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Coastal Artillery 1912
In 1912 the Overseas Defence
Committee reassessed the naval threat to Aden, in
essence downgrading it to an attack by three light
cruisers. In 1907 the threat assessment had been that up
to three armoured cruisers might attack Aden.
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Scharnhorst
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These were the type of vessel
such as the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau that would
form the major ships in Admiral Sheer’s
five-ship China squadron that would head across
the Pacific in 1914. He might have decided
instead to enter the Indian Ocean and mount an
attack on shipping at Aden. So one could argue
that the 1907 assessment was much the more
accurate one. |
However, the Admiralty in 1912 took
the opportunity of reiterating their view of the
strategic unimportance of Aden. As far as they were
concerned it was nothing more than a commercial coaling
station; it had neither docks nor local trade and its
location was in no way vital to naval warfare. There was
nothing at Aden worth the expenditure of a ship’s
ammunition except the vessels that might be in the
harbour.
As a result of this dismissive
assessment it was decided to remove the four fairly
modern 10-inch guns that were defending Aden from attack
by armoured cruiser. A light cruiser threat only needed
6-inch guns for coastal defence. The problem at the end
of 1912 was that Aden only had two modern guns of this
calibre (at Tarshayne), plus eight obsolete ones at
Morbut, which were due to be replaced by two more of the
modern ones in due course. Since this change was not
envisaged for many months it was agreed that the 10-inch
guns could remain at Aden until the other two modern
guns were in place.
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