WI - Von Spee knows Sturdee is at Stanley?

MatthewB

Banned
Presumably Sturdee sent wireless or cable signals to the Admiralty that he'd arrived at Port Stanley. Let's have a spy in Britain inform Germany of this, with Von Spee receiving accurate warnings.
  • 1 November 1914 - Battle of Coronel
  • 3 November - Von Spee's force enters Valparaiso harbour to a welcome by the German population
  • 11 November - Admiral Sturdee with Invincible and Inflexible leaves Devonport for the Falklands
  • 26 November - Sturdee arrives at the Abrolhos Archipelago off Brazil. Sturdee announced his intention to depart for the Falkland Islands on 29 November.
  • 28 November - Sturdee departs for the Falklands a day earlier than planned
  • 7 December - Sturdee's force arrives at Port Stanley
  • 8 December - Battle of Falklands

Now some POD and espionage, per Wikipedia:

"Although secrecy of the mission was considered important so as to surprise Spee, Lieutenant Hirst from Glasgow heard locals discussing the forthcoming arrival of the ships while ashore at Cape Verde on 17 November; however the news did not reach Spee."

"It was generally believed Spee was misled by the German admiralty into attacking the Falklands, a Royal Naval fuelling base, after receiving intelligence from the German wireless station at Valparaiso which reported the port free of Royal Navy warships. Despite the objection of three of his ships' captains, Spee proceeded to attack."

However, in 1925 a German naval officer, Franz von Rintelen, interviewed Admiral William Reginald Hall, Director of the Admiraltry's Naval Intelligence Division (NID), and was informed that Spee's squadron had been lured towards the British battlecruisers by means of a fake signal sent in a German naval code broken by British cryptographers.[21] (Similarly, on 14 March 1915, Dresden was intercepted by British ships while taking on coal at sea in a location identified by NID codebreakers).

Here's our POD: Von Spee has good and accurate intel from German spies. So, Von Spee, now sitting in Chile knows that Sturdee has sailed on 11 Nov, and that he's off Brazil 26 Nov, and that he plans to depart on 29 Nov. What does Von Spee do? Once he sails what other intel can he expect to receive? Perhaps IJN movements via the British Admiralty spies.
 
Von Spee probably will not go to the Falklands without refuel, and with this i say, he'll refuel in argentinian harbors and....

A) He raids Port Stanley, surprising Sturdee on harbor and try to neutralize the fleet with that
B) He evades the RN and go straight up to Germany (and make the history of the pacific fleet that successfully made to the homeland in the middle of an war)
C) He waits Sturdee to come to battle in his own terms
D) Fuck this all, he just make an naval Vorbeck campaign :p
 
The POD may not have to be anything particularly complicated. While still in Chile, German naval leadership could just order, "the Germans cruisers and their crews would be valuable in home waters, avoid any chance of hostilities that could damage your ships, sail home on the old sailing sea routes seldom used now." (Once the Ottomans are in the war a fleet in being has extra value).

But regardless of the actual POD:

Coaling gets hard in the Atlantic. Spee had three colliers with him, but a place is needed to actually transfer the coal, perhaps an isolated Brazillian spot, then off Spanish Sahara or the Canaries, Norway then home.

The Advantage Spee has is that his force is formidable in that it really takes a BC force to defeat it, even if he is spotted and shadowed for a while. No radar and at least in the North Atlantic the nights will be long. What makes it problematic is the coal issue.
 
Speaking of sailing routes, could Spee’s ships rig sails to supplement their coal? I remember at least one successful German WWI raider that was sail powered, and the age of sail was still in living memory in 1915.
 

SsgtC

Banned
Speaking of sailing routes, could Spee’s ships rig sails to supplement their coal? I remember at least one successful German WWI raider that was sail powered, and the age of sail was still in living memory in 1915.
Maybe? But progress was going to be painfully slow. These are very heavy ships and the amount of sail area they could possibly rig is likely to be extremely undersized for their displacement. Not to mention they would be prone to side slipping not having a keel in the traditional sense. Maybe 1-3 knots would be possible? Certainly not enough to make it home
 
Speaking of sailing routes, could Spee’s ships rig sails to supplement their coal? I remember at least one successful German WWI raider that was sail powered, and the age of sail was still in living memory in 1915.
No, they had no rigged masts.
The age of sail was still very much alive in 1914 (albeit at the cheap end of the market) - at the Falklands the fleets charged past a rigged cargo ship that didn't know war had been declared!

I don't doubt some sort of sail could have been rigged, subject to staying the masts, however it wouldn't have done them much good. Even economic cruising under steam was typically about 8 knots, and von Spee frequently had steam up for more than that, just in case something appeared over the horizon.
Rigged steam/sail warships of the 1860s/70s usually had terrible performance under sail (and it often compromised their steaming performance too). I recall a story of Fisher's that one of his early commands was such a ship, and he was obliged to drill the crew with the sails ... then they were safely struck down and the engine was used if they wanted to go anywhere.
That's not to say that sailing ships with an auxilliary steam engine wasn't practical (same as fitting a yacht with an engine today), but non of von Spee's ships were built that way.
 
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