Battle of Coronel
After arriving off the coast of Chile, the East Asia Squadron encountered and defeated a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel; during the action, "Gneisenau" disabled the British armored cruiser , which was then sunk by the German light cruiser . The defeat prompted the British Admiralty to detach two battlecruisers to hunt down and destroy Spee's squadron, which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. "Gneisenau" was sunk with heavy loss of life, though 187 of her crew were rescued by the British.