Just Finished Reading: The Last Gentleman of War – The Raider Exploits of the Cruiser Emden by R K Lochner (FP: 1979) [303pp] 

In 1914 the war drums, ever louder, could be heard all the way in China. It would only be a matter of time before Germany's Far East fleet was trapped in her home port and either starved into submission or destroyed by the Allies superior numbers. There was only one thing to do – leave port and strike at the superior enemy forces wherever they could be found. In order to do that the commander, Admiral Graf von Spee, wanted to keep his entire force together. One captain, Karl von Muller, asked is his ship Emden could be detached to operate independently. After some musing the Admiral agreed and the historic exploits of that ship began. In the coming months Commander Muller not only managed to evade the sweeps of British, French, Russian and Japanese warships but he also managed to sink thousands of tons of Allied cargo vessels, destroy an oil facility in Madras, raid Penang (an Allied port) sinking both a Russian and a French warship running the Allies a very merry chase for over 3 months without any access to port facilities or the possibility of resupply. What's more, all of the encounters with civilian vessels – both enemy and neutral resulted in not a single death or injury (except maybe to their pride) which was universally praised by all sides. 

But such a run of luck (and skill) cannot last forever. Deciding to attack and destroy an isolated British radio station and cut the international cables which met there, Commander Muller made a fatal mistake. Believing that the nearest Allied warship was at least 250 miles away he sent ashore a party of men to undertake the task at hand. Aware that a message had been sent out of a 'strange ship' in the harbour the German crew knew that they had to work fast. What they didn't realise was just HOW fast they needed to move. Unfortunately for the Emden a heavily escorted Allied troop convoy was only 50 miles away and a fast cruiser – the Australian HMAS Sydney – was dispatched to investigate. Sydney was a more modern, faster and more heavily armed vessel than Emden which quickly found that it was outgunned and could neither stand and fight nor successfully run from her bigger opponent. Within a few hours of the opening salvo Emden lay wrecked, beached on a carol reef surrounded by the dead and dying. It was over – or not... 

The landing party has seen part of the fight and had a decision to make. They could either hide on the island (unlikely) or stand and fight (suicide against a cruiser and any troops sent to follow up any offshore bombardment). Neither option found favour. There was only one alternative – escape and return to Germany, which would mean sailing from North Keeling island (located 1750 miles west of Australia in the Indian ocean) across the Indian ocean, to the Red Sea coastal area, across Arabia to Constantinople and from there, by train, finally to Germany itself. This is exactly what they accomplished with minimal casualties all round. Unsurprisingly they were treated like heroes on their return over a year later. 

I knew the early part of this story having read about Graf von Spee's fleet actions at Coronel and the Falklands (where his command was destroyed much to the relief of the Royal Navy). But I didn't know much detail (or just how heroic) the actions of Emden were. It's an amazing story, well told with lots of detail gleaned from the dairies and reports of those involved on all sides. I was particularly impressed by the logistical nightmare of keeping a ship in action that needed HUNDREDS of tons of coal on a regular basis just to keep going - never mind food and other items. I can definitely see why they shifted to oil ASAP! If you're interested in WW1 away from the mud, shells and gas of the Western Front this is definitely a recommended read for you and worth the effort of tracking down a copy. 

Translated from the German by Thea and Harry Lindauer.