Hunt the Kaiser's Cruisers! (1/2) - The Caravan of Sailors | Documentary series on the German Navy

In the early days of the 20th century, the German Kaiser challenged the naval power of the British with a new and mighty battle fleet. Who would rule the world’s seas? It was a question that would be decided in the First World War. After the shock defeat of the British at Coronel, a battle which cost 1,700 seamen their lives, Winston Churchill demanded a merciless revenge. Off the Falkland Islands, the entire German overseas squadron with a crew of 2,200 men was sunk. Only two cruisers escaped the demise of their fleet, the Dresden and the Emden. Churchill set a bounty on them, making them the most hunted ships on the Seven Seas. In the icy fjords of Patagonia and the tropical heat of the South Seas, both crews battled for their very survival. After a dramatic hunt they were both finally sunk.

Nonetheless, most of their crewmen escaped death and returned home safe and sound. How this came about and their long adventurous journey through the war-torn seas and continents is recounted by two very dramatic documentaries in the Hunt the Kaiser’s Cruisers! series, The Caravan of Sailors and The Last Ship Afloat. Newly discovered archive materials on the decisive sea battles, naval reports and private journals permit a precise reconstruction of the events. For the first time, interviews with descendants and military historians, footage from the original scenes of action and dramatic re-enactments allow us to do justice to both of these exciting stories.

A film by Jürgen Stumpfhaus

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When the German Reichsmarine receives the terrible news of the outbreak of the First World War at its only overseas base, on the east coast of China, the squadron sets off on its retreat to Germany via South America. Only one ship remains: the fast but weakly armoured cruiser EMDEN. Within a few weeks, the EMDEN becomes the most feared privateer of the First World War, sinking 34 Allied freighters and warships. Merchant shipping on the Southeast Asia route comes to a standstill, as do troop transports from the British colonies to the front in Europe. Twenty battleships from England, Japan and Australia now hunt for the EMDEN.
During a mission to Keeling Island, a remote palm atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean, an Australian armoured cruiser suddenly appears and sinks the EMDEN. To avoid capture, First Officer Hellmut von Mücke comes up with a daring plan: he confiscates a discarded sailing schooner without further ado. The crew survives for three weeks on collected rainwater until they are finally picked up by a German freighter. But where to? All accessible ports are in enemy hands. Only the Ottoman Empire has sided with the Germans. At the southern tip of the Great Turkish Empire, in Yemen, Mücke and his men are dropped off. What follows is an incredible odyssey over 1,000 km through the Arabian Desert to the north.