In November 1914, less than a year into existence, the Australian Navy engaged in a fierce battle in the Indian Ocean with the infamous German attack ship Emden. The war stopped the Germans' attempt to disrupt communications between the two continents of Europe and Asia, and laid the foundation for Australia's century-old navy.
The picture shows the sailors of the Australian "Sydney" on the foredeck
The Dangerous "Swan of the East"
At the beginning of World War I, the German light cruiser Emden went deep into the Indian Ocean to conduct guerrilla warfare. In more than two months, the ship intercepted 23 Allied merchant ships and sank 16 of them, as well as one Russian protective cruiser and one French destroyer, destroying more than 5 million pounds worth of Allied goods, equivalent to 15 times its own cost. At the same time, it also pinned down a large number of Allied ships, and at most 78 warships from 4 countries surrounded and intercepted them, but found nothing. German radio described emden as a erratic "swan of the East."
Despite the almost "butcher" power of the Emden, the Allied merchant ships were not afraid of it, because the German captain Carl von Müller pursued the principle of "blowing up the ship without harming people", said Anne Boyd, director of the Maritime Museum of Western Australia: "German ships are more to sabotage the Allied sea transport, less interested in killing people, because if they really become 'butchers at sea', I am afraid that the moral price will be greater." ”
In November 1914, emden received a new mission to destroy the British communications transit station on the island of Cocos in the Indian Ocean, which was the communications hub for submarine cables connecting Europe and Asia, and if destroyed, the Allies would not be able to control the situation in the East.
The Sydney came to the rescue
As emden pounced on cocos island, an Allied convoy of transport ships was heading in the opposite direction. The fleet set out on November 1 from the Australian port of Albany to transport 29,000 soldiers to the European battlefield. For security reasons, the Allies prepared a large convoy for the fleet, including the Japanese armored cruiser Ibuki, the Australian Navy light cruisers Sydney and Melbourne. Boyd said: "If the German raiders knew that such a powerful fleet was near the island of Cocos, they would not have touched the mold head anyway, but unfortunately, they did not know." ”
On 9 November, the British at the Communications Station on Cocos Island spotted a camouflaged warship docked on the docks, the German ship Emden, and the alert duty officer quickly sent a distress signal to the Sydney, 80 kilometers away: "A strange ship has entered the harbor, suspected to be the Emden!" The British then began to destroy classified documents, waiting for the Germans to come to them, and Captain Müller's reputation as a gentleman made them less worried about their own lives.
Sailor Ernie Burston wrote in his diary: "When I received the distress telegram from Cocos Island, I was with Captain Grossop, who thought it must be 'Emden', and then asked me to convey the order that my ship sailed at full speed to Cocos Island." The days of the Emden are coming to an end! This is a sentence I heard the captain say as I walked out of the command room. ”
The Sydney took two hours to reach Cocos Island. In this gap, the landing soldiers sent by the Emden came to the door of the communication station and smashed and slashed with hammers and axes, while planting explosives in important machine rooms and other places. The British signals surrendered after a symbolic resistance, simply pleading with the Germans not to blow up the tennis court in the station, and Mike Carlton, author of The First Victory, said: "The Germans did not touch their stadium and enthusiastically took pictures with the captives to commemorate this successful sabotage operation." ”
Two-strong showdown
The German landings destroyed the engine room, cut the cables, and were preparing to return to the Emden when the silhouette of a ship suddenly appeared at sea level. At first, the Germans thought it was a merchant ship, but the thick plumes of smoke emanating from the chimney and the swift speed of the ship made them react immediately, it was a large warship, and most of it was an enemy ship.
Although the newly established Australian Navy has not yet participated in real combat, the youngest sailor on the "Sydney" is only 15 years old, and many people have just turned from the training ship, but they are highly motivated, and the next battle is destined to leave a heavy mark in history.
The picture shows the Australian sailors looking at the captured Emden in the distance
The sophisticated Emden was the first to fire at Sydney with a 105 mm naval gun, but the first three rounds of shells were all empty, far behind the white trail of the Australian ship. German artillery then took careful aim, dropping the third and fourth rounds of shells accurately on the Sydney, killing three Australian sailors, one of which hit the command room of the Sydney, but unexpectedly did not explode. Sailor Burston said: "We are lucky, if that damn shell explodes, including the captain and the gunner and many other officers, and of course I, will be finished." ”
After waking up from the initial blows, the Australians began to fight back, and the 152 mm cannon of the Sydney exerted terrible power, "Under the heavy shelling, the Emden quickly caught fire, and the scorching temperature baked the deck curled up, and Captain Mueller immediately ordered a turn to retreat." By this time the German warships could not return fire, because the guns on board had been destroyed, and the deck was littered with corpses and wounded." The Sydney was faster, the Germans had nowhere to escape, and in desperation, Müller ordered the beach on Cocos Island, but refused to lower the German naval flag. So sydney continued to shoot. The Germans returned fire with the ship's small-caliber weapons. By the afternoon of the battle, 134 people had been killed on board the Emden, and Captain Müller ordered a ceasefire.
Sydney captured emden, which was seen as a thorn in the side of the Allies, and ushered in the first victory for the Australian Navy. It was later discovered that the previous operations of the Emden landing force to sabotage the communication station were also unsuccessful, because the British buried a set of spare radio equipment before they were captured, which was not discovered by the Germans, and the Germans also made a mistake in destroying the cables, they thought that all three cables were cut, but in fact only one of them was cut, and the communication station was repaired in less than a day. (Yu Xiaojing)