Kyler’s Kaiserliche Marine Blog
Post #4: Admiral Maximilian von Spee
Admiral Maximilian Johannes Maria Hubert Reichsgraf von Spee was born on June 22nd, 1861 in Denmark. He would spend his youth in the Rhineland living on a family estate. Joining the Imperial Germany Navy in 1878, he would steadily rise through the ranks of the new military service. His first command would be of the SMS Deutschland in 1897. In 1905, he was given command of the battleship SMS Wittelsbach. In 1910, he would be promoted to admiral and given second in command of the fleet’s scouting forces. In 1912, he was given command of the Cruiser Squadron of East Asia based in Tsingtao, China.
When the war started, he would command the armored cruisers Scharnhorst & Gneisenau and the light cruisers Emden & Nurnberg. He believed Germany’s holdings in Asia as untenable. Commanding his squadron, they would move to the island of Ponape to wait & formulate their next move. He would make several raids against the Allied Powers but nothing was too successful. Eventually, he decided to return to Europe from South America, and he headed towards Easter Island.
On October 29th, 1914 on Easter Island, he learned of Admiral Craddocks nearby British Squadron. At the Battle of Coronel, he would lead his ships to the Royal Navy’s first defeat in over a century. Taking his time to assess the defeat before moving to the Cape of Good Hope. He planned on attacking the wireless station at Port Stanley. The pre-dreadnought Canopus was anchored to defend the area. The battlecruisers HMS Inflexible & Invincible quickly moved into battle. Fulfilling their intended role, the battlecruisers made quick work of Admiral Spee’s armored cruisers. He would perish with his two sons and over 2,000 German Sailor at the Battle of Falklands Islands.
On December 4th, 2019, The final resting place of the Scharnhorst off the Falkland Islands.