German intelligence department. Unknown to Spee a British squadron of feeble cruisers in the South Atlantic had been reinforced by two new and powerful battle-cruisers, the Invincible and the Inflexible, and elaborate pains had been taken, after a junction was effected, not to allow any hint of their presence to escape. When the British fleet arrived at Port Stanley, on December 7, the two larger vessels immediately sought concealment in the bay. The trap having been set, its victims were not long in sailing to attack. On the following day the German squadron appeared in the offing, accompanied by the converted merchantman Prinz Eitel Friedrich, afterward interned at Norfolk, Virginia, and which came to Port Stanley probably for the purpose of using it as a coaling station.

Seeing only the five British cruisers-none of them equal in fighting value to the German armored cruisers-and one old battleship on guard, the Germans promptly cleared for action. Closing in, they opened fire, to which the British cruisers replied. The action had become furious and apparently was evenly contested when, out through the narrow harbor entrance, came the long gray forms of the two great battle-cruisers, each with her eight 12-inch guns swung out for action. Spee, realizing the situation, made signal for his squadron to scatter. It was too late, however. The Germans had come far within British range. The Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau at once became targets for the British battle-cruisers, the light German ships being left to the smaller cruisers.

The Invincible received the brunt of the German fire. Both German cruisers fought desperately and had at least the satisfaction of getting home several broadsides on the Invincible, which, however, rattled vainly against her heavy armor. The Scharnhorst had won the gold medal for target practise in the Kaiser's navy in 1913. Her shooting in this, her last fight, justified her reputation. But one 12-inch British salvo after another battered the German ships to pieces, raking them from stem to stern, tearing away their light armor and opening up holes. It was not long before flames were licking about the upper works, first of the Scharnhorst, then of the Gneisenau. One after another their guns

became silent as the crews had been killed at their stations behind the guns. There was no hint of surrender, however. With their last guns still blazing defiance, the two German cruisers heeled slowly over and went down, with Admiral von Spee's flag on the Scharnhorst still flying.

An event of peculiar interest had already taken place at another point. This was a death-grapple between the Leipzig and the Glasgow, both survivors of the engagement off Coronel. This fight was not as unequal as was the one between the larger ships. On the Glasgow occurred most of the British casualties, comprising nine killed and four wounded in the fight. But the 6-inch guns of the Glasgow counted more than the 4-inch guns of the Leipzig. At the end of a two-hour action the German ship, on fire and sinking, hoisted the white flag. The Glasgow ceased firing and, running close to the sinking German ship, lowered her boats to save the remnants of the crew. Other British cruisers a little later came up to the Nürnberg whose captain refused to surrender. Completely outnumbered and outweighted she was speedily sent to the bottom. Her destruction became the salvation of the Dresden and Prinz Eitel Friedrich, because the British cruisers stopt to pick up survivors from the Nürnberg, giving a brief respite, which enabled them to get away. In the London Times the German fleet's gallant end was acknowledged as follows: "The battle off the Falkland Islands was declared to have redeemed modern warfare from a reproach. On both sides men fought with men; not machines with invisible machines. The human factor figured as surely as it did in the days of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis.3a Finally those who still like to see some of its ancient glory hang about war owe a debt to Sturdee and von Spee."

The German admiral fought as Cradock had fought; the German sailors died as Cradock's men had died. They went down with colors flying, and the crew, at the last lined up on the decks of the doomed ships, continued to resist after the vessels had become shambles. One captured officer reported that, before the end, his ship had no upper

зa A reference to the battle of John Paul Jones in the North Sea during the American Revolution.