Bombardment of Papeete

Bombardment of Papeete
Part of Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I
Ruined bombed out buildings near a church in Papeete after the bombardment.
Buildings in the city of Papeete destroyed by German shore bombardment.
Date22 September 1914
Location
Result

German victory

  • French ships sunk
  • Coal piles not captured, destroyed by the French[1]
Belligerents
 France  Germany
Commanders and leaders
France Maxime Destremau German Empire Maximilian von Spee
Strength
Land:
160 infantry
2 shore batteries
Sea:
1 gunboat
1 freighter[2]
2 armored cruisers[3]
Casualties and losses
1 gunboat sunk
1 freighter sunk
Papeete severely damaged[4]
none[4]
Civilian casualties:
2 killed[4]

Map of depicting various pacific islands and the dates at which Spee arrived at them.
Scharnhorst's and Gneisenau's path across the Pacific.

The Bombardment of Papeete occurred in French Polynesia when German warships attacked on 22 September 1914, during World War I. The German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau entered the port of Papeete on the island of Tahiti and sank the French gunboat Zélée and freighter Walküre before bombarding the town's fortifications. French shore batteries and a gunboat resisted the German intrusion but were greatly outgunned. The main German objective was to seize the coal piles stored on the island, but these were destroyed by the French at the start of the action.

The German vessels were largely undamaged but the French lost their gunboat. Several of Papeete's buildings were destroyed and the town's economy was severely disrupted. The main strategic consequence of the engagement was the disclosure of the cruisers' positions to the British Admiralty, which led to the Battle of Coronel where the entire German East Asia Squadron defeated a Royal Navy squadron. The depletion of Scharnhorst's and Gneisenau's ammunition at Papeete also contributed to their subsequent destruction at the Battle of the Falklands.

  1. ^ Halpern, p. 89
  2. ^ Gudmundsson, p. 2
  3. ^ Corbett, p. 312
  4. ^ a b c American Forestry, p. 558