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Remembered Today:

105 years ago Today - The Battle of the Falkland Islands


keithmroberts

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The image below was brought or posted home by a seaman from Portsmouth serving on HMS Kent that day. It shows HMS Invincible steaming out of Stanley in pursuit of the German squadron. The smoke on the right of the photo was made by HMS Inflexible, from which the photograph was taken.

IMG_0494.JPG

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Fascinating - thanks!

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I wrote a chapter on a Swansea lad who was lost at Coronel. The German commander, Von Spee, sailed into Valparaiso after Coronel, where he was feted by the German community there. On being presented with a victory floral tribute he is reported to have thanked the donors before adding "they will look nice on my grave."!

 

He was a loooong way from home. And had used a lot of ammunition. And he knew the Admiralty would be coming for him...

 

Bernard

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One of my first Great War books as a lad "Coronel and the Falklands".

I am not sure how "good" a book it was, but it brought home the merciless brutal experience of ships in battle, the impact of massive shells fired huge distances smashing metal, wood and flesh.

The passage that I remember best is of the dismay of the German cruisers on seeing the tripod masts of our battle cruisers at the Falklands,

Coronel and the Falklands

Geoffrey Bennett

Published by B.T. Batsford

Edited by Muerrisch
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I'm very slowly working through some transcribed correspondence sent to a Portsmouth cleric from a variety of men during the war. There are a couple of letters froma chief on HMS Kent which chased down and sank the Nurnberg, and letters also from the captain of that ship whose wife was involved in the local parish.

 

Keith

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the site naval history.net has the logs of some of the RN ships present along with Naval Operations

 

also the wreck of the Scharnhorst has been recently found

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  • 1 month later...

Mid. Philip Malet de Carteret of St. Ouen (a very distant relative of mine) described his ship's part in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in a letter home to his father... 

We, the Canopus went to General Quarters about 10.00 am and opened fire with our 12 inch guns. Our other ships could do nothing, as the land was between them and the enemy, and most of them were coaling. We fired a lot of shots and hit the Gneisenau. By this time the fleet had weighed and were coming out at full speed. The Germans turned tail and fled with the fleet at full speed after them. Of course, we could not follow, as we we stuck on the mud.

Philip was another Jersey man who died at Jutland, after having also been involved in Dardenelles too.

Edited by KizmeRD
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