Description
In the opening months of World War I, the German light cruiser SMS Emden became one of the most effective commerce raiders in the Indian Ocean. Under Captain Karl von Müller, she captured and sank Allied merchant ships, bombarded Madras, struck at Penang, and forced the Royal Navy to divert warships across thousands of miles in search of one elusive cruiser.
This documentary follows Emden’s independent campaign from her early raids to her final battle at the Cocos Islands on November 9, 1914. There, a distress signal brought HMAS Sydney racing to intercept her, turning a communications attack into the end of Emden’s voyage. The story reveals how one cruiser disrupted trade, exposed the vulnerability of imperial communications, and showed why information could be as decisive as firepower in modern naval war.