Death At Sea: Graf Spee and the Flight of the German East Asiatic Naval Squadron in 1914

Death at Sea is the story of Graf Maximilian von Spee, commander of the German squadron in China at the outbreak of World War One. His was a powerful flotilla, but not powerful enough to remain in Asia, where the ships of Britain, France, Russia, and Japan could destroy him. If Graf Spee fled the Far East, however, attractive options beckoned. By sailing into the heart of the British Empire surrounding the Indian Ocean he could disrupt commerce and troop movements and perhaps spark rebellion in India. But if he sailed east across the Pacific and into the Atlantic, all the way around the world to Germany to reinforce the home fleet, together they represented a significant threat to the British navy. It all depended on what he decided to do. To a significant extent the outcome of World War One also depended on what he decided to do. Death at Sea is the novelistic history of what happened to Graf Spee's squadron and the ships that Britain deployed in an anxiety-charged effort to eliminate the menacing German threat. Opposing naval tactics and gunnery skills combined with the "fog of war," questionable leadership, and fatalistic personalities on both sides to determine the outcome. The author is professor of history at Drexel University in Philadelphia. His previous seven books include A History of the Great War (Oxford University Press, 2009), A History of Europe in the Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, 2004), and The Kaiser's Army (Oxford University Press, 2001).