SMS Gneisenau SMS " Gneisenau " was an armored cruiser of the German navy , part of the two - ship . She was named after August von Gneisenau , a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars . The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen , launched in June 1906 , and completed in March 1908 , at a cost of over 19 million goldmarks . She was armed with a main battery of eight guns , had a top speed of , and displaced at full combat load . " Gneisenau " was assigned to the German East Asia Squadron based in Tsingtao , China , along with , in 1910 . They served as the core of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee ' s fleet . After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , the two ships , accompanied by three light cruiser s and several colliers , sailed across the Pacific ocean — in the process evading the various Allied naval forces sent to intercept them — before arriving off the southern coast of South America . On 1 November 1914 , " Gneisenau " and the rest of the East Asia Squadron encountered and overpowered a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel . The stinging defeat prompted the British Admiralty to detach two battlecruiser s to hunt down and destroy von Spee ' s flotilla , which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914 . Construction . " Gneisenau " was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen , Germany in 1904 , under construction number 144 . She was launched on 14 June 1906 , and commissioned into the fleet nearly two years on 6 March 1908 . The ship cost the German government 19 , 243 , 000 goldmarks . The ship had been designed for service with the High Seas Fleet , though they were found to be too weak for service with the battle fleet ; instead they were deployed overseas , a role in which they performed well . " Gneisenau " was long overall , and had a beam of , a draft of . The ship displaced standard , and at full load . " Gneisenau " s crew consisted of 38 officers and 726 enlisted men . The ship was powered by coal - fired triple expansion engines that provided a top speed of " Gneisenau " s primary armament consisted of eight 21 cm ( 8 . 2 inch ) SK L / 40 guns , four in twin gun turret s , one fore and one aft of the main superstructure , and the remaining four were mounted in single wing turrets . Secondary armament included six 15 cm ( 5 . 9 inch ) SK L / 40 guns in MPL casemate s , and eighteen 8 . 8 cm ( 3 . 45 inch ) guns mounted in casemates . She was also equipped with four submerged torpedo tubes . One was mounted in the bow , one on each broadside , and the fourth was placed in the stern . Service history . Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen , the former Chief of the General Staff , christened the ship at her commissioning on 6 March 1908 . Captain Franz von Hipper was the ship ' s first commanding officer ; he took command of the ship the day she was commissioned . He was tasked with conducting the ship ' s shakedown cruise , which lasted from 26 March to the middle of July . She officially joined the fleet on 12 July . The ship then departed for Asia , though Hipper left the ship and went on to command the I Torpedo - boat Division in Kiel . " Gneisenau " was assigned to the " Ostasiengeschwader " ( East Asia Squadron ) , where in 1910 she joined " Scharnhorst " , which had been assigned to the unit the previous year . The two ships formed the core of the squadron , with " Scharnhorst " serving as the flagship . The pair were crack gunnery ships ; " Gneisenau " won the Kaiser ' s Cup four times during her career : twice while in German waters in 1908 and 1909 and twice in Asia in 1910 and 1911 , and " Scharnhorst " s finished in second place in 1913 and 1914 . In June 1914 , the annual summer cruise of the East Asia Squadron began ; " Gneisenau " rendezvoused with " Scharnhorst " in Nagasaki , Japan , where they received a full supply of coal . They then sailed south , arriving in Truk in early July where they restocked their coal supplies . While en route , they received news of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo . On 17 July , the East Asia Squadron arrived in Ponape in the Caroline Islands . Here , von Spee had access to the German radio network , where he learned of the Austro - Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia and the Russian mobilization . On 31 July , word came that the German ultimatum , which demanded the demobilization of Russia ' s armies , was set to expire . Von Spee ordered his ships be stripped for war . On 2 August , Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered German mobilization against France and Russia . World War I . At the outbreak of World War I the East Asia Squadron consisted of " Gneisenau " and " Scharnhorst " , and the light cruiser s , , and . On 6 August 1914 , " Gneisenau " , " Scharnhorst " , the supply ship " Titania " , and the Japanese collier " Fukoku Maru " were still in Ponape ; von Spee had issued orders to recall the light cruisers , which had been dispersed on various cruises around the Pacific . " Nürnberg " joined von Spee that day . Von Spee decided the best place to concentrate his forces was Pagan Island in the northern Marianas Islands , a German possession in the central Pacific . All available colliers , supply ships , and passenger liners were ordered to meet the East Asia Squadron there . On 11 August , von Spee arrived in Pagan ; he was joined by several supply ships , as well as " Emden " and the auxiliary cruiser " Prinz Eitel Friedrich " . The flotilla was reinforced with the arrival of " Emden " and " Nürnberg " ; the ships then departed the central Pacific , bound for Chile . On 13 August the captain of " Emden " , Commodore Karl von Müller , persuaded von Spee to detach his ship for commerce raiding . On 14 August , the East Asia Squadron departed Pagan for Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands . The ships again coaled after their arrival on 20 August . In order to keep the German high command informed , von Spee detached " Nürnberg " on 8 September to Honolulu to send word through neutral countries . " Nürnberg " brought back news of the Allied conquest of the German colony at Samoa ; on 14 August , " Gneisenau " and " Scharnhorst " sailed to Apia to investigate the situation , but found no suitable targets . At the Battle of Papeete on 22 September , " Gneisenau " and the rest of the East Asia Squadron bombarded the colony . During the bombardment , the French gunboat " Zélée " was sunk by gunfire from the German ships . Fear of mines in the harbor prevented von Spee from seizing the coal that lay in the harbor . By 12 October , " Gneisenau " and the rest of the squadron had reached Easter Island . There they were joined by " Dresden " and " Leipzig " , which had sailed from American waters . " Dresden " was stationed in the Caribbean , but had been in San Francisco when von Spee issued the order to consolidate German naval forces in the Pacific . After a week off Easter Island , the ships departed for the Chilean mainland . Battle of Coronel . To oppose the German squadron off the coast of South America , the British had scant resources ; under the command of Rear Admiral Christopher Craddock were the armored cruisers and , the light cruiser , and the auxiliary cruiser . This flotilla was reinforced by the elderly pre - dreadnought battleship and the armored cruiser , the latter , however , did not arrive until after the Battle of Coronel . " Canopus " was left behind by Craddock , who likely felt that her slow speed would prevent him from bringing the German ships to battle . On the evening of 26 October , " Gneisenau " and the rest of the squadron steamed out of Mas a Fuera , Chile , and headed eastward . Von Spee learned that " Glasgow " had been spotted in Coronel on the 31st , and so turned toward the port . He arrived on the afternoon of 1 November , and to his surprise , encountered " Good Hope " , " Monmouth " , and " Otranto " as well as " Glasgow " . " Canopus " was still some behind , escorting the British colliers . At 17 : 00 , " Glasgow " spotted the Germans ; Craddock formed a line with " Good Hope " in the lead , followed by " Monmouth " , " Glasgow " , and " Otranto " in the rear . Von Spee decided to hold off on engaging the British until the sun had set more , at which point the British ships would be silhouetted by the sun . At this point , Craddock realized the uselessness of " Otranto " in the line of battle , and so detached her . At 19 : 00 , the German ships closed to attack . In the span of five minutes , the German cruisers ' guns had seriously damaged " Good Hope " , which was destroyed by a magazine explosion . " Monmouth " attempted to escape to the south ; she was burning furiously and her guns had fallen silent . " Nürnberg " closed to point - blank range of " Monmouth " and poured shells into her . " Glasgow " was forced to abandon " Monmouth " after 20 : 20 , before fleeing south and meeting with " Canopus " . " Monmouth " eventually capsized and sank at 21 : 18 . Over 1 , 600 men were killed in the sinking of the two armored cruisers , including Admiral Craddock ; German losses were negligible . However , the German ships had expended over 40 % of their ammunition supply . Battle of the Falkland Islands . Once word of the defeat reached London , the Royal Navy set to organizing a force to hunt down and destroy the East Asia Squadron . To this end , the powerful new battlecruiser s and were detached from the Grand Fleet and placed under the command of Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee . The two ships left Devonport on 10 November , and while en route to the Falkland Islands , they were joined by the armored cruisers , , and , the light cruisers and " Glasgow " , and the " Otranto " . The force of eight ships reached the Falklands by 7 December , where they immediately coaled . " Gneisenau " and " Nürnberg " , the first two ships in the German line , approached the Falklands on the same morning , with the intention of destroying the wireless transmitter there . Observers aboard " Gneisenau " spotted the two battlecruisers in the harbor of Port Stanley , and when shells were fired from " Canopus " , which had been beached as a guard ship , the Germans turned to flee . The Germans took a south - easterly course at . Von Spee formed his line with " Gneisenau " and " Nürnberg " ahead , " Scharnhorst " in the center , and " Dresden " and " Leipzig " astern . The fast battlecruisers quickly got up steam and sailed out of the harbor to pursue the East Asia Squadron . By 13 : 20 , the faster British ships had caught up with " Gneisenau " and the other cruisers , and began to fire at a range of . Von Spee realized his armored cruisers could not escape the much faster battlecruisers , and so ordered the three light cruisers to attempt to break away while he turned about to engage the British with " Gneisenau " and " Scharnhorst " . However , Sturdee detached his armored and light cruisers to pursue the German light cruisers , while the battlecruisers dealt with " Gneisenau " and " Scharnhorst " . " Inflexible " attacked " Gneisenau " while " Invincible " opened fire at " Scharnhorst " . Sturdee attempted to widen the distance by turning two points to the north to prevent von Spee from closing to within the range of his smaller guns . Von Spee counteracted this maneuver by turning rapidly to the south , which forced Sturdee to turn south as well . This allowed " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " to get close enough to engage with their secondary guns ; their shooting was so effective that it forced the British to haul away temporarily . At 16 : 04 , " Scharnhorst " was observed from " Inflexible " as having rapidly listed to port , and she sank at 16 : 17 . Shortly before she sank , von Spee transmitted one last order to " Gneisenau " : " Endeavor to escape if your engines are still intact . " Damage to the ship ' s boiler rooms had reduced her speed to , however , and so the ship continued to fight on . " Gneisenau " scored a hit on " Invincible " as late as 17 : 15 . By 17 : 30 , however , the ship was a burning wreck ; she had a severe list to starboard and smoke poured from the ship , which came to a stop . Ten minutes later , the British ships closed in and the flag on " Gneisenau " s foremast was struck ; at 17 : 50 , Sturdee ordered his ships to cease fire . " Gneisenau " s captain ordered the crew to scuttle the ship , as they had expended their ammunition and the engines were disabled . The ship slowly rolled over and sank , but not before allowing some 200 of the survivors time to escape . Of these men , many died quickly from exposure in the water . A total of 598 men of her crew were killed in the engagement . " Leipzig " , and " Nürnberg " were also sunk . Only " Dresden " managed to escape , but she was eventually tracked to the Juan Fernandez Island and sunk . The complete destruction of the squadron killed some 2 , 200 German sailors and officers , including two of von Spee ' s sons . Notes . Footnotes Citations References . 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