page_title: HMS Glasgow (1909)
section_title: Battle of the Falkland Islands
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Glasgow (1909) / Construction and career / Battle of the Falkland Islands
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le croiseur léger allemand SMS Leipzig coulant lors de la bataille des Falkland, le 8 décembre 1914.
context_page_description: HMS Glasgow was one of five ships of the Bristol sub-class of the Town-class light cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Completed in 1910, the ship was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet before she was assigned to patrol the coast of South America. Shortly after the start of the First World War in August 1914, Glasgow captured a German merchant ship. She spent the next several months searching for German commerce raiders. The ship was then ordered to join Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock's squadron in their search for the German East Asia Squadron. He found the German squadron on 1 November off the coast of Chile in the Battle of Coronel. They outnumbered Cradock's force and were individually more powerful, sinking Cradock's two armoured cruisers, although Glasgow was only lightly damaged.
  The ship fell back to the coast of Brazil for repairs and to await reinforcements. They arrived in late November under the command of Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee and were considerably more powerful than the East Asia Squadron.
context_section_description: Glasgow passed through the Strait of Magellan on 4 November and awaited Canopus at its eastern entrance. The battleship rendezvoused with her two days later and they steamed for Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands together. After arriving on the 8th, Canopus was ordered to ground herself in the harbour while the light cruiser continued north and met the armoured cruiser Defence at the River Plate and they sailed to Abrolhas Rocks to await reinforcements. Glasgow stopped in Rio de Janeiro for repairs 16–21 November and arrived at the rocks two days later where Defence, the armoured cruisers Kent, Carnarvon and Cornwall and the armed merchant cruiser Orama awaited her. Glasgow's sister ship Bristol arrived the following day and the battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee reached the rocks on 26th. He planned to remain there for three days, but was persuaded by Luce to depart on the morning of the 28th.
  Upon arrival at Port Stanley on 7 December, Sturdee informed his captains that he planned to recoal the entire squadron the following day from the two available colliers and to begin the search for the East Asia Squadron, believed to be running for home around the tip of South America, the day after. Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the German squadron, had other plans and intended to destroy the radio station at Port Stanley on the morning of 8 December. The appearance of two German ships at 07:30 caught Sturdee's ships by surprise; the observation post telephoned Canopus with the information, but the battleship could not see Sturdee's flagship to relay the information, only Glasgow. Canopus hoisted the signal "Enemy in sight" and the light cruiser repeated the message at 07:56, but Invincible's crew was busy loading coal and did not spot the signal. Luce ordered a saluting gun fired to focus attention on the signal. Glasgow had completed coaling at 08:00, but needed time to finish raising steam.
  The Germans were driven off by 12-inch (305 mm) shells fired by Canopus when they came within range around 09:20. Glasgow cleared the harbour by 09:45 and was ordered by Sturdee to trail Spee's ships, keeping out of range, and to inform him of their actions. The last of the British ships left the harbor by 10:30 and Sturdee ordered "General chase". The battlecruisers were the fastest ships present and inexorably began to close on the German ships. They opened fire at 12:55 and started near-missing Leipzig, the rear ship in the German formation, 15 minutes later. It was clear to Spee that his ships could not outrun the battlecruisers and that the only hope for any of his ships to survive was to scatter. So he turned his two armoured cruisers around to buy time by engaging the battlecruisers and ordered his three light cruisers to disperse at 13:20. As soon as Luce spotted the light cruisers turn away, he turned to pursue them, followed by Kent and Cornwall.
  Glasgow, the fastest of the British ships, slowly increased her lead over the two armoured cruisers and Luce opened fire on Leipzig with his forward six-inch gun at 14:45 at a range of about 12,000 yards (11,000 m). One of his shells struck the German ship and she turned to allow her broadside guns to fire back. The first salvo narrowly missed Glasgow and she was hit twice in the next salvo, forcing Luce to fall back. This was repeated several times which allowed the two armoured cruisers to make up some of the distance. An hour later, the Germans scattered in different directions; Cornwall and Glasgow pursued Leipzig while Kent went after Nürnberg. Cornwall closed on the German ship at full speed, trusting to her armour to keep out the 105-millimetre (4.1 in) shells, while the unarmoured Glasgow manoeuvred at a distance. At 18:00 and Cornwall's shells set Leipzig on fire. Five minutes later, the German ship had ceased firing and the British ships closed to 5,000 yards (4,600 m) to see if she would surrender. One last gun fired and Leipzig did not strike her colours so the British fired several additional salv
caption: Leipzig sinking in a painting by William Lionel Wyllie
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