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AS one of the foremost German exponents of cr iser warfare, ViceAdmiral Curt von Maltzan, wrote, control of the sea meant control of sealanes to achieve economic and military aims.1 This was the task of the East Asian Cruiser Squadron based at Tsingtau the northern Chinese "leased territory" of Kiautschou. Its directives provided options for operating across the broad expanse of the Asia-Paciific-Indian Ocean region. This essay examines some of the large issues facing the Squadron Chief, Vice-Admiral Maximilian Reichsgraf von Spee, in the choice of operations in the early weeks of the Great War. As Spee awaited political developments in the period of increasing tension from 7 July 1914, which found him at Truk in the Caroline Islands, he was to be faced with the most difficult decisions with which a German commander overseas had yet to come to grips.
The Squadron's Function
The vulnerability of Britain's vital import rout s was regarded by German naval planners as the "Achilles heel" by which Britain could be crippled economically and quickly brought to terms They believed that the interdiction of trade would destroy the profitability of the British maritime shipping industry, force up insurance rates and seriously damage the whole British economy. The losses to commerce and industry after the halting of raw material and foodstuff imports, and the flow-on effect to the public in food shortages, unemployment, and a general atmosphere of panic, would place the government under severe pressure and force it to seek peace.
The extent of German overseas naval operational planning needs to be kept in mind in order to understand the East Asia Squadron's function in the wider context of German war aims. One remarkable aspect of the plans was the broad scale on which simultaneous commerce warfare operations were to be conducted. In 1905 the stated aim of the Squadron's movement to the American Pacific coast was "firstly to prevent [American] naval forces in East Asia and possibly also those of the west coast from proceeding to the Atlantic to unite with their battle fleet."2 This important task assigned to the Cruiser Squadron was in support of operations against the eastern United States seaboard,3 and this was complemented by the as yet little-publicised role of the Cruiser Squadron.
Much...