Von Spee’s Odyssey
Before the outbreak of war, other German forces were on the move. Admiral von Spee's East Asiatic Squadron sailed from Tsingtau, bound for the German colonies in the Mariana Islands. Flying his flag in the armoured cruiser SMS Blucher, von Spee had with him two smaller armoured cruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and four supply ships. The two sister-ships were to have sailed for Germany in September at the end of a two-year deployment to the Pacific, but following the assassination of the Austrian Archduke, von Spee's orders were to keep them with him in case of war. As he reached the Marianas he was joined by the light cruisers Emden and Nurnburg, which had been showing the flag around the German, British and French colonies that were dotted across the Pacific.
In the early days of the war, the British cut the undersea cables that linked Germany with the rest of the world. As a consequence, von Spee could no longer receive orders from Berlin. In anticipation of these events, he had received general orders to conduct cruiser warfare as he saw fit, and to either attempt to return to Germany, or to assist in the defence of German territories. The most recent intelligence he had was that Japan remained neutral, although she might declare war at any time in support of her British ally, while parts of the Dutch East Indies or Chile might provide him with ‘friendly neutral’ ports.
The Admiral had an unenviable choice; with Tsingtau easily blockaded by the British, he had lost his only base of operations. Returning home meant crossing 20,000 miles of largely British-controlled ocean without access to a network of coaling stations, and he had no illusions about his chances of forcing his way past the British fleet in the North Sea.
He decided it was his duty to defend German territory, while causing the enemy trouble for as long as possible. He reasoned that together, his three armoured cruisers might just be a match for a lone British battlecruiser, and if he could make them concentrate their forces, they wouldn’t be able to patrol the oceans effectively. With luck, that would give his ships far greater freedom.
While coaling in Truk Lagoon a few days later, he detached SMS Emden to raid in the Indian Ocean, before taking the rest of his force towards German New Guinea. The light cruiser Nurnburg was sent ahead on the 19th August to scout the harbour at Rabaul, and on confirming that it was clear of Allied ships, the rest of the fleet was able to approach and anchor. Coaling and general maintenance took until the 23rd, and the Admiral made arrangements with the wireless station to broadcast coded signals once Allied ships were sighted. Even if his ships were out of range when that happened, it might confuse the enemy into thinking that he knew exactly where they were.
The fleet moved out to provide cover as the Scharnhorst and Nurnburg conducted a bombardment of Port Moresby on the 25th, before returning to Rabaul.
News of the bombardment drew British forces, just as von Spee had planned. Far to the East, rather than spending her time searching for von Spee, HMAS Australia had been covering the occupation of Samoa, following the insistence of the Australian and New Zealand governments that the ships be used to guard the troop convoys. To the north, the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand and the armoured cruiser Minotaur had scouted the Marshalls and were heading towards the Caroline Islands. Once they received news of the bombardment and headed south at best practical speed.
Von Spee knew he would have no more than a few days between the bombardment and the arrival of Royal Navy forces and hastened to re-coal all his ships, before sailing from Rabaul again on the morning of the 28th. The following day, he received news via wireless that the German radio station at Samoa had suddenly gone quiet. Obviously, Samoa had been captured, and in all probability, any covering force was now on its way to the Bismarck Archipelago.
Provided with this valuable intelligence, he decided there was a new opportunity for his squadron to act together, instead of splitting up to raid shipping independently. Blucher, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Nurnburg were heading Northeast, to avoid any Allied forces heading west from Samoa, and to minimise the risk of encountering anything coming from the north. Nevertheless, he missed HMS New Zealand by less than 150 miles, and he heard feint signals from the wireless station at Rabaul reporting her arrival offshore on the 3rd September. That piece of news confirmed his plans; he knew, or at least suspected, where both British battlecruisers were.
He stopped to coal at Ellis Island, before heading towards his new target: Samoa
On the morning of 16th September, the Nurnburg once again scouted ahead of the fleet and confirmed that there were no Allied warships in the harbour off Apia. Admiral von Spee’s squadron steamed in with guns manned and pointed at the town. Shells were fired at the wireless station in a successful attempt to disable it and a small steamer was sunk in the harbour, distracting attention while Marines from all four ships landed to outflank the town and secure the docks and coal stocks. Once this was done, a picket boat was sent in under a flag of truce.
Faced with such overwhelming firepower, and having his force so quickly cut off from the docks and most of the supplies still sitting on the quayside, the commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force surrendered the island, although several hundred men escaped inland, with many later reaching the neighbouring island of Savaii.
The re-capture of Samoa gave von Spee fresh news of the rest of the world. From prisoners and locals, his crews learned of the ongoing progress of the German armies in Europe. It took several days for outbound wireless messages to reach the rest of the world, but the announcement that his squadron had successfully liberated Samoa and taken several hundred prisoners was trumpeted around the world as further evidence that Germany was winning.
