Madras and the Emden saga: When Germany attacked India

As an Indian, most of us have thought that World War 1 and 2 were something that was fought in the distant shores of east Asia and Europe whilst we remained unscathed. But nothing could be further from the truth. This here is the saga of the SMS Emden.

SMS Emden was a light cruiser belonging to the German navy and under  Karl von Müller was the scourge of the Indian Ocean. Once hostilities broke out following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria the Emden stationed in Tsingtao, China. She operated as an independent raider and over a course of 2 months captured over a dozen ships plying commerce for the allies in the Indian ocean. It also launched surprise attacks in Malaysia and India where it had tremendous success especially in Penang Malaysia where it sunk two destroyers. It was finally beached in Australia after the battle of Cocos where most of its crew was captured. Given below is the raiding map of Emden

The bombardment of Madras

September 22nd 1914 was another quiet day in Madras with the majority of the population preparing itself for it’s golu celebrations as it was the third day of the Navarathri festival. The great war which they assumed was happening thousands of kilometers away was about to hit them at home.

Around 20 minutes past nine the SMS Emden fired achieving complete surprise.  It’s 22 guns trained on the harbor ripping across life and property. Three died and 22 people were injured. In addition, six large oil tanks were also destroyed after which the SMS Emben successfully retreated. As it’s captain Karl von Müller late wrote in his journal

I had this shelling in view simply as a demonstration to arouse interest among the Indian population, to disturb English commerce, to diminish English prestige

And raise interest in the Indian people he did. Over 20,000 people were leaving the city every day and trains and buses were crowded beyond measure. With wartime censorship in place newspapers, didn’t report on this incident and this only added fuel to the fire.Rumors were flying around and further attacks and this wasn’t helped by the fact that Lord Pentland, the governor of Madras was camping in Ooty. Questions arose that if the city was safe then why wasn’t the governor there.

All the uneasy feelings were put to rest when news reached Madras about the scuttling of Emden in the battle of Cocos.

The Hindu has a veritable list of images which show the aftermath of the Emden bombardment. It can be viewed here.

For those of you interested in knowing more there is a bombardment memorial in parrys.