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Show THREE GERMAN CRUISERS SUNK THE BRITISH NAVY SQUARES ACCOUNTS AC-COUNTS WITH DESTROYERS OF BRITISH CRUISERS. In Most Terrific Engagement of the War, Three Vessels Are Sent to the Bottom, Two Captured, While Two Escaped. London. In the most terrific naval engagement in point of guns and ton nage yet fought in the war, Vice Admiral Ad-miral Sir Frederick C. D. Sturdee's cruiser squadron engaged the German squadron of Admiral Von Spee on Wednesday, sank his flagship, the armored ar-mored cruiser Scharnhorst, of 11,420 tons; its sister ship, the Gneisenau, and the light cruiser Leipzig, of 3,200 tons. The light cruisers Nurnberg and Dresden escaped and are being pursued by the victorious British fleet. Two colliers attached to the German fleet .were captured. The official statement of the nd-miralty nd-miralty says some survivors of the Gneisenau and Leipzig were rescued, but no mention is made of any survivors sur-vivors of the flagship Scharnhorst, and it is believed Admiral Von Spee went down with his ship. The complements com-plements of the Scharnhorst and Gneu-senau Gneu-senau were 764 men each, and that of the Leipzig, 303. Thus more than 1,-800 1,-800 officers and men were aboard the three ships sunk, and it is believed the losses will exceed 1,500. The battle occurred Wednesday morning off the Falkland islands, in the South Atlantic, 300 miles off the Atlantic entrance of the Straits of Magellan. The British casualties are officially reported as three killed and wounded. It was Admiral Von Bpee's fleet which sank the British cruisers Good Hope and Monmouth and severely damaged the cruiser Glasgow and the converted cruiser Otranto of Rear Admiral Ad-miral Sir Christopher Cradock's fleet off Coronel, on the coast of Chile, at dusk on Sunday, November 1. |