March 14, 1915

[Martin Antonenko]

The End of SMS "Dresden"...!


On December 8, 1914, the former German East Asia Squadron was under Vizeadmiral Reichsgraf Maximilian von Spee ...


... has been almost completely destroyed by far superior British naval forces near the Falkland Islands!



The large cruisers (armored cruisers) "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" were sunk with very high human losses, as were the small cruisers "Leipzig" and "Nürnberg"!



The small cruiser "Emden", previously detached by Admiral Spee for independent cruiser warfare, had already been destroyed on November 9, 1914 near the Cocos Islands in the Pacific by the Australian cruiser HMAS "Sydney".

Only one ship of the East Asia Squadron escaped destruction - the 130-meter-long small cruiser SMS "Dresden" ...:





The admiral had called "Dresden" to flee during the sea battle at the Falksland Islands, with their own destruction in view, by radio message: "To Dresden - if machinery is still intact try to escape."



The barely armored ship was a sister ship of the "Emden" and resembled her like one egg to another.





However, there was one major difference between the two ships and the one underwater:

"Emden" was powered by a conventional piston steam engine and two screws, and a completely new type of machine had been built into the "Dresden": a steam turbine that gave the ship a significantly higher speed of 26 knots with four screws!

And so it was "Dresden" under Fregattenkapitän Fritz Lüdecke ...



... managed to escape the carnage in the Falkland Islands.

The escape of the "Dresden" was favored by wrong tactical decisions of the British commander in the battle, Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Doventon Sturdee:



Sturdee had, among other things, the two brand new battle cruisers "Invincible" (blown up in the Skagerak Battle in 1916) ...



... and "Inflexible" (the next photo shows her rescuing German survivors near the Falkland Islands) ...



... under his command set down on the two German armored cruisers - either of the two could easily have overtaken the "Dresden" - the two giant ships were faster than 30 knots!

Vice Admiral Sturdee was therefore removed from his post after the battle and never got his independent command again!

**continued next post**

 

[Martin Antonenko]

Part II:

"Dresden" hides for weeks after the battle in the then hardly explored and mapped fjord landscape of the Chilean province of Magelanes north of Cape Horrn, where the British search ships cannot track them down.

We call this region "Tierra del Fuego" ...:



The Adjutant of the "Dresden", Oberleutnant zur See Wilhelm Canaris...



... the later head of the German "Abwehr" in the Second World War, proves his conspiratorial skills even then:

Together with the seal hunter Albert Pagels of German origin who lives there ...



... he builds a conspiratorial supply network for the cruiser - and the two even manage to bring in a German supply ship with coal for the machinery. During the escape, "Dresden" had to burn all the coal and then all the wood on board - including the wall paneling of the captain's cabin!

And Pagels, who knows the waters north of Cape Horn like the back of his hand, can repeatedly withdraw "Dresden" from being stalked by the British.

The cat and mouse game lasted two and a half months until "Dresden" had added provisions, water and fuel and was ready to sail again and could sail into the Pacific!

The machine system, which is quite dodgy due to the constant overuse, can only be repaired very poorly!

On March 9, 1915, "Dresden" dropped anchor in "Cumberland Bay" in the northeast of the Chilean island of Mas a Tierra, which is now called "Robinson Crusoe Island".



Here the bay from the bird's perspective - the Chilean cruiser "Esmeralda" is in the same place in the photo in 1915 as SMS "Dresden" before ...:



"Dresden", completely unsuitable for long-haul operations, is now at the end of the technical spectrum!

After 15 months in use, eight of them under wartime conditions, his high-performance machines are defective and can hardly be operated. 80 tons of coal are still stored in the coal bunkers, which is enough for a further ten hours of travel.

With this small supply, it would just be possible at anchor to keep the power supply and cooking going for 10 days.

500 meters from the anchorage of the "Dresden" is the small village of San Juan Bautista ...:



There, in what was then the only settlement on the island, about 20 fishermen live with their families who sell their catch to a lobster canning factory.

The port captain, member of the Chilean navy and local representative of the Republic of Chile, has - like frigate captain Lüdecke - no illusions:

This worn-out ship will no longer leave the territorial waters of the neutral state of Chile. Two days after the cruiser appeared, he declares - with Lüdecke's express consent - that the ship and crew are interned.

A peaceful ending?

Unfortunately, no!

On March 14, 1915, shortly after sunrise (8:00 a.m.), two British warships were sighted on the eastern headland of the bay:

The British light cruiser HMS "Glasgow" ...



... and the armed (six x 15.2 cm guns) auxiliary cruiser HMS "Orama" ...:



Only a few minutes later a third ship appears, the armored cruiser HMS "Kent", which is by far superior in artillery terms ...:



At 8.50 am the British cruisers opened fire over distances between 8,500 and 3,600 meters - target shooting ...:



The German cruiser has no steam on the boilers, cannot maneuver at anchor and so only use half of its already far inferior guns.

After a short time, "Dresden" is burning in the stern!



Die ungepanzerte Bordwand ist an vielen Stellen durchlöchert...:



At 9:00 am, Dresden sets the white parliamentary flag.

The English-speaking Oberleutnant Wilhelm Canaris travels with the steam pinnace of the cruiser to "Glasgow" and protests against the attack in neutral waters.

The response from Commander John Luce, who commands the British Association ...:



He had strictly order to sink "Dresden" wherever he met them and that was what he would do; the question of neutrality would later have to be settled between the British and Chilean governments.

When Canaris returns with his pinasse, the commander of "Dresden" has used the ceasefire and has already sent large parts of the crew ashore in dinghies.

Fireworks have meanwhile installed explosive charges in the front ammunition chamber.

While the British are still waiting for the order to fire, the explosive charges go up on "Dresden" at 11.15 am and "Dresden goes down with a waving flag and cheers to S.M. the emperor", as it says in the cruiser's saved logbook.





Eight men of the Dresden crew, including two officers, were killed by the British grenades and around 20 more or less seriously injured.

The British ship doctors have to take care of them, because the German ship doctor Dr. Cook...



... has been badly wounded in both arms.

After the British expired, the Chilean officers and crew were interned until the end of the war - although a few of the ship's officers, including Wilhelm Canaris, preferred to make the 18,000 kilometers home on their own and on adventurous routes around half the globe to continue to participate in the war ...

SMS "Dresden" is still lying on the ground in the same place today - only the ship's bell was recovered ...:

 

[Nap]

Hi Martin

Now that's a mass of information and great reference pics , war at sea must have been particularly bad

Thanks for sharing the story

Nap

 

[Airkid]

Good post Martin, and the usual comprehensive photo coverage. Many thanks. Naval warfare has always fascinated me. Nowadays of course, a 25,000 ton warship can be eliminated by a quarter-ton ASM in the blink of an eye.

Phil