Germany
Maximilian von Spee
1861–1914 Commander of the East Asia Squadron
Vice-Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee was a respected, courteous officer who led the German cruiser squadron based at Tsingtao. He crossed the Pacific to the coast of South America and destroyed a British squadron at Coronel on 1 November 1914, a victory he met without joy: he is said to have remarked, when offered flowers, that they would do for his funeral. He then led his ships around Cape Horn into the South Atlantic, hoping to raid the Falkland Islands, and met Sturdee's battlecruisers on 8 December. He went down with his flagship Scharnhorst; his two sons, Otto on Nürnberg and Heinrich on Gneisenau, were lost in the same battle. His loss left Germany with few cruisers overseas.