Nick Hewitt - The Kaisers Pirates: Hunting Germanys Raiding Cruisers in World War I

Dedication

To Commander Richard Townsend
HMS Invincible
Born 25 July 1879
Killed in Action 31 May 1916

Copyright 2013 by Nick Hewitt

First North American Edition by Skyhorse Publishing 2014

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First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Pen & Sword Maritime, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Jacket design by Jon Wilkinson

Front cover photos: HMS Glasgow, veteran of Coronel, the Falklands, and the Dresden action (IWM HU110871).

Back cover photo: The German heavy cruiser Scharnhorst after the battle at Coronel in Valparaiso (IWM HU110859).

Print ISBN: 978-1-62914-684-3

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-012-9

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

List of Maps

List of Plates

Goeben and Breslau at anchor near Constantinople, 1914.

Vizeadmiral Maximilian Graf von Spee, commanding officer of Germanys Kreuzergeschwader Ostasien.

Korvettenkapitn Karl Friedrich Max von Mller, SMS Emden .

Fregattenkapitn Max Looff, SMS Knigsberg .

Fregattenkapitn Erich Khler, SMS Karlsruhe .

Fregattenkapitn Fritz Ldecke, SMS Dresden .

Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Kit Cradock.

Commander Richard Denny Townsend, HMS Invincible .

The dapper, determined Captain Sidney Drury-Lowe of HMS Chatham .

Dogged, resourceful and inspiring: Captain John Allen of HMS Kent .

Konteradmiral Wilhelm Souchon, with Colonel Holland, the British Chief of Staff of the Turkish Naval College in Istanbul, Kemal Pasha, the Turkish Navy Minister, and Turkish officers, 1910.

Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Doveton Sturdee and his staff take a relaxed stroll on East Falkland, 7 December 1914.

SMS Karlsruhe in 1914.

Raider at work. Photographed from Kabinga , her first rubbish dump, Emden approaches the collier Killin , 12 September 1914.

Shocked, half-naked Zhemchug survivors help a badly wounded comrade on the waterfront at Penang, 28 October 1914.

An Eastern Telegraph Company employee and members of von Mckes landing party watch Emden s last battle from the roof of the cable relay station, 9 November 1914.

Emden after the battle.

HMS Glasgow , veteran of Coronel, the Falklands, and the Dresden action. Gloucester , Bristol , Chatham and other Town Class light cruisers were similar ships.

Captain John Luce and his officers aboard HMS Glasgow .

Glasgow sights the Kreuzergeschwader , 1 November 1914.

Officers of HMS Good Hope at Port Stanley, October 1914.

Barely visible in the centre of the crowd, von Spee arrives in Valparaiso, 2 November 1914.

The massive armoured bulk of Scharnhorst , taking on coal and supplies at Valparaiso after Coronel. Gneisenau was an identical ship.

Scharnhorst , Gneisenau , and Nrnberg leave Valparaiso after Coronel, November 1914. The Chilean warships are the cruisers Esmeralda , OHiggins and Blanco Encalda and the battleship Capitan Prat.

HMS Invincible in pursuit of the Kreuzergeschwader , photographed from Carnarvon, 8 December 1914.

Curious crowds gather on Invincible s upper deck at the end of the battlecruiser action, 8 December 1914.

Inflexible sends out her cutters to rescue Gneisenau s survivors, photographed by Arthur Duckworth, 8 December 1914.

The sinister hole next to HMS Kent s starboard 6-inch casemate which nearly spelled disaster.

Royal Marine Sergeant Charles Mayes, who turned a hose on burning charges and probably saved his ship, on Kent s battered upper deck after the battle. He was later awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

HMS Kent s crew get stuck in with their shovels. Note the filthy decks, littered with coal dust and sacks, and the mens tatty coaling rig.

Breaking up HMS Kent s decks for fuel during the pursuit of Dresden , 8 March 1915.

White flags fluttering at her foremast, Dresden lies anchored in Cumberland Bay under the towering peak of El Yunque, Isla Ms a Tierra.

Nearly a hundred years later: an unexploded British 6-inch shell embedded in the cliff face at Ms a Tierra.

Dresden after the so-called Battle of Ms a Tierra, almost deserted with smoke rising from her decks, photographed from the boat carrying across Lieutenant Commander Wilfred Thompson and Surgeon Robert Gilmour.

Oberleutnant zur See Wilhelm Canaris clambers from Dresden s steam pinnace to negotiate in vain with the implacable Captain John Luce.

Tirpitz the Pig and an admirer.

HMS Carmania s wrecked bridge after the action with Cap Trafalgar .

Kronprinz Wilhelm after her epic cruise, her sides filthy and dented from ramming prizes and repeated coaling at sea.

SMS Knigsberg navigates the Suez Canal on her way out to East Africa, June 1914.

The remains of HMS Pegasus .

German trenches along the Rufiji, May 1915.

From 700 feet, Flight Lieutenant John Cull captures Knigsberg in her lair, awnings spread and smoke rising from her after funnel, 25 April 1915.

HMS Severn illustrates her low freeboard and poor seakeeping qualities alongside HMS Trent, July 1915.

End of the last pirate: Knigsberg rests on the Rufiji river bed, riddled with splinter holes, her middle funnel lying on her deck. In the foreground is the mass grave, inscribed Here lie the fallen of SMS Knigsberg II.VII.15.

Preface

My first book, Coastal Convoys 19391945: The Indestructible Highway , came about as a result of that thrilling moment for any historian: the discovery of a subject which, if not entirely unexplored, had at least rarely been the subject of recent literary attention. In following Germanys raiding cruisers, and those who hunted them across the worlds oceans during the first year of what used to be called the Great War, I chose a different and to an extent well-trodden path. It is, however, one which has fascinated me for years, ever since my parents slipped a copy of Dan van der Vats The Last Corsair under the Christmas tree when I was a teenager. One can never really know any historical figure, of course, and I have no intention of falling for such a conceit here, but nevertheless at least part of the attraction derives from the pirates personalities, aspects of which are apparent from their exploits: von Mllers buccaneering spirit; Ldeckes sense of duty; Souchons impudence; Looffs patience. And there is tragedy, on all sides: von Spee and Cradock are haunting figures, men who went into battle perfectly aware that they would probably not survive it.