Battle of Coronel

In late 1914 Admiral von Spee's German cruisers crossed the Pacific towards South America, and Admiral Cradock took a weaker British squadron to find them. They met off the coast of Chile at sunset on 1 November, with the setting sun silhouetting the British ships. The German gunnery was better and the British ships' low casemate guns could barely be used in the heavy seas. Two British cruisers, including the flagship, were sunk with all hands. It was the Royal Navy's first defeat in a major engagement since the War of 1812.

Cradock sailed to meet von Spee knowing his force was inferior, under ambiguous Admiralty orders, and he left the slow battleship HMS Canopus behind. Historians still debate whether he felt bound by those orders, whether honour required an attack, or whether an Admiralty muddle sent him into it. The location is approximate: accounts place the fight some distance offshore west of the port of Coronel. The defeat shocked the British public and led directly to the dispatch of battlecruisers to the South Atlantic.