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HMS CANOPUS https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...news_mimic.jpgQuite the performer in the great war incl. firing the two opening rounds of the Battle of the Falklands...one a decisive dud!

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Stanley, Canopus's crew set up defences against an attack by Graf Spee. Canopus herself was beached in the mudflats in a position that allowed her to cover the entrance to the harbour and have a field of fire landward to the southeast; to reduce her visibility, her topmasts were struck and she was camouflaged. An observation post was established ashore on high ground and connected to the ship by telephone, allowing Canopus to use indirect fire against approaching ships. Some of her 12-pounder guns and a detachment of 70 Royal Marines were put ashore to defend Stanley and its environs. All was quiet until welcome reinforcements arrived at Stanley on 7 December 1914 in the form of the battlecruiser squadron of Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick Doveton Sturdee. Early the next morning, 8 December 1914 Canopus's observation post ashore spotted smoke on the horizon and soon identified the approaching ships as von Spee's squadron. Canopus opened indirect fire, firing the first shots of the Battle of the Falklands at the extreme range of 12,000 yards (11,000 m). Although von Spee was beyond the range of her guns she did succeed in hitting the after funnel of the armoured cruiserSMS Gneisenau with a 12-inch shell that ricocheted off the water -a result which the Greenwich museum attributes to an inert practice shell left in the rear turret. :yeah: The Germans were surprised by gunfire from an unexpected source:HMS Canopus, which had been grounded as a guardship and was behind a hill. This was enough to check the Germans' advance. Under fire from Canopus and spotting the tophampers of Sturdee's battlecruisers, von Spee called off his force's planned attack on the Falklands' radio and coaling stations and ran, allowing Sturdee's force to raise steam and pursue the German force. Sturdee gave chase and destroyed von Spee's squadron by the end of the day, but Canopus remained behind at Stanley because of her low speed and missed the rest of the battle...her work well done!