This Christmas will be the first one I will spend on my own. Shared custody means I get the kids for half of it but also spend half cooling my heels and it got me thinking to one of my favourite warships (naturally) and her lonely existence and Christmas of 1914

The light cruiser SMS Dresden was laid down in Hamburg in 1905 as the lead of her class and finally completed in 1908 and is often eclipsed by her famous sister SMS Emden.

In July 1914 she was under the command of Kapitan zur See Erich Kohler stationed in the Carribean to assist during the ongoing crisis in Mexico. On 27th her relief, SMS Karlsruhe arrived & exchanged commanders with Fritz Ludecke coming aboard to take Dresden back to Germany.

The outbreak of war changed those plans & Dresden swept down the East coast of South America aiming to reach the River Plate and carrying out Cruiser warfare. En route they stopped the SS Drumcliffe (6/8/14) but as her Captain did not know war had started Ludecke let them go

Dresden rendezvoused with several colliers on her way as well as caught the SS Holmwood and Hyades whose crews were evacuated before sinking. The Dresden with her three support ships moved to the island of Trinidade

At Trinidade Ludecke passed orders to KvtKpt Wirth of the gunboat Eber (freshly arrived from Sud-West Afrika) to arm the liner Cap Trafalgar as a merchant raider and use this base for his operations against the British shipping in the area.

Dresden, who had been due a refit, was starting to struggle with her engines wearing out and she was struggling to keep up with merchant ships. The Ship's crew tried to overhaul her at Hoste Island in the Tierra del Fuego off Chile.

The German collier Santa Isabel reported rich pickings on the West coast of S. America and on 18/9 she rounded the Straits of Magellan but she was to have no luck against shipping but she did receive Wireless communication from an unlikely source to come to Easter Island.

Viz-admiral von Spee's Ostasiengeschwader had crossed the Pacific and was coaling at Easter island and after making contact with the Leipzig which was further up the coast both ships joined the Admiral there.

As the Admiral planned for the next leg of their journey the Dresden escorted several ships to Valparaiso to coal and gather supplies for the fleet - it was there that they gained intelligence that HMS Glasgow was off Coronel looking for the German ships reported in the area.

Unknown to the Germans was that Glasgow was the vanguard of Kit Craddock's (pictured) fleet centred on the armoured cruisers Monmouth and Good Hope with the liner Otranto with the Canopus bringing up the rear

At the battle of Coronel on 1/11/14 which saw Craddock's two armoured cruisers lost with all hands and the Glasgow & Otranto fleeing. During the action Leipzig & Dresden were sent on torpedo runs against the armoured cruisers but in the confusion almost torpedoed each other

Following the battle the German fleet took it in turns to coal at Valparaiso and then swept south towards the Straits. A storm caused much of the excess coal that was being stored on deck to be washed away or jettisoned to stop the cruisers from capsizing.

Von Spee decided on a raid on the Falkland Islands to regain coal and as a prestige raid. (see my other thread https://twitter.com/jerijerod14/status/1336288215062474756?s=20). The Dresden managed to escape the battle at full speed and into the dark and rain to start life alone.

Not wanting to pull into port and give away her position the Dresden landed men to cut down trees in Tierra del Fuego to augment the coal but had to stop at Punta Arenas to get supplies. The German consulate pleaded for Ludecke to intern and save his crew from being killed.

Ludecke, bereft of orders from the Admiralstab in Berlin refused & ignored the Chilean Cruiser Almirante Condell who ordered them to move out of Chilean waters or intern. The British consulate reported to Admiral Sturdee that Dresden was in Punta Arenas.

A former German sailor and resident of the town, Albert Pagels came aboard the Dresden and helped navigate the cruiser into the depths of the archipelago into areas so remote British maps had them as on land. Pagels would go back and forth bringing supplies & organising more

Vice Admiral Stoddart led the British ships into the islands to try and find the hiding cruiser whilst the HMAS Australia came in from the West to look for her but to no avail and with the RN coming within yards of their quarry but never quite finding her.

Christmas day was spent, as many of the other days, with repairs to the ship ongoing, scouting out for her British hunters with the steam pinnace, general maintenance and boredom.

The liner Sierra Cordoba (below) arrived with coal and supplies and aided the Dresden further. For the RN things were getting fraught and Stoddart did not believe the Germans were there anymore giving up only 12 miles from Dresden!

With the Bristol hitting a rock and getting damaged, Glasgow hunting the wrong area (as Pagels was spreading false information) & with Stoddart taking the rest of the force up the East coast believing Dresden to have doubled back the Germans crept slowly west.

On 27th February Ludecke had to use his wireless to summon any german ships to his assistance which alerted the Royal Navy. HMS Kent hurried to her position but only managed to see the Dresden once again escape into the fog....

I'll write about the Dresden's continuing adventures closer to the anniversary