Battle of the Falkland Islands (III)
C. ACTION WITH THE LIGHT CRUISERS
At about 1 P.M., when the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau turned to port to engage the Invincible and Inflexible the enemy’s light cruisers turned to starboard to escape; the Dresden was leading and the Nürnberg and Leipzig followed on each quarter.
“In accordance with my instructions, the Glasgow, Kent, and Cornwall at once went in chase of these ships; the Carnarvon, whose speed was insufficient to overtake them, closed the battle-cruisers.
“The Glasgow drew well ahead of the Cornwall and Kent, and at 3 P.M. shots were exchanged with the Leipzig at 12,000 yards. The Glasgow’s object was to endeavour to outrange the Leipzig with her 6-inch guns and thus cause her to alter course and give the Cornwall and Kent a chance of coming into action.
“At 4:17 P.M. the Cornwall opened fire, also on the Leipzig.
“At 7:17 P.M. the Leipzig was on fire fore and aft, and the Cornwall and Glasgow ceased fire.
“The Leipzig turned over on her port side and disappeared at 9 P.M. Seven officers and eleven men were saved.
“At 3:36 P.M. the Cornwall ordered the Kent to engage the Nürnberg, the nearest cruiser to her.
“Owing to the excellent and strenuous efforts of the202 engine-room department, the Kent was able to get within range of the Nürnberg at 5 P.M. At 6:35 P.M. the Nürnberg was on fire forward and ceased firing. The Kent also ceased firing and closed to 3,300 yards; as the colours were still observed to be flying in the Nürnberg, the Kent opened fire again. Fire was finally stopped five minutes later on the colours being hauled down, and every preparation was made to save life. The Nürnberg sank at 7:27 P.M. and as she sank a group of men were waving a German ensign attached to a staff. Twelve men were rescued, but only seven survived.
“The Kent had four killed and twelve wounded mostly caused by one shell.
“During the time the three cruisers were engaged with the Nürnberg and Leipzig, the Dresden, who was beyond her consorts, effected her escape owing to her superior speed. The Glasgow was the only cruiser with sufficient speed to have had any chance of success. However, she was fully employed in engaging the Leipzig for over an hour before either the Cornwall or Kent could come up and get within range. During this time the Dresden was able to increase her distance and get out of sight.
“The weather changed after 4 P.M. and the visibility was much reduced; further, the sky was overcast and cloudy, thus assisting the Dresden to get away unobserved.”
Sir Doveton Sturdee’s account of the two actions between the two light cruisers is almost too syncopated to be intelligible. Fortunately, however, many other records of these two encounters are available, so it is possible to describe what happened in somewhat greater detail. From 1:20 until about quarter to four, Glasgow, Kent, and Cornwall were engaged in a plain stern chase203 with the three enemy cruisers. At that time the enemy began separating out, and the three British cruisers worked into a line abreast following suit. The Glasgow was at the right of the line between three and four miles from Cornwall and about a mile to a mile and a half ahead of her. Kent was to the left of Cornwall, about two and a half miles off and about abreast of her. Straight ahead of Cornwall was Leipzig, the centre ship of the enemy. She was about eight miles from Cornwall and between six and seven from Glasgow. To Leipzig’s right, and two or three miles ahead of her, was Dresden, and to her left and about the same distance off was Nürnberg. There had been a certain exchange of shots before this condition was reached, for Glasgow, very much the fastest of the British cruisers, had more than once drawn up towards Leipzig, and opened fire on her in hopes of turning her towards Cornwall and Kent. And each time her attack was met by resolute and accurate fire by the Germans. As the German ships began to separate, Glasgow headed off to the right towards Dresden, once more coming under the broadside fire of Leipzig. It must be remembered that Glasgow only had two 6-inch guns, only one of which—the bow gun—could be employed in these conditions, and that the Leipzig’s 4.2’s completely outranged her 4-inch. It appears to be a universal practice with the Germans to mount all their guns from the largest to the smallest, so that they can be used at extreme elevation. It will be remembered how the Koenigsberg showed the most perfect accuracy of fire at nearly 11,000 yards with guns of a calibre that in pre-war days few in the British Service would have thought it possible to employ at greater range than 7,000 or 8,000 yards. These efforts of Glasgow to man?uvre Leipzig into contact with Cornwall,204 gave Dresden a chance she was not slow to take. She was much the fastest of all the German craft, and managed, between four and five, to slip completely out of sight and escape.
This escape was made easier, and all the shooting throughout the two cruiser actions was made much more difficult by the sudden change in the weather that has already been noted as having begun shortly before 4 o’clock. A drizzling rain had set in, and not only had it become practically impossible to use rangefinders owing to the poor light, but it became extremely hard to detect the fall of shot and so correct the fire. In considering these two fights then, the extremely difficult conditions that prevailed must be taken into account. Let us deal first with the pursuit and destruction of Nürnberg.
“KENT” V. “NüRNBERG”
At 5 o’clock Kent, after a chase of nearly four hours, was getting within range of Nürnberg. Nürnberg had crept away to the eastward of Leipzig, so that by the time fire was opened, a considerable distance separated this from the other engagements. In point of fact, when the action began, the rain and increasing mist hid every other ship from sight. It was Nürnberg which was first to open fire and, so far as could be judged, the range must have been about 11,000 yards or slightly over. Kent held her fire for another ten minutes, as if waiting to see what the Nürnberg’s guns could do at this range. She could of course, only use her two guns on the quarter-deck, and the after gun on the port side. To the astonishment of the Kent all her first salvoes were right over. The range would have been a long one for a 6-inch gun; it seemed almost fabulous for a 4.2. Ten minutes later Kent opened205 with her bow turret, and for the next half hour an active duel was maintained. The Kent had sheered off a little to the left so as to bring her forward casemate guns also to bear. There was no doubt about the Nürnberg’s shots falling over close, and the Kent’s guns seemed from the ship to be fairly on the target. But for a considerable time there was no evidence that they were hitting, and Kent was certainly not suffering from Nürnberg’s fire, astonishingly accurate as it was. But suddenly, soon after half-past five, Kent, who was keeping up a speed of nearly a knot more than she had ever done before, began to gain enormously on her opponent. The range had been over 11,000 yards at 5 o’clock; by twenty minutes to six it got almost down to 7,000. It was obvious that Nürnberg’s motive power had somehow come to grief. Had one of Kent’s shells landed in her engine, or had one of the boilers, under the strain of so many hours’ high pressure, given way?
Whatever the cause, the results were exactly what Captain Allen was looking for. If the light had been bad at five it was getting worse every minute, and if the business was to be finished it had to be finished quickly. With the shortening range, the effect of the British lyddite was soon visible, and Nürnberg had no alternative but to repeat the man?uvre of Von Spee and turn broadside to for her assailant. Kent turned too, and not this time to lengthen the range, but to bring her whole nine broadside guns to bear. In point of fact, she closed the range as rapidly as she could, consistently with keeping all her guns bearing, and by 6 o’clock had reduced it to 3,000 yards. Nürnberg was now a beaten ship. She had one topmast gone; her funnels were riddled; her speed had fallen from twenty-four knots at 5 o’clock to about206 eighteen at a quarter to six, and now almost to ten. Of the five guns on her port side only two were in action. Shortly after this she turned bows on to the Kent, and was at once caught by several 6-inch shells in the forecastle, which smashed up both the bow guns, shattering the bridge and conning-tower. Ever since the turn at a quarter to six, Kent had kept ahead of her, though shortening the range, doubtless with an eye to the possibilities of Nürnberg using a torpedo. When, therefore, at 6:10 she was almost stopped and seemed beaten, Kent passed her and pushed on to about 5,000 yards to await developments. Shortly after six, Nürnberg ............