15 February 2019
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The Emden was an Imperial Germany light cruiser, armed with 10 4.1in guns, sent down to the Indian Ocean in 1914 to terrorise Allied trade and port facilities.
Author: WES OLSON
Reviewed by: Duncan Evans
The Emden was an Imperial Germany light cruiser, armed with 10 4.1in guns, sent down to the Indian Ocean in 1914 to terrorise Allied trade and port facilities. In just two months the Emden, under the command of the gentlemanly captain Karl von Müller, destroyed two warships and intercepted 29 merchants. Of these 15 were sunk, 11 were released and three were taken for their stores of coal.
It starts off in fairly dry fashion with details of the build and fitting of the Emden, but soon enough you’re swept along as the ship goes hunting for prey. What does come across is that while the fighting was brutal when it was over von Müller behaved with impeccable courtesy. Even when the Emden was sunk the British described their prisoners as: ‘… all very decent chaps.’ A great read, well produced.
• Seaforth Publishing
• 278 pages • Hardback • £25
As reviewed in The Armourer February 2019
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