Bombardment of Papeete The Bombardment of Papeete occurred in French Polynesia when German warships attacked on 22 September 1914 , during World War I . The German armoured cruiser s and entered the port of Papeete on the island of Tahiti and sank the French gunboat and freighter " Walkure " before bombarding the town ' s fortifications . French shore batteries and a gunboat resisted the German intrusion , but were greatly outgunned . The main German objective was to seize the coal piles stored on the island , but these were destroyed by the French at the start of the action . The German vessels were largely undamaged but the French lost their gunboat . Several of Papeete ' s buildings were destroyed and the town ' s economy was severely disrupted . The main strategic consequence of the engagement was the disclosure of the cruisers ' positions to the British Admiralty , which led to the Battle of Coronel where the entire German East Asia Squadron defeated a Royal Navy squadron . The depletion of " Scharnhorst " s and " Gneisenau " s ammunition at Papeete also contributed to their subsequent destruction at the Battle of the Falklands . Background . Word of war reached Admiral Maximilian von Spee — of the German East Asia Squadron — while at Ponape ( 17 July – 6 August ) . He concentrated the majority of his squadron at Pagan Island in the nearby Mariana Islands , and then steamed off into the Pacific with the " Scharnhorst " - class armored cruiser s and , the " Königsberg " - class light cruiser , the auxiliary cruiser SMS " Titania " , and several colliers at his disposal . " Nürnberg " and " Titania " were sent to gather intelligence at Hawaii and raid the cable station at Fanning Island . Von Spee then learned that Australian and New Zealand forces had captured German Samoa , and he sailed off in his flagship " Scharnhorst " — along with her sister ship " Gneisenau " — to engage what Allied forces they could find there . Failing to catch the Samoa Expeditionary Force at Apia and having seen no action at all since leaving Pagan Island , the men of Admiral von Spee ' s armored cruisers were eager to meet the enemy in battle . Von Spee decided to raid Papeete in Tahiti on his way to rendezvous with the rest of his squadron at Easter Island . The French held over of high - quality Cardiff coal at the port , and von Spee hoped to seize the coal piles to replenish his squadron ' s supply . Additionally , von Spee aimed at destroying what allied shipping he could find in the harbour , and thought the raid might help raise his men ' s morale . Von Spee intended to coal at Suwarrow Atoll before sailing to Papeete , but was prevented by foul weather . Instead , von Spee decided to take " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " and attempt to resupply at Bora Bora while " Nürnberg " and " Titania " were dispatched to Nukuhiva to guard the fleet ' s colliers . The German admiral intended to keep his vessels ' identities secret by disguising them as French ships , flying French flags , and only allowing French - and English - speaking members of his crew contact with the Frenchmen present there . Von Spee managed to replenish his food stores using gold seized by " Titania " and " Nürnberg " during their raid of Fanning , and was able to discover the strength of the French military in the region as well as the exact size and positions of the coal piles at Papeete . The French had no heavy defenses at Papeete but had been warned that von Spee ' s squadron might raid Tahiti and that a German squadron had been sighted off Samoa . Although Papeete was the capital of the French Settlements in Oceania , by 1914 it had become a colonial backwater , lacking a wireless station and having a garrison of only 25 colonial infantry and 20 gendarme s . In order to bolster the town ' s defenses , Lieutenant Maxime Destremau — commander of the old wooden gunboat and the ranking officer at Papeete — had his ship ' s stern gun and all of her and guns removed from his vessel and placed ashore to be used in place of Papeete ' s antiquated land batteries . Several Ford trucks were turned into impromptu armored car s by mounting them with " Zélée " s 37 - mm guns and 160 sailors and marines drilled in preparation to repel any German attempt at landing . " Zélée " retained only her 100 - mm bow gun and 10 men under the ship ' s second in command . In addition to the gunboat and harbor fortifications , the French also had at Papeete the unarmed German freighter " Walkure " , which had been captured by " Zélée " at the start of the war . Despite the French preparations , the two German cruisers were more than a match for the forces Destremau commanded at Papeete . Both " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " heavily outgunned " Zélée " , each being armed with eight guns , six guns , eighteen guns , and four torpedo tubes . Von Spee ' s forces also outnumbered the French with over 1 , 500 sailors aboard their vessels , more than enough to form a landing party and overwhelm the forces Destremau had to oppose them . Battle . At 07 : 00 on 22 September 1914 , the French sighted two unidentified cruisers approaching the harbor of Papeete . The alarm was raised , the harbor ' s signal beacons destroyed , and three warning shot s were fired by the French batteries to signal the approaching cruisers that they must identify themselves . The cruisers replied with a shot of their own and raised the German colors , signaling the town to surrender . The French refused the German demands , and von Spee ' s vessels began to shell the shore batteries and town from a distance of . The land batteries and the gunboat in the harbor returned fire , but scored no hits on the armored cruisers . Having difficulty in discovering the exact position of the French batteries , the German cruisers soon turned their attention to the French shipping in the harbor . The French commander — Destremau — had ordered the coal piles burned at the start of the action and now smoke began billowing over the town . " Zélée " and " Walkure " were sighted and fired upon by the Germans . The French had begun to scuttle their vessels when the action had begun , but both were still afloat when " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " began firing upon them and finished the two ships off . By now , most of the Papeete ' s inhabitants had fled and the town had caught fire from the German shelling , with two block s of Papeete set alight . With the coal piles destroyed and the threat of mine s in the harbor , von Spee saw no meaningful purpose in making a landing . Accordingly , the German admiral withdrew his ships from Papeete ' s harbor by 11 : 00 . After leaving Papeete , the ships steamed out towards Nuku Hiva to meet " Nürnberg " , " Titania " , and colliers waiting there . Aftermath . By the time von Spee withdrew his ships , large portions of the town had been destroyed . Two entire blocks of Papeete had burnt to the ground before the fires were finally put out . A copra store , a market , and several other buildings and residences were among those destroyed by the shellfire and resulting inferno . While the majority of Papeete ' s civilians fled to the interior of the island as soon as the fighting began , a Japanese civilian and a Polynesian boy were both killed by German shellfire . Although the two French vessels in the harbor had been sunk , there were no military casualties on either side and the German vessels took no damage . Overall , the bombardment was estimated in 1915 to have caused over 2 million francs ' worth of property damage , some of which was recouped through the seizure of a German store on the island . In addition to the seizure of their property , several local Germans were interned and forced to repair the damage von Spee ' s squadron had caused . Perhaps the most lasting effect of the bombardment on the French was the dramatic fall of copra prices in the region , as local suppliers had previously sold a majority of their produce to German merchants in the area who were now interned . Further havoc and distress spread throughout the island 18 days after von Spee ' s squadron had left , when rumors started to spread that a second German bombardment was about to begin . After withdrawing , " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " rendezvoused with " Nürnberg " and " Titania " at Nuku Hiva , where they resupplied and their crews took shore leave before moving on to meet the rest of the squadron at Easter Island . Although the Germans had destroyed the shipping at Papeete and wreaked havoc in the town , they had been denied their primary objective of seizing the French coal piles and replenishing their own stocks . Von Spee ' s raid allowed the British Admiralty to receive word on his position and heading , allowing them to inform Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock of the German intentions thus leading to the Battle of Coronel . Another effect was the reduction of ammunition available to the two German cruisers . The hundreds of shells fired by von Spee ' s ships at Papeete were irreplaceable . The depletion of ammunition as a result of the action at Papeete contributed to the German East Asia Squadron ' s failure to adequately defend itself at the Battle of the Falkland Islands against British battlecruiser s . Lieutenant Destremau was chastised by his misinformed superior officer for his actions during the defense of Papeete and for the loss of the gunboat " Zélée " . He was summoned back to Toulon under arrest to be court - martialled , but died of illness in 1915 before the trial . In 1918 , Destremau was finally recognized for his actions at Papeete and was posthumously awarded the " Légion d ' honneur " .