The Battle of Manila Bay 1898

A squadron of the recently modernised U.S.  Navy, under command of Commodore (later Admiral) George Dewey, quickly and utterly annihilated an inferior Spanish fleet under Admiral Patricio Montojo.

The action was significantly attended by warships of two other powers – Germany, which in that war was strongly pro-Spanish; and Britain, which alone in Europe was firmly pro-American.

There was a real possibility that the German ships might crucially intervene on the Spanish side: but the possibility was eliminated by the pre-emptive action of the British commander, Captain (later Rear-Admiral Sir Edward) Chichester, who deployed his ships in such a manner that the Germans could not have fired on the Americans without the risk of hitting the British — a risk which in all the circumstances the German commander, Vice-Admiral Otto von Diederichs, was sensibly unprepared to take.