Coronel and the Falklands

On 1 November 1914, off the coast of Chile near Coronel, ships of the German and British navies exchanged fire, resulting in the sinking of two British ships HMS Monmouth and HMS Good Hope with the loss of nearly 1,600 sailors. To counter the German squadron, the Royal Navy sent two battle-cruisers—Inflexible and Invincible—to the South Atlantic. In December 1914, the British battle-cruisers, accompanied by smaller ships, engaged the German squadron during the Battle of the Falkland Islands and sank the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau near the Falkland Islands.

First published in 1962, this is a gripping account of the World War I British-German naval battles off the coast of South America, and an examination of the issue of Britain’s preparation for naval warfare in 1914.