The Revisit: 125 shells, 10 minutes and a German attack on Madras – when WWI reached India | India News
When World War I broke out in Europe in July 1914, Madras was thousands of kilometres away from the battlefields. Yet there was little certainty among British authorities that the war would remain confined to Europe. The city’s strategic importance as a major port made it vulnerable, and within weeks, residents were being advised to move towards safer places in the hinterland.By September, the anxiety had become real enough for some families to leave.Among them were the grandparents of PD Balaji, professor and head of the department of ancient history and archaeology at the University of Madras. Speaking to The Times of India in 2017, Balaji recalled that his grandparents lived in Royapettah and moved to Salem briefly, taking some valuables with them because they feared Madras could come under attack.Their fears were realised on the night of September 22, 1914, when the German cruiser SMS Emden appeared off the Madras coast and opened fire.The attack lasted only a short time, but it became one of the most remarkable episodes of India’s experience of World War I.
The warship that did not look German
The Emden had already been operating in the waters around the Indian subcontinent, attacking shipping before turning towards Madras. But the cruiser had an unusual advantage: it did not necessarily look like an enemy vessel from a distance.Historian Venkatesh Ramakrishnan told TOI that the Emden had a dummy fourth funnel, which made the German cruiser appear like a British ship.That deception was particularly useful in the busy waters of the region.“Some enemy ships even saluted it during navigation,” Ramakrishnan told TOI.The disguise allowed the cruiser to move through waters where a genuine German warship might otherwise have attracted immediate attention. By the time it approached Madras, the British authorities were facing a vessel that had managed to exploit both surprise and confusion.
130 shells in one night
At around 9.30 pm, the attack began.The precise nature of the German target remains one of the interesting questions surrounding the bombardment. Some accounts have suggested that Fort St George was the intended target, while historian Venkatesh Ramakrishnan offered a different explanation.According to Ramakrishnan, Captain Karl von Müller did not necessarily direct his guns at one particular building.“The Emden’s captain Karl von Muller did not aim at any particular target. The shells were fired on any structure that was illuminated by the lighthouse,” he told TOI.Around 130 shells were fired that night, according to Ramakrishnan.One struck a storage tank belonging to the Burmah Oil Company near the harbour. The tank caught fire, and the blaze continued for three days, turning the attack into a highly visible spectacle for the city.A separate 2014 TOI report, quoting historian V Dhivakar, put the number of shells at at least 125, fired within around 10 minutes. Dhivakar said the shells hit oil tanks containing approximately 350,000 gallons of oil.Whatever the precise count, the scale of the bombardment was remarkable for an attack that lasted only a short period.The German cruiser had sailed close enough to Madras to fire into the city and then withdrew before the British could mount an effective response.
From harbour to high court
The attack was not confined to the waterfront.According to Ramakrishnan, shrapnel struck several parts of Madras, including the High Court, General Hospital, Vepery, Haddows Road, Poonamallee High Road, the gun battery at Royapuram, Casa Major Road and George Town.The geography of the damage is significant because it demonstrated how a naval attack on the harbour could quickly become a city-wide shock.For residents, the source of the explosions was initially not something they could easily understand. The war had until then existed largely in newspapers and official announcements. Suddenly, its sound could be heard across Madras.And the sight of the oil tank burning for days provided a lasting reminder that the British Empire’s war had reached the Indian coast.
A city already preparing to flee
The Emden attack did not come completely out of the blue.Anxiety had spread through Madras in the weeks following the outbreak of World War I. British authorities had advised residents to move to safer locations in the hinterland because of fears that enemy forces could attack the city.The exodus had already begun when the German cruiser struck.For families who had left, the decision suddenly appeared prescient. For those who remained, the bombardment reinforced fears that the Emden might return or that other German vessels could attack the city.The account of Balaji’s grandparents provides a glimpse into what that uncertainty meant at an individual level. They left their Royapettah home for Salem and carried valuables with them, not knowing how long they would have to stay away.This was not merely a military episode. It had begun affecting ordinary civilian decisions.
Why did Emden leave?
The attack also produced a question that historians continue to debate: Why did the Emden withdraw so quickly?The cruiser had managed to reach Madras, fire more than a hundred shells and hit important infrastructure. Yet it did not remain to inflict prolonged damage.Historian V Dhivakar challenged the later British explanation that Emden withdrew because of the British response.“After Emden reached a safe distance, the British started responding towards what for them was an unknown object in the dark far out at sea,” Dhivakar told TOI.He argued that the German cruiser could potentially have inflicted considerably more damage had it remained longer.The question becomes more intriguing when the Emden’s capabilities are considered. Dhivakar described the cruiser as a formidable warship for its time, armed with ten 10.5cm guns and two torpedo tubes.Why Muller chose to stop when he did remains one of the enduring mysteries of the Madras raid.The Emden story also acquired an Indian revolutionary dimension through Chempakaraman Pillai, an Indian-born political activist and revolutionary who was living in Germany.A persistent claim has suggested that Pillai helped the Germans plan the Madras attack or was aboard the Emden.But the evidence cited by Dhivakar does not establish that.He told TOI that Pillai was not aboard the Emden during its wartime operations. Dhivakar referred to a book by Hellmuth von Mucke, the ship’s vice-commander, which recorded several incidents aboard the cruiser without mentioning Pillai.Mucke did, however, refer to an Indian passenger who provided information.That detail has helped keep the Indian connection alive, but it does not prove that Pillai himself was involved in the attack.
The word ‘Emden’ survives
The most curious legacy of the raid may have been linguistic.The name Emden became part of popular usage in southern India, particularly in Tamil, where it came to be associated with someone formidable, daring or intimidating.The German cruiser therefore outlived its own military career in an unexpected way.The ship was eventually cornered and destroyed later in 1914, but its name had already acquired a place in Indian memory.For Madras, meanwhile, the physical reminders of the bombardment became part of the city’s history. The High Court was among the places struck by shrapnel, while accounts of the attack have continued to document the damage caused across the harbour and surrounding neighbourhoods.
The night war came home
The Emden attack did not change the outcome of World War I. It did not result in the capture of Madras, nor did it lead to a prolonged German campaign on the Indian coast.Its significance was different.It showed that a war that seemed distant and European could reach an Indian city with little warning. It exposed the vulnerability of a major colonial port, sent residents fleeing towards the interior and forced the British to confront the possibility that India’s coastline could become part of the global conflict.
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For the people of Madras, September 22, 1914, was therefore not simply another date in the history of World War I.It was the night when the distant war suddenly became local: when a German cruiser appeared off the coast, 130 shells tore into the city, a Burmah Oil tank burned for three days, shrapnel reached the High Court and other parts of Madras, and a word that once belonged to a German warship entered the vocabulary of southern India.
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