The Battle of Más a Tierra was a
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
sea battle fought on 14 March 1915, near the Chilean island of
Más a Tierra
Robinson Crusoe Island ( es, Isla Róbinson Crusoe, ), formerly known as Más a Tierra (), is the second largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, situated 670 km (362 nmi; 416 mi) west of San Antonio, Chile, in the South Pacific Oc ...
, between a British squadron and a German light cruiser. The battle saw the last remnant of the
German East Asia Squadron
The German East Asia Squadron (german: Kreuzergeschwader / Ostasiengeschwader) was an Imperial German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the mid-1890s until 1914, when it was destroyed at the Battle of the Fa ...
destroyed, when was cornered and scuttled in
Cumberland Bay
Cumberland Bay is a bay, wide at its entrance between Larsen Point and Barff Point, which separates into two extensive arms, Cumberland West Bay and Cumberland East Bay, which recede inland along the northern coast of South Georgia. It ...
.
Background
After escaping from the
Battle of the Falkland Islands
The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a First World War naval action between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 in the South Atlantic. The British, after their defeat at the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, sen ...
, and several
auxiliaries
Auxiliaries are support personnel that assist the military or police but are organised differently from regular forces. Auxiliary may be military volunteers undertaking support functions or performing certain duties such as garrison troops, u ...
retreated into the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to resume commerce raiding operations against
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
shipping. These operations did little to stop shipping in the area, but still proved troublesome to the British, who had to expend resources to counter the cruiser. On 8 March, his ship low on supplies and in need of repairs, the captain of ''Dresden'' decided to hide his vessel and attempt to coal in Cumberland Bay near the neutral island of Más a Tierra. By coaling in a neutral port rather than at sea, Captain Lüdecke gained the option of being able to
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
the ship if she was discovered by enemy vessels.
British naval forces had been actively searching for the German cruiser and had intercepted coded wireless messages between German ships. Although they possessed copies of captured German code books, these also required a "key" which was changed from time to time. However,
Charles Stewart, the signals officer, managed to decode a message from ''Dresden'' for a collier to meet her at
Juan Fernandez on 9 March. A squadron made up of the cruisers and along with the
auxiliary cruiser
An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in ...
found ''Dresden'' in the harbour because her sailors had joined a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
match on the shore. The British ships cornered ''Dresden'' in neutral Chilean territorial waters in the bay on 14 March, challenging her to battle.
Battle
![Croiseur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Croiseur.jpg)
''Glasgow'' opened fire on ''Dresden'', damaging the vessel and setting her afire. After returning fire for a short period of time, the captain of ''Dresden'' decided the situation was hopeless as his vessel was vastly outgunned and outnumbered, while stranded in the bay with empty coal bunkers and worn out engines. Captain Lüdecke gave the order to abandon and
scuttle his vessel. The German crew fled the cruiser in
open boats to reach the safety of the island, which was
neutral
Neutral or neutrality may refer to:
Mathematics and natural science Biology
* Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity
Chemistry and physics
* Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...
territory. The British cruisers kept up their fire on ''Dresden'' and the fleeing boats until the light cruiser eventually exploded, but it is unclear whether the explosion was caused by the firing from the British ships or from scuttling charges set off by the Germans. After the ship exploded, the British commander ordered his ships to capture any survivors from ''Dresden''. Three Germans were
killed in action and 15 wounded. The British suffered no casualties.
Aftermath
With the sinking of ''Dresden'', the last remnant of the German East Asian Squadron was destroyed, as all the other ships of the squadron had been sunk or interned. The only German presence left in the Pacific Ocean was a few isolated
commerce raider
Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than enga ...
s, such as
SMS ''Seeadler'' and
''Wolf''. Because the island of Más a Tierra was a possession of
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, a neutral country, the German Consulate in Chile protested that the British had broken international law by attacking an enemy combatant in neutral waters.
The wounded German sailors were taken to
Valparaíso, Chile, for treatment, where one later died of wounds received during the action. The 315 of ''Dresden''s crew who remained were
interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
by Chile until the end of the war, when those who did not wish to remain in Chile were repatriated to Germany.
One of the crew—Lieutenant
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1 January 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a German admiral and the chief of the '' Abwehr'' (the German military-intelligence service) from 1935 to 1944. Canaris was initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi r ...
, the future admiral and head of
Abwehr
The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...
—escaped internment in August 1915 and was able to return to Germany in October 1915, where he returned to active duty in the Imperial Navy.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mas a Tierra, Battle of
Naval battles of World War I involving the United Kingdom
Naval battles of World War I involving Germany
Conflicts in 1915
Naval battles of the Asian and Pacific Theatre (World War I)
1915 in Chile
Maritime incidents in Chile
March 1915 events