The history of the most famous German raider of the Great War
The light cruiser Emden of the German Imperial Navy can literally be considered one of the most famous warships of the Great War. His combat path is short-lived - just over three months. But during this time he accomplished the seemingly impossible. Under the command of the young captain Karl von Müller, the ship, leaving the German naval base in Qingdao, passed through two oceans - the Pacific and the Indian, destroying 23 enemy transports, a cruiser and a destroyer in this raid. Emden's actions became a model of a daring and successful cruising war, disrupting for a time British maritime trade in the Indian Ocean. At the same time, the crew of "Emden" strictly observed not only the laws and customs of war, but also knightly traditions - the Germans did not kill or abandon a single captive sailor or passenger in the ocean to the mercy of fate. With his scrupulous attitude to the high concept of officer honor, Captain 2nd Rank Karl von Müller has earned in world naval history the honorary title of "last gentleman of war", which has never been challenged by any of his enemies.
Child of burgher patriotism
By the beginning of the Great War, the light cruiser Emden was both a new and an old ship. New - according to the time of enrollment in the German Navy, July 10, 1910. Old - by design features, which inevitably affected its seaworthiness.
In the German naval classification system "Emden" was considered a class 4 cruiser - the lightest and least armed. It was laid down on April 6, 1906 in Danzig and built, according to German standards, for a very long time - more than 3 years. At the time of the laying, the ship was named "Erzats-Pfeil". But almost immediately, problems with financing began, and so serious that the laid down almost a year later, the same type "Dresden" was launched earlier. A decisive role in the fate of the ship was played by the patriotic residents of Lower Saxony - among the burghers of the city of Emden, by subscription they collected 6.8 million marks that were missing for the completion of the ship. In gratitude, the new ship was named Emden.
In its design, solutions that were already leaving the practice of shipbuilding were applied. So, for example, in the hull set of the ship, soft (low-carbon) Siemens-Martin steel was widely used. In addition, the Emden was the last German cruiser to be equipped with a classic-type steam engine. All cruisers of the later bookmark, including even the one-type "Dresden", had a steam turbine, which, at the same level of energy consumption, could deliver significantly more power to the ship's propeller shaft.
The steam engine "Emden" became the reason that with the outer contours, which were almost ideal in terms of ensuring high speed, the cruiser gave out during tests a maximum speed of only 24 knots (44, 45 km / h). At the beginning of the 20th century, such a speed for a light cruiser was already insufficient, which ultimately played a fatal role in the fate of Emden.
The Emden's armament was not very powerful: with a full displacement of 4268 tons, the cruiser was armed with 10 medium-caliber 105-mm guns. There were 8 more 52mm cannons, but they were useless in the event of an inter-ship artillery duel. For comparison: the Russian destroyer Novik, launched in 1911, with almost three times less displacement - 1360 tons, was armed with four 102-mm cannons and four two-pipe 457-mm torpedo tubes. Against this background of the Russian Novik, the Emden's torpedo armament looked almost helpless - two single-tube 450-mm underwater torpedo tubes. The undoubted advantage of the Emden's weapons was only the exceptional rate of fire of its main guns: in a minute, one barrel could throw 16 shells into the enemy's ship.
On the whole, the light cruiser Emden was a very balanced ship in terms of its characteristics. Its maneuverability and ability to turn quickly, according to military experts, were very good. In the main German naval base on the Pacific Ocean - the port of Qingdao, this cruiser was called the "Swan of the East" for its graceful, light lines.
Capture of "Ryazan"
The captain of the Emden Karl von Müller was a student of the outstanding German military theorist and naval commander, Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, having worked for him for 3 years as a junior officer in the Naval Department of the German Empire. The creator of the fundamental naval "Theory of Risk", which included, among other things, the theoretical substantiation of unlimited raiding in the oceans, von Tirpitz saw a like-minded person in the modest officer. In the spring of 1913, on the recommendation of the Grand Admiral, a little-known staff officer from Hanover unexpectedly received an honorary promotion - the rank of captain of the 2nd rank with the appointment of commander on the cruiser Emden in Qingdao.
Captain of the light cruiser "Emden" Karl von Müller. Photo: Imperial War Museums
Operationally, Mueller's ship was part of the German East Asian Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee. She was based in Qingdao and consisted of the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the light cruisers Emden, Nuremberg and Leipzig. Significant Entente forces were deployed against the Germans only in the ports closest to Qingdao: French armored cruisers Montcalm and Duplex, Russian cruisers Zhemchug and Askold, British battleships Minotaur and Hampshire, British cruisers Yarmouth and Newcastle, numerous destroyers.
The aggravation of the international situation in June 1914 posed the most important task for Vice Admiral von Spee: to prevent the Allies in the Entente and the Japanese from quickly "locking up" the German squadron in the Qingdao raid in case of war. To avoid this, von Spee led the main part of the squadron (Emden remained in Qingdao) on a demonstration raid across German Oceania - it was planned to visit the Mariana and Caroline Islands, Fiji, the Bismarck archipelago, Kaiser Wilhelm Land in New Guinea.
It was not by chance that the Emden was left in Qingdao: Captain Karl von Müller did not enjoy the special location of the squadron commander. Graf von Spee was a brilliant representative of the German military school, but his views were significantly different from those of von Tirpitz and his student von Müller. The commander of the East Asian squadron was not a supporter of an all-out "economic" war at sea and clearly demonstrated his disgust for the mere idea of using cruisers to combat enemy civilian transports. A representative of the ancient Prussian family, tracing his ancestry since 1166, von Spee saw the main task in the defeat of the enemy's cruising formations. "Cruisers fight cruisers," von Spee told his officers, "leave the economic troughs to the gunboats." At the same time, being a just and honest man, von Spee highly appreciated von Müller's initiative, strong-willed command style.
On the night of July 29, 1914, while on the roadstead of Qingdao, the captain of the Emden received a radiogram from the German Naval General Staff: “I suggest that Emden, in the event of the introduction of plan B (which meant war with France and Russia - RP), head south,to set mines in Saigon and other ports of Indochina, to cause difficulties in the implementation of French coastal trade."
Ships of the German East Asian Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee. Photo: Imperial War Museums
On July 30, at 6.30 a.m., Lieutenant Lieutenant Helmut von Mücke, Senior Mate, gathered all the officers and gave the order to prepare for hostilities. The sailors were ordered to clear the decks and take their places on a combat schedule. At 19.00 on July 31, taking on board additional supplies of coal and ammunition, the Emden left Qingdao, heading to the open ocean to the east - to the Tsushima Strait.
The combat schedule was strictly observed on the Emden (as, indeed, on all German ships). Every sailor knew that the mine and artillery unit of the cruiser must respond immediately to a surprise attack by enemy ships. The cruiser's guns were pre-set in the "combat-ready" position.
At about 2 a.m. on August 4, the lookout cruisers found the running lights of a twin-tube steamer right on the course. After a 5-hour chase and the tenth warning shot, the enemy ship slowed down, continuously transmitting an SOS signal over the radio. The Emden approached the ship and, using the flag semaphore on the foremast, gave the order, “Stop immediately. Do not send radio signals. A boat with a boarding team under the command of Lieutenant Gustav von Lauterbach was lowered from the cruiser.
Already a cursory examination of the steamer and the logbooks made it possible to determine that the Emden had received a valuable prize. The ship was called "Ryazan", belonged to the Russian Volunteer Fleet and was sailing from Nagasaki to Vladivostok. The ship was of the newest German construction (launched in 1909 in Danzig) and could develop a very significant speed for transport of 17 knots (31 km / h). It was impractical to sink such a ship.
The German naval flag was raised over Ryazan and taken to Qingdao. Here she was quickly converted into an auxiliary cruiser "Cormoran II" (SMS Cormoran). The new ship of the German Navy received the name and guns of the old, outdated raider "Cormoran", who once took part in the capture of Qingdao by the Germans.
Cormoran II carried out raiding operations in Oceania from August 10 to December 14, 1914. Due to the full production of coal, the raider was forced to enter the port of Apra on the American island of Guam, where he was interned in gross violation of international maritime law. After the United States entered the war against Germany on April 7, 1917, the commander of the Cormoran II, Adalbert Zukeschwerdt, was forced to give the order to sink the ship. Despite the shooting raised by the Americans, the Germans carried it out, while 9 crew members died, who did not manage to get out of the holds after the opening of the Kingstones. The bodies of the dead were raised by American divers and buried with military honors in the Guam Naval Cemetery.
Last conversation with Count von Spee
At 3 am on August 6, 1914, the cruiser Emden brought the steamer Ryazan (the future Cormoran II) to Qingdao. The cozy town, rebuilt according to the German plan, has changed a lot. Before the war, the Germans grew groves in the vicinity of the port, and now special teams cut them down mercilessly in order to provide targeted fire for artillery.
The Emden crew did not receive shore leave. By the evening of August 6, having accepted the cargo of coal, food and ammunition, the cruiser was ready to go out into the raid again. The governor of Qingdao, Captain Alfred Meyer-Waldek, who later organized the defense of Qingdao from the Japanese, came to escort the cruiser, surrendering the port only after the full use of the ammunition. The ship's band played the "Watch on the Rhine" waltz, the unofficial anthem of the German sailors. The officers stood with their caps removed, the sailors sang along.
On August 12, near the island of Pagan, the group of the Mariana Islands, Emden joined the squadron. On the morning of the next day, on the flagship cruiser Scharnhorst, Maximilian von Spee convened an officers' meeting to discuss further plans. He himself tended to operate with a full squadron in the western Atlantic. When the commander asked the opinion of the commanders of the ships, von Müller said that light cruisers in the squadron would be almost useless, since they could inflict only small damage on the enemy. Given the shortage of coal and the enormous distance that the squadron needs to travel to reach the Atlantic, von Müller proposed sending one or more cruisers to the Indian Ocean.
In the afternoon, a special courier from the Scharnhorst delivered the order of Count von Spee to the Emden commander:
“Pagan. August 13, 1914. 15.01
Accompanied by the steamer Marcomannia, I order you to relocate to the Indian Ocean to wage a violent cruising war there to the best of your ability.
Attached are copies of telegraph messages from our southern coal supply network over the past few weeks. They indicate the amount of coal ordered for the future - all this coal is handed over to you.
You stay with the squadron tonight. Tomorrow morning this order will be triggered by the flagship's Detach signal.
I intend to sail with the remaining ships to the west coast of America.
Signed: Count Spee."
In the early morning of August 14, the German flotilla of 14 ships (most of them coal miners) set out on the open sea heading east. None of the sailors on the Emden, apart from First Mate von Mücke, knew where their ship was headed. Suddenly the flagship Scharnhorst sent a signal to Emden with a flag semaphore: “Separate! We wish you every success! " In response, von Müller sent a message to Count von Spee via semaphore: “Thank you for your confidence in me! I wish the cruiser squadron easy sailing and great success."
The Swan of the East increased its speed and turned to the south-west in a wide arc. In the marine 35x stationary binoculars, von Müller clearly distinguished the tall figure of Count von Spee, standing without his cap on the open captain's bridge. The captain of "Emden" did not know that he was seeing the Count for the last time: Maximillian von Spee would die heroically along with the main composition of his unit in a truly epic battle with the squadron of British Vice-Admiral Sturdy off the Falkland Islands in the southern part of the Atlantic.
Bombing of Madras
Soon, a ghost ship appeared in the vastness of the Indian Ocean, which shot, blew up, sank with boarding crews any of the ships of the Entente countries, which had the misfortune of getting in its way. At the same time, the lives of all crew members and passengers of these ships were invariably preserved. Captain von Müller, in spite of the hassle, loss of fuel and food, ensured the transfer of prisoners to ships of neutral states or their delivery to neutral ports. The luck and truly chivalrous nobility of von Müller could not be denied even by his main enemies - the British.
“We hated the Emden in words,” later recalled Lieutenant of the Royal Navy of Great Britain Joachim Fitzwell, “as panic rumors about an elusive enemy raider hampered transport in the British island archipelago. However, in the secret depths of the soul, each of us bowed before the luck and chivalrous generosity of the captain of the German ship."
Fire at oil storage facilities in Madras, one of the largest ports in British India, after they were shelled by the light cruiser Emden. September 22, 1914. Photo: Agence Rol / Gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliotheque nationale de France
By mid-September, i.e. just a month after the start of the hunt, the total tonnage (deadweight) of the transports of the Entente countries sunk by the Emden approached 45,000 tons, which was undoubtedly an outstanding result for a lone raider.
On September 20, 1914, Captain von Müller decided to bomb Madras, one of the largest ports in British India. A fake fourth tube was installed on the cruiser made of tarpaulin and plywood, which created the silhouette of British light cruisers for Emden.
At 21.45 he appeared abeam Madras and began to enter the harbor, guided by the unplugged port lights. In 40 minutes "Emden" was already 3000 meters in front of the central berths. To the south of them were huge oil terminals, from which the port, city and ships were supplied with oil. Turning on powerful searchlights, the Emden gunners quickly fired in, having achieved the oil storage from the third volley. The resulting colossal fire burned out all the oil in Madras. After unleashing several more volleys on the port artillery positions, the Emden turned off her searchlights and disappeared into the blackness of the southern night. In total, about 130 shells were fired at the city and port.
Judging by the reports of British newspapers in India, Emden's shells caused significant damage: all oil reserves were burned out, steam communications of the port and telegraph lines were destroyed. The psychological impact of the attack was enormous: there was panic, thousands of British and Indians stormed the station.
“The destruction wrought by Emden's effective raiding expeditions is very depressing,” wrote the influential newspaper Calcutta Capital a month later. “The wildest rumors are spreading through the bazaars like hurricanes. Even for those who do not succumb to the agitation of alarmists and trust the government, the successful raids of "Emden" make a deep impression, which is not easy to get rid of."
Von Müller, meanwhile, did not think to give the sons of Foggy Albion even a small respite. From 15 to 19 October 1914 alone, a German raider seized seven British ships on the high seas: Clan Grant, Ponrabbela, Benmore, St Egbert, Exford, Chilcan and Troilus. Five of these ships were sunk. The Exford coal miner was requisitioned under the naval prize and the German flag was hoisted over him. The ship "Saint Egbert", whose cargo belonged to the United States, was released with all prisoners and received permission to sail to any port except Colombo and Bombay.
The massacre of the careless "Pearl"
The radio intelligence of the Germans during the Great War worked well, and the radio service of the cruiser "Emden" was no exception in this regard. Based on the analysis of the intercepted radiograms, Captain von Müller came to the conclusion that some enemy warships, in particular the French armored cruisers Montcalm and Duplex, are based at the port of Penang on the island of the same name in the Malacca Strait. Interrogations of captured British skippers confirmed that the port lighting and entrance beacons were actually operating in peacetime.
The operation to attack Penang was carefully designed. The narrow and long inner harbor of Penang, which impeded freedom of maneuvering, posed a particular danger to the warship. An artillery duel with French armored cruisers was out of the question: the 164-mm and 194-mm guns of these ships could turn the Emden into a sieve in a few minutes. Only an accurate torpedo shot could tip the scales in favor of the German raider. The idea of the operation was striking with desperate audacity.
Russian armored cruiser Zhemchug. Photo: Agence Rol / Gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliotheque nationale de France
In the early morning of October 28, setting up a fake fourth trumpet, turning off the lights and removing the German flag, the cruiser entered the inner roadstead of Penang. The ship's clock showed 04.50. The French cruisers, to the disappointment of the Germans, were not in the harbor. However, the bulk of the warship, which had been identified as the armored cruiser Zhemchug, was dark at the far inner dock. The Russian ship, together with another cruiser "Askold", was part of the Allied cruising squadron under the command of British Vice Admiral Jeram. In Penang, Zhemchug was undergoing scheduled cleaning of boilers.
At 05.18 "Emden" went on a combat course, raised the German naval flag and fired a torpedo shot from a distance of 800 meters. The torpedo hit the stern of the Pearl, but the cruiser's warhead of eight 120-mm guns could well open fire. However, she did not open it: the officer of the watch was sleeping sweetly; apparently, the outpost was also rested. The commander of the "Pearl", captain of the 2nd rank, Baron I. A. Cherkasov at this time was resting with his wife who came to him in one of the hotels in Penang. There was no one to repulse the enemy.
The artillery pieces of the Emden rained down an avalanche of fire on the deck and sides of the Pearl: already in the first minutes of the battle, the number of Russian sailors killed went to dozens. Panic began, some of the sailors threw themselves overboard. With incredible efforts, the senior artillery officer Yu. Yu. Rybaltovsky and the chief of watch, midshipman A. K. Sipailo managed to open fire with two guns. However, it was already too late - the German cruiser again went to the traverse (direction perpendicular to the side) of the "Pearl" and fired a new torpedo shot.
This time the sight was more accurate: the torpedo struck under the conning tower, the explosion detonated the bow artillery cellar. A column of smoke and steam flew up into the sky - the cruiser broke in half and sank in 15 seconds. The human victims of disciplinary sloppiness turned out to be terrible: 87 people were killed, died from wounds and drowned, 9 officers and 113 lower ranks were injured.
The Investigative Commission of the Naval General Staff, created after the death of the cruiser, found the captain of the 2nd rank, Baron Ivan Cherkasov and the ship's senior officer, Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Kulibin, guilty of the tragedy. They were deprived of "ranks and orders and other insignia", in addition, "after the deprivation of the nobility and all special rights and privileges" were given to the "correctional prison departments of the civil department." In wartime conditions, the prison was replaced for Cherkasov and Kulibin by sending ordinary sailors to the front.
Having destroyed the "Pearl", the German raider headed for the exit from the harbor. The French destroyer Muske rushed to intercept it, but the German lookouts spotted it in time. From the first salvo the raider's gunners managed to cover the French destroyer, and the third salvo turned out to be fatal: boilers exploded on the Musk, it lay down on the water and sank. The Russian lieutenant L. L. Seleznev later recalled: "A column of black smoke rose in place of the Muske, and in a few minutes everything was over."
Despite the urgent need to leave, the commander of the Emden gave the order to stop the vehicles and collected from the water all the surviving French: 36 of the 76 crew members. On October 30, 1914, a German raider stopped the British steamship Newburn, en route from Great Britain to Singapore, and transferred all captured French sailors on board.
When leaving Penang, the French destroyer Pistole joined the Emden's wake, which did not attack, but every 10 minutes broadcast the coordinates of the leaving raider, calling on the Allied forces to intercept the German.
The "big hunt", however, did not work out: after a few hours of pursuit on the "Pistol", the main bearing of the propeller shaft began to warm up and the destroyer was forced to slow down. Suddenly, a strong wind with rain hit, and the German raider began to get lost in the haze, and the stormy sea did not leave the French wake.
The last battle
Incredible in its audacity and luck, the mission of "Emden", according to the logic of any war, had to end one day. For many days of a brilliant raid, Karl von Müller, most likely, due to psychological fatigue, first made a major mistake near the Cocos Islands, which turned out to be fatal.
On November 2, in a secluded bay of one of the uninhabited islands, Karl von Müller lined up a disguised cruiser crew on deck. The anthem was played solemnly - 40 sailors of the Emden were awarded medals.
It would seem that everything developed according to a well-thought-out plan: the next operation was to destroy the radio station and the cable relay station on the Directorate island, located in the chain of the Cocos Islands.
The capture of the station, undertaken by the German landing force on November 9 at 6.30 am, was successful. However, before the paratroopers took her, the Australian radio operator managed to broadcast SOS and a message about an unidentified warship. It was received by the flagship of the operational convoy, the Australian cruiser Melbourne, 55 miles away. Its commander, Captain Mortimer Silver, immediately dispatched to the Directorate the newest (built in 1912), high-speed cruiser "Sydney", armed mainly with eight long-range 152-mm guns.
A boat with survivors of the crew of the light cruiser Emden after the Battle of the Cocos Islands. November 9, 1914. Photo: Universal History Archive / UIG / Getty images / Fotobank.ru
Emden's radio operators intercepted the order from Melbourne, but due to interference they considered the signal weak and, by its impulse, determined the distance of the Australian cruisers at 200 miles. In fact, Sydney had only 2 hours to go to the Directorate Island.
Elementary caution dictated the need to go to the open ocean, but von Müller, trusting the technical conclusion of the radio room, ordered to prepare for the loading of coal and called by radio the previously captured coal steamer "Buresk".
At 9:00 a lookout on the Emden's mast saw smoke on the horizon, but on the bridge it was assumed that it was the Buresque coal miner approaching. At 9.12 am, the approaching ship was identified as a four-tube British cruiser. A combat alarm sounded - an emergency siren sounded on the cruiser, calling for the landing under the command of Lieutenant von Mücke to return to the ship. The landing did not manage to do this - at 9.30 the Emden raised anchor and rushed away from the island.
But time was lost: the Emden hull, overgrown with seashells over many months, did not even allow it to withstand even the design speed of 23.5 knots (43.5 km / h). The newest Sydney was sailing at a maximum speed of almost 26 knots, and the Emden, which stood for more than 3 hours with muffled boilers, could not instantly achieve the necessary steam power.
At 9.40, it became obvious that it would not be possible to get away from the Australian cruiser and the Emden, opening fire, went for a rapprochement. "Sydney", fearing the famous German torpedoes with a range of about 3.5 km, began to withdraw - not allowing the distance between the ships to be reduced to less than 7000 meters. At this distance, the 50-mm armor of its armored hull withstood the bursts of 102-mm German shells. The gunners from the Emden fired, nevertheless, excellently: the rear mast was broken on the Sydney, the main artillery rangefinder was destroyed, and after the eighth volley a fire broke out on the Australian ship.
Seeing the flames engulfing the stern of the Sydney, Karl von Müller made a desperate attempt to launch a torpedo attack, but the Sydney withdrew again, taking advantage of its speed advantage.
The Australians took longer to shoot, but when they achieved coverage, the real shooting of the raider began. After another volley, a high-explosive 152-mm projectile hit the Emden's radio room. "Sydney" switched to the fastest possible fire, while not allowing the German raider to get close to the effective range of its 102-mm shells. Soon the electric elevators, feeding shells from the artillery cellars, stopped working at the Emden. The direct hit tore through the chimney at the foremast, which fell aboard, and black soot poured onto the deck, hammering the glass of the artillery rangefinders, and then flames engulfed the raider's stern.
Captain to the end
At 11.15, trying to rescue the crew, Karl von Müller threw the blazing cruiser onto a sandbank off North Keeling Island. Seeing this, the Sydney stopped firing. The commander of the "Australian" John Glossop sent a boat with a doctor and medicines to the Emden, and then - with the hope of capturing the German landing party - went to the island of Directorate. The next day, the surviving officers and sailors from the Emden were brought aboard the Australian cruiser. The total losses on the "Emden" amounted to more than half of the regular composition of the crew: 131 were killed and 65 wounded.
The landing team of Lieutenant Helmut von Mücke, left on the island of the Directorate, embarked on an incredible odyssey. The Germans did not wait for the Australian marines - they captured the old sailing ship "Aisha" on the island and went on it to the open sea. In one of the neutral ports, replacing the Aisha with a German coal miner, von Mücke's team reached the port of Hodeid in Yemen. From there, overland, at times with battles, the Germans made their way to the borders of Turkey - Germany's ally in the Great War. In June 1915, von Mücke's "iron corsairs" were honored at the German military mission of Constantinople.
Karl von Müller and the other members of the raider's crew were placed in a POW camp in Malta. In October 1916, after the successful escape of one of Emden's officers, the captain was taken to Great Britain. In September 1917, he tried to escape, but was caught and spent 56 days in solitary confinement as punishment.
The malaria that von Müller contracted in the southern seas was undermining his health. In January 1918, the physical condition of the Emden commander became so bad that the British, in view of the already obvious victory in the war, released him to his homeland.
In Germany, Captain von Müller managed to receive the highest military award from the hands of Kaiser Wilhelm II - the Pour le Merite Order. At the beginning of 1919, Karl, he retired for health reasons and settled in Braunschweig, in the town of Blankenburg. He lived alone, very modestly, using all his available funds to help the needy members of the Emden team, primarily those who became disabled by injury.
The heart of the great German corsair stopped on the morning of March 11, 1923. He was only 49 years old.
The services of the surviving crew members were highly appreciated at home - after the end of the war, they and their descendants were awarded a unique honor, having the right to change their surname to a double one, with the addition of the word "Emden".
