The Best Offense is a Good Defense
The Japanese Defense of the Mariana Islands
The modern history of the Marianas begins with their involvement in the Spanish-American War. The islands only
played a brief and peripheral role in the conflict but the map of the region was altered forever. The United States
took control of the southernmost island of Guam and the Philippines, while Spain sold the remaining islands to
Germany. Economic development of the northern islands was accelerated by the Germans only to be interrupted
by World War I. Japan took advantage of it’s alliance with Great Britain to seize the Marianas and the German-
leased Chinese port of Tsingtao. The islands remained peaceful after the Japanese invasion except for the
beaching[1] of the German cruiser SMS Cormoran on Guam after the United States entered the war.
August 28 1914, Heligoland Bight, The North Sea, The SMS Mainz
Leutnant zur See Paul Wenneker watched in agitation as more shells hit his boat. It wasn’t his ship of course but
with Captain Pasche dead it might as well have been. It was times like this he wished he was still at his home town
of Kiel, serving in the Baltic. That thought provided him some comfort before a British shell made the point moot.[2]
[1] In reality the ship was blown up, not beached, a minor change which will have interesting repercussions down the line.
[2] This is the same Paul Wenneker who was the German Naval Attaché to Japan during WWII.
The Japanese Defense of the Mariana Islands
The modern history of the Marianas begins with their involvement in the Spanish-American War. The islands only
played a brief and peripheral role in the conflict but the map of the region was altered forever. The United States
took control of the southernmost island of Guam and the Philippines, while Spain sold the remaining islands to
Germany. Economic development of the northern islands was accelerated by the Germans only to be interrupted
by World War I. Japan took advantage of it’s alliance with Great Britain to seize the Marianas and the German-
leased Chinese port of Tsingtao. The islands remained peaceful after the Japanese invasion except for the
beaching[1] of the German cruiser SMS Cormoran on Guam after the United States entered the war.
August 28 1914, Heligoland Bight, The North Sea, The SMS Mainz
Leutnant zur See Paul Wenneker watched in agitation as more shells hit his boat. It wasn’t his ship of course but
with Captain Pasche dead it might as well have been. It was times like this he wished he was still at his home town
of Kiel, serving in the Baltic. That thought provided him some comfort before a British shell made the point moot.[2]
[1] In reality the ship was blown up, not beached, a minor change which will have interesting repercussions down the line.
[2] This is the same Paul Wenneker who was the German Naval Attaché to Japan during WWII.
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