The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources- American, British, French, German, and others (1919) (14800967203)

Identifier: literarydigesthi10hals (find matches)
Title: The Literary digest history of the world war, compiled from original and contemporary sources: American, British, French, German, and others
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting), 1851-1919, comp
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Company
Contributing Library: Columbia University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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n Ocean. But a still more serious blowto British naval prestige, and an impressive demonstrationof German naval prowess now came with the defeat of Rear-Admiral Cradocks cruiser-squadron off Coronel by theGerman squadron under von Spee on the evening of thatNovember day. The British, however, could still point to thefact that their real naval strength had as yet hardly beentouched; it still remained about twice that of Germany,and it had been reinforced by the navies of France andJapan. But the immediate result of the Coronel engagementwas that Great Britain for the time being had been swept fromthe South Pacific. Cargoes in British ships for the westcoast of South America became practically uninsurable. Thefact that the German squadron had the advantage in num-bers, tonnage, guns, and speed, only emphasized GreatBritains mistake in allotting to an inadequate fleet the taskof clearing the Pacific of German commerce-destroyers. Tributes were paid to Specs strategy in having secretly 20
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ADMIRAL SIR CriRISTOPHER CRADOCKCradock commanded the British ships at the Battle of Coronel WARSHIP BATTLES AND RAIDS ON COMMERCE gathered widely scattered German units, in estimating theprobable movements of Admiral Cradocks fleet, and instriking under conditions apparently of his own choosing.According to his report, five German cruisers, the Gneisenaii,Scharnhorst, Nilrnherg, Leipzig, and Dresden, met and en-gaged four British ships, the Good Hope, Monmouth, Glas-gow y and OtrantOy between six and seven oclock in theevening, durijig a heavy rain and rough weather off Coro-nel. This dispatch, as telegraphed from Valparaiso, con-tinued : The Monmouth was sunk and the Good Hope, after a great explo-sion on board, took fire. Her subsequent fate is unknown, owing todarkness having set in. The Glasgow and the Otranto also weredamaged; the darkness prevented our obtaining knowledge of theextent of it. Our ships, the Scharnhorst and Nurnherg, were notdamaged. The Gneisenau had six men wou