The Battle of Cocos

The destruction of the German raider SMS Emden in the Indian Ocean was of great significance to Australians in the first year of World War I. SMS Emden was a Dresden class light cruiser of the Imperial German Navy. Under Captain Von Müller, Emden has been raiding Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean throughout the last months of 1914, causing chaos in commerce and sinking or capturing 23 merchant vessels and two Allied warships.

On 1 November the First Australian Infantry Force had left Albany, Western Australia bound for war in Europe in a massive convoy of 38 transport ships. With German warships still at large, the convoy was escorted by Royal Australian Navy vessels and a Japanese cruiser. On the morning of the 9th of November the convoy received a wireless message from the Cocos Islands reporting the presence of a ‘strange warship’. The escorting cruiser HMAS Sydney under Captain Glossop (RN) was despatched to investigate.

HMAS Sydney had superior armament and speed to Emden. Captain Von Müller’s only chance was to score early hits and move in close enough to Sydney to launch torpedos. At first the battle went well for Von Müller and his crew, with Sydney suffering some damage. But it wasn’t critical and Glossop kept his nerve and distance. Soon enough Sydney’s bigger guns began to decimate Emden.

In less than two hours the Battle of Cocos was over. Von Müller ran Emden onto North Keeling Island a burning wreck. Sydney had lost 4 dead and 16 wounded while Emden suffered 134 killed and 69 wounded. A further 110, including the captain, were taken prisoner.

Some 70 of the Emden survivors were brought to the German Concentration Camp at Holsworthy south of Sydney and interned there for the duration of the war along with nearly 5,000 other Germans who were in Australia at the outbreak of war. While anti-German hysteria raged around the country, many of the prisoners of war and internees whiled away their time making art and handicrafts or writing memoirs.

The Battle of Cocos was the first major engagement of Australia’s newly formed navy and widely celebrated by Australians eager for military achievement on the global stage. The story of Emden’s raiding success and valiant defeat was eulogised in Germany and became the subject of books and films.

This battle in the Indian Ocean was a great moment for Australians eager to show the military prowess of the new nation on the world stage. But the Battle of Cocos was soon to be overshadowed by larger and more tragic events in Western Europe and at Gallipolli.