Posted on 12/05/2019 6:37:12 AM PST by C19fan
The wreck of a World War One German armoured cruiser has been located off the Falkland Islands, where it was sunk by the British navy 105 years ago.
SMS Scharnhorst was the flagship of German Vice-Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee's East Asia Squadron.
It was sunk on 8 December 1914 with more than 800 men on board, including Vice-Adm von Spee himself.
The leader of the search for the wreckage said the moment of discovery was "extraordinary".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Ping.
Bump
Amazing!
Not to be confused with the WWII battleship Scharnhorst which sank near Norway and the Arctic Circle.
Just remind me never to be on a ship named “Scharnhorst” or “Blucher”.
“The wreck was not disturbed during the operation and the Falkland Maritime Heritage Trust is seeking to have the site formally protected in law.”
I hope that efforts to legally protect this site honoring German war dead are successful - even as memorials in the public square honoring American war dead are being destroyed by mobs encouraged by weak politicians.
“Just remind me never to be on a ship named “Scharnhorst” or “Blucher”.”
Or Bismarck, Graf Spee, or pretty much any warship owned by Germany.
Neigh! The Frau Blücher has a lot of horse power!
She was sunk by two Brirush battle cruisers under Admiral Sturdee. Probably the only time they were employed as originally conceived
Blücher!
Wow...look at those masts, spars and antennae. Wireless was crude in 1914 and required huge antennae. “Portable” wireless sets for infantry required three men to operate - one man 50 ft in front carrying the front of the antenna; the radio man in the middle; and a man 50 ft in the rear carrying the rear of the antenna.
In 1914 apparatus for wireless communications was still a relatively new development, having only been invented a few years earlier.
All ninety German warships were equipped with wireless in 1909. The Germans focused more heavily than other countries on employing wireless in multiple arenas, though other combatants used wireless extensively by 1917–1918. Germans were highly invested in improving wireless to disseminate information because the British had cut submarine cables to Germany in 1914.
The German Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet) generally avoided use of wireless once at sea.
As early as 1914 the German station at Norddeich sent out by telegraph regular weather reports in mixed text. In these the cipher clerks had not taken the trouble to encipher the letters and numbers ordinarily used for indicating the direction and strength of the wind, etc.
The station at Brugge, on the contrary, committed the inexcusable stupidity of transmitting the same telegram after having enciphered the said figures and letters. A comparison of the two telegrams gave an exceedingly valuable clue to the code used, and permitted ... a gradual reconstruction of great parts of it.
“Probably the only time they were employed as originally conceived”
Heh. Good one. Arguable the Hood went down doing what it was intended... except the Germans were misusing a battleship s a cruiser. It is so annoying when the enemy does not play but the same set of rules.
British gunnery at the Falklands was awful.
Interesting
“Probably the only time they were employed as originally conceived.”
Hunted down enemy cruisers at 1st Heligoland Bight too.
Another original role was scouting for the battlefleet, which they did often. Becomes problematic when the enemy makes their own battlecruisers, which were better protected and more accurate. Then they have to slug it out in a battle line, which they were not designed to do.
Thanks C19fan.
SMS Scharnhorst was the flagship of German Vice-Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee's East Asia Squadron. It was sunk on 8 December 1914 with more than 800 men on board, including Vice-Adm von Spee himself.
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