklands, remained at sea until March 1915, when it was captured by British ships at an island off the Chilean coast. In April 1915, the SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, an ocean liner converted into an auxiliary cruiser at the outbreak of war, sought refuge in the neutral United States after running short of coal and other supplies. Meanwhile, German submarines around the British Isles and in the Mediterranean proved more effective than surface raiders in threatening seaborne trade.