I recently read Robert K. Massie’s, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea

Some of this story I knew from other books, notably Dan Van der Vat’s The Ship that Changed the World: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914. In the 1920s Winston Churchill wrote that the Goeben brought “more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship.” This was because the Goeben forced the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the German side. This in turn led to the breakup of the Ottoman Empires. Long after Churchill wrote those words we are still dealing with the consequences of that: Modern Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel were all Ottoman provinces in 1914.

Massie goes on to tell the story of Admiral Graf Spee’s cruiser squadron, which destroyed a British squadron off Coronel on the Chilean coast. Afterwards at a reception in a sympathetic Chilean town Spee

was polite for over an hour until a “drunken, mindless idiot raised a glass and said, ‘Damnation to the British Navy !’ Spee gave him a cold stare and declared that neither he nor his officers would drink to such a toast . Instead, he said , “I drink to the memory of a gallant and honorable foe,” put down his glass, picked up his cocked hat, and walked to the door. Outside, in the bright sunlight, a woman stepped forward to present him with a bouquet of flowers. “They will do nicely for my grave,” he said, refusing them.

Imbued since youth with respect for the Royal Navy, he felt that whatever he did, in whatever direction he went, it scarcely mattered ; his small squadron inevitably must encounter the avenging power of his enemies. These forebodings explain his advice to his admirer in Valparaíso that she keep her flowers for his grave.

This happened after he decided to attack the Falkland Islands. When he got there he found a British squadon led by the battle cruisers HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible. These two were faster than von Spee’s two heaviest ships, SMS Scharnhost (von Spee’s flagship) and SMS Gneisenau and had much bigger guns. The results was inevitable, although the tough construction of the German cruisers delayed the end. Scharnhost was lost with all hands, including von Spee and his two sons. 190 survivors from Gneisenau were rescued by the British.

In 1982 Argentina seized the Falkland Islands. The British sent a fleet to retake them, led by the aircraft carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible(!). At the time I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the 1914 battle. At the time the result of British-Argentine conflict was was not obvious: The two British carriers were small and could not operate the top of the line aircraft used by the United States Navy. Still, when I read the article and thought about the two Invincibles, I immediately thought “The British are going to win this thing too.” And they did.

So much for 1914. I may write about more of Massie’s account of the war at another time. It is well worth reading for those who are interested in naval history