Bombardment of Papeete 1914
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 22 September 1914 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1914 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | French Polynesia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War I | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | -17.5300, -149.5700 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Bombardment of Papeete occurred in French Polynesia when German warships attacked on 22 September 1914, during World War I. The German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau entered the port of Papeete on the island of Tahiti and sank the French gunboat Zélée and freighter Walküre before bombarding the town's fortifications. French shore batteries and a gunboat resisted the German intrusion but were greatly outgunned. The main German objective was to seize the coal piles stored on the island, but these were destroyed by the French at the start of the action.
The German vessels were largely undamaged but the French lost their gunboat. Several of Papeete's buildings were destroyed and the town's economy was severely disrupted. The main strategic consequence of the engagement was the disclosure of the cruisers' positions to the British Admiralty, which led to the Battle of Coronel where the entire German East Asia Squadron defeated a Royal Navy squadron. The depletion of Scharnhorst's and Gneisenau's ammunition at Papeete also contributed to their subsequent destruction at the Battle of the Falklands.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Bombardment of Papeete (revision 1370605212), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Other battles of the World War I
- Action of 22 September 1914 1914
- Affair of Néry 1914
- Battle of Antivari 1914
- Battle of Arras (1914) 1914
- Battle of Cocos 1914
- Battle of Coronel 1914
- Battle of Dornach (1914) 1914
- Battle of Galicia 1914
- Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914) 1914
- Battle of Kolubara 1914
All 138 battles of the World War I →
Browse more: battles in French Polynesia · Oceania · World War I era battles