The British Navy's nightmare, the German light cruiser Emden
The name of the Emden battleship is one of the few naval warships in Germany that is admired. As a land-based power, Germany's seafaring capabilities were not as impressive as their on the European continent. But it was such an unremarkable light cruiser that was once revered by the British Navy, the hegemon of the sea. In their view, the Emden battleship, which never killed prisoners, was the most chivalrous warship in the history of the First World War Navy.
The Germans had great respect for their proud warship, and the name of the three generations of cruisers Emden was used directly. Once known as the "Black Swan of the East", it was considered by the Germans to be the pride and symbol of the Navy, and it was also their proudest warship. In the first world war of the "big battleship" doctrine, a small cruiser stood out among countless dreadnoughts, and it shined in the war, showing far more combat effectiveness than those powerful dreadnoughts.
Remains of the main gun of the German Battleship Emden
Its haunting attacks once turned the Allies upside down the Asian colonies that the Entente saw as their backyard. In the Indian Ocean, this small cruiser gallops like a fierce horse on the endless ocean. But no one expected that such a mighty warship was once a battleship abandoned by Germany. In its lifetime, it never appeared in the European naval battle, but instead became a dominant warship on the Asian battlefield.
The Emden battleship galloped at sea
The "swan" with a bumpy birth
The Emden battleship was very bumpy in its design at the beginning. Its initial positioning was only to add to Germany's efforts to cope with the constant military competition between Britain and France. Compared to the large dreadnoughts that were focused on building, the actual value of this battleship was only initially regarded by the Germans as a patrol ship for home care. The main task in the North Sea is simple, as an auxiliary battleship of the Grand Fleet engaged in the most basic patrol and escort tasks.
As a patrol ship, the German Navy had very high requirements for its speed, and the requirements for artillery and protection capabilities were not the most important. This also makes it difficult to build it, in terms of the concept of design, the capacity of the ship and the ability of the artillery are not well designed. The length of the ship is only 118.3 meters, the width is 13.5 meters, the draft is 5.5 meters, and the standard displacement is 3 660 tons. In the case of serious military competition at that time, the design of lengthening, widening and enlarging was very popular, and the actual level of the Emden battleship was relatively inferior.
impetus:
In terms of power, the German Navy was in a transitional period at this time, and it was expected that the traditional compound steam engine would be replaced by a more modern steam turbine. But the Navy's shipbuilding schedule was so intensive that Emden, as a patrol ship, did not get a new steam turbine as planned. Instead, two three-stage expanding steam engines were used, which last appeared on the German cruiser, which happened to be on the Emden battleship.
Since then, all cruisers have been designed and used with new steam turbines. In general, as a battleship powered by twelve coal-fired marine marine water-tube boilers, it was not impressive in terms of output capacity, and even in the thin German Navy it was a very weak presence. On the basis of providing 13,315 horsepower, it was able to reach a top speed of 23.5 knots (converted to a land distance of 43.5 km/ h).
firepower:
Emden only with light firepower equipment, compared to the British cruiser's 6-inch main gun in the same period, the main gun is 10 single-seat 10.5 cm SK L / 40 mm Krupp-made rapid-fire ship guns, it is indeed a bit stretched. The secondary armament consisted of eight 5.2 cm SK L/55 guns, two 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes and four torpedoes mounted below the waterline and capable of carrying fifty naval mines.
Protection:
The Emden battleships had armor thicknesses of 80 mm (3.1 in), decks for walking on the ship were up to 18 mm thick, some positions were reinforced to reach 78 mm, and the 100 mm thick side alloy steel plates were specially installed at the command tower, which was protected by a 50 mm (2 in) thick shield.
Design drawings of the Emden battleship
On July 10, 1909, the Emden cruiser was officially commissioned. As a cruiser that replaced the first German steel armed warships, the Emden cruiser did make a lot of innovations compared to the predecessor SMS PFEIL. From shipbuilding to sea trials, the Emden cruiser only took 2 years, but normally the Emden battleship needed to carry out a lot of sea trial work before officially becoming a member of the formation.
However, their sea trials were very short, and they were forced to abort their sea trials in August and to participate in the annual autumn exercises of the German Navy at that time, as a frigate of the German monarch Wilhelm II. However, after this scenery, in November the German Navy divided it from its original formation into reserve. Because the German Navy was very fast in armament, the Emden battleship at this time did not have any advantage in Europe.
The Emden battleship and the main fleet exercise together
Join the Swans of the East Asian Fleet
Soon, however, the German Navy decided to reactivate it, and the existing Imperial Battlefield was no longer limited to Europe alone. In the East at this time, Germany was in dire need of strong naval support in Qingdao. Their power in Qingdao is being questioned, there is a steady stream of resistance to Germany1, and Japan is coveting Qingdao. Germany could not send its main fleet to prove its capabilities, but it was able to prove itself with the Emmodon battleship. In April 1910, the Imperial Japanese Navy ordered Emmodon to detour south America to East Asia by avoiding British warships in the Indian Ocean, hoping that the German East Asian Fleet would be able to obtain a powerful warship as soon as possible. Along the way, however, the Emmodon warships were a lot of stop-and-go, with a lack of coal mines and frequent diplomatic activities that led them to meet the East Asian Fleet in July.
Karl von Müller, commander of the Emerden ship in 1913
In early 1911, when German colonial rule in the CarolingIan Islands was in crisis, the Emmodon and the Nuremberg battleship attended the counter-insurgency. The appearance of two cruisers made the original counterinsurgency plan very smooth. After landing on the island in January, they completely completed the rebellion in February. He then set out to return to Qingdao, but his days at sea were always full of hardships and bumps. They encountered a typhoon while docked in Japan, and a ship crashed directly into the Emmodon battleship. This forced them to quickly return to the Qingdao dry dock until the Crisis in China broke out on October 10, when Europeans re-entered the Yangtze River to be put into use.
Until July 1914, the Emmodon battleship spent most of its time in East Asia, mainly for the empire's colonial cause. They had intervened in many times of resistance, and the many places they had traveled during this time also allowed them to fully understand the maritime environment in Asia, and these seemingly insignificant accumulations of experience allowed the Emden battleship to play a huge role in the subsequent sneak naval battles.
The nightmare of the British Navy – the Swan of the East
The tranquility of Asia was shattered by news from Europe, when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in Central Europe and war between the Entente and Germany was inevitable. In Asia, the East Asian Fleet soon began to contribute to the German war effort. However, at this time, there was a big problem with the East Asian fleet, and they were very short of manpower. The original configuration of three cruisers, because of the two armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gnaizenau, went to the South Pacific, resulting in only one cruiser in Tsingtao.
Mueller realized this, but instead of retreating to Tsingtao, he led his crew on a commercial raid in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These frequent sneak attacks soon paid off, and on 3 August they captured russia's warship Ryazan and gave it the German name Komoran, which was commissioned as an auxiliary cruiser in the East Asian fleet.
However, the Germans decided to withdraw from Asia at this time, because Japan was already in the Entente. Although the overall strength of Japan's navy is not strong, the strength of the east Asian fleet's warships is also worrying. As commander of the East Asian Fleet, Spee ordered the entire ship to travel to South America at full speed on 6 August, from where it would return to Germany by road. And along the way, the East Asian fleet could attack many times, blocking the Endless Stream of British merchants along the way.
The trade attack route of the Emden battleship
However, Müller believed that the Emden battleships were completely independent, and they were the fastest cruisers in the squadron, capable of constantly attacking British shipping in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, which allowed the Empire to maintain the threat in Asia. Spey agreed, and Müller became a lone wolf in Germany in Asia. Alone in the waters of Asia, it became a nightmare for British merchants and navies.
The British did not expect the emden warship at first, they had received news of the withdrawal of the East Asian fleet, and it seemed to them that Spey would take the only main cruiser. However, the pirate legends that were once British reappeared on the battleships of Müller and Emden. He continued to lead Emden raids on merchant ships, harvesting a total of six merchant ships. However, in the face of the British captive Mueller is very generous, in addition to the necessary supplies he will choose to let these merchant ships go. Moreover, they also became "maritime patrols" and started the cause of investigating and punishing contraband.
Although they were graceful "knight pirates", as a German navy, they were constantly conquering British colonies. Their raid was so successful that in just one month India's overall exports fell by 61.2 percent. India, a huge colonial base, was turned upside down by a small cruiser. Penang and Cocos have left their mark, and the British and their allies are very troubled by this. But Emden's rapid movement speed made it difficult for them to find its tracks.
The Emden battleship finally ran aground on the beach
General:
But there is no eternal victor, the German Army, and the "Knight Pirate" Emden is also the same. They eventually encountered their old enemy, the Australian light cruiser Sydney. After many games with the opponent, the Emden battleship seriously damaged the opponent, but also dragged the body full of scars away from the battlefield. However, the problem of long-term attrition and the repair of scars on the ship was very serious, and they had no base to dock in Asia, and they had to dock Emden on north Keeling Island in urgent need of repair. Later, in the shelling of the Australian Navy, the former "Knight Pirate" was completely destroyed.
In terms of record, Emden is good enough. In total, they defeated or captured 25 ships. This battleship, which had achieved great success in Asia, was also remembered by the Germans, and as of the West German period, capital ships were also used as the name of the Emden battleship. His innate high-speed design allowed him to navigate the Asian naval battles, but he was also ultimately limited by his own design flaws and the isolation of the East Asian theater, and the battleship could not escape the fate of being defeated.