The first Canadian deaths in the war did not occur on the European front, but off the coast of Chile. Threatened by the Australian and Japanese navies, the German East Asia Squadron, commanded by Vice-Admiral von Spee, left the German base of Tsingtao to cross the Pacific to the Americas. On the way, in the Battle of Coronel, von Spee’s squadron sank two British cruisers, including the HMS Good Hope, where four aspiring officers of the Royal Canadian Navy were on duty. This defeat, in which 1600 British sailors were also killed, was the first suffered by the omnipotent British navy in two centuries, and was an enormous shock for the British public.
