German East Asia Squadron
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The German East Asia Squadron was a German Kaiserliche Marine (naval) cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the 1870s and 1914.
The squadron initially had no base. This changed with Germany's annexation of Kiautschou in China on 14 November 1897, through a cruiser squadron led by Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs, and the subsequent colonisation of this territory. A German naval base was then built at the fishing village of Tsingtao (now Qingdao).
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the East Asia Squadron — under the command of Vice Admiral Count Spee — was outnumbered by Allied navies in the region. Spee was especially wary of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Royal Australian Navy — in fact he described the latter's flagship, the battlecruiser HMAS Australia as being superior to his entire force by itself. The German squadron therefore headed towards the eastern Pacific, except for the light cruiser Emden, which was to engage in a raiding campaign in the Indian Ocean. The ship finally met its end in combat with HMAS Sydney after a prolonged struggle.
The main body of the squadron engaged the British West Indies Squadron on 1 November 1914 at the Battle of Coronel, sinking the HMS Good Hope and the HMS Monmouth. It was while attempting to return home via the Atlantic that the squadron was destroyed on 8 December 1914 in the Battle of the Falkland Islands by the far superior British battlecruisers HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible.
The four small gunboats of the East Asia Squadron that had been left at Tsingtao were scuttled by their crews just prior to the capture of the base by Japan in September 1914.
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