Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "Battle of Coronel - Sundown in the Eastern Pacific" video.

@JohnEboy73 von Spee correctly assessed that his ships were no match for Canopus. While Scharnhorst and Gneisenau's turret-mounted 21cm guns (the casemate-mounted 21cm had only half the max elevation of the turrets and thus much shorter range) did indeed outrange Canopus's old 12"/35s (which were 2 generations older than the 12"/45 of early dreadnoughts) by about 2.7km, at that maximum range of 16.3km the shells would've just harmlessly plinked off the deck armor. And any attempt to get close enough to do damage would've resulted in getting savaged by the 12" guns. That would've been just as suicidal as Craddock's attempt to charge Spee's squadron was.
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@mrb692 Cradock was also wanting to do any damage possible to Spee's squadron, or at least force them to expend as much ammunition as possible. Since unlike the Royal Navy, the Kriegsmarine lacked facilities to resupply and repair overseas, this meant even after getting wiped out he still permanently weakened Spee.
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