SMS Emden

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Chennai remembers SMS Emden, the dreadful First World War German battleship


  

Not many know about some of the different, interesting facets of the Great War, more commonly known as the First World War, in the Asian front. The German navy during the war, tried to flex its muscle as far as the Indian Ocean and Chennai (then called as Madras) a southern port city in British India then, became the unfortunate ‘beneficiary’ of its wrath. On the late hours of September 22, 1914, a peaceful and unsuspecting Chennai retiring in to the night was stealthily approached by SMS Emden, a Dresden class light cruiser of the German navy and commanded by Captain Karl von Müller, with the singular objective of ‘enlightening’ the unperturbed and leisurely Indians of the horror and destruction of the Great War. On reaching the Madras harbor, the captain after surveying the scene around for a while, gave the order to fire at the numerous large oil tanks of the Burmah Oil company at around 9.30 pm. After setting the oil tanks ablaze, Emden then trained its guns on an innocuous merchant ship sinking it in no time. It was reported at that time that at least 5 sailors were killed and 26 others wounded in this attack.
By the time, the British shore batteries were able to fire back, SMS Emden had already completed here objective and managed to escape undamaged. Although the attack did little damage to Madras city itself, it dealt a blow to the British Morale and instilled fear in the population who fled the city in their thousands. As rumors about Emden attacking again began to spread, there was panic and chaos in the city with huge crowds thronging the Railway station and many others opting to leave the city by carts and even by foot.
After an attack on the Malaysian state of Penang, Emden proceeded to raid the Coco islands of Burma and that would prove to be its last outing in Sea. It was encountered by the more powerful Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and incurred heavy damages in the ensuing fight. To prevent from being sunk, Captain Müller had to run the ship aground and most of the survivors except for a landing party were taken prisoner.  The ship was subsequently destroyed by the tides and after many years was broken up for scrap in the 1950’s.
It should be noted that Madras was the only Indian city during the First World War to have come under attack by the Central Powers. The attack by the German warship left such an indelible impression in the Tamil people’s mind that the word ‘Emden’ had entered in to the Tamil lexicon meaning someone who is most daring and willing to take on any challenge.

Vijay Ramalingam

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