Nov 9: Napoleon's Brumaire Coup Begins, Sydney Defeats Emden

Host A Welcome to This Day in Military History. On this day, November 9, we have two very different stories, one about power changing hands in a palace, and one about a hard fight far out at sea.

Host A First, we go back to 1799, to a France still living with revolution, and to a general just back from his campaign in Egypt.

Host A He was already famous, already ambitious, and he was now part of a quiet plot to change the government.

Host A The plan was led by one of the directors, the men who ran the country, with help from a skilled political operator behind the scenes.

Host A The excuse was danger at home. There were rumours of a Jacobin plot, and that was enough to get things moving.

Host A The Council of Ancients voted to move both legislative councils out of Paris, to the palace of Saint-Cloud, the next day.

Host A The general was given command of the troops around Paris, officially to protect the assemblies while they met there.

Host A Then the executive began to crumble. Two directors resigned, and a third was pressed to resign too, and that effectively ended the Directory.

Host A But the real test did not come until the following day, out at Saint-Cloud, in front of the deputies themselves.

Host A The Council of Five Hundred turned on the general, the hall erupted, and in the end grenadiers cleared the chamber.

Host A It is in that tense moment that we get the line that still captures his nerve, recorded by the foundation that bears his name.

Host A Agitated, facing the deputies, he told them, Remember that I walk with the God of War, and the God of Fortune, and the hall broke into uproar.

Host A That evening, the remaining deputies replaced the Directory with three consuls, and the general was one of the three.

Host A Why does it still matter? Because that new consular government soon made him First Consul, the first step toward his personal rule of France.

Host A The coup is often treated as the effective end of the French Revolution, not with a great battle, but with votes, pressure, soldiers, and a chamber being emptied.

Host A More than a century later, on the same date in 1914, the story moves to the Indian Ocean, and to the opening months of the First World War.

Host A A German light cruiser, the Emden, under her captain, had been roaming those waters, capturing or sinking more than two dozen merchant ships.

Host A On the morning of 9 November, her captain sent a landing party of about 50 men ashore on Direction Island.

Host A Their job was to wreck the British cable and wireless station there, and cut that link before it could be used.

Host A But they were not quite quick enough. Before the signal was jammed, the station got a distress call away.

Host A Not far away, the Australian cruiser Sydney was escorting the first Australian and New Zealand troop convoy, and she was sent to investigate.

Host A It would become Australia's first single-ship battle at sea, one cruiser against another, with no fleet around them.

Host A The German ship fired first, at about 9:40 am, but the Australian ship was faster and better armed, and she scored more than 100 hits.

Host A Before long the raider was burning and no longer able to fight back, and her captain ran her aground on North Keeling Island to save his crew.

Host A The cost still has to be faced plainly. Between 131 and 134 of the German crew were killed, the figures are given as a range, and the Australian cruiser lost four killed.

Host A We remember them on both sides, men far from home, doing their duty in a war that was only just beginning.

Host A There is a striking detail that came afterwards, shared by the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Host A When the news reached Germany, the Kaiser promised that on her bow we will place the Iron Cross, speaking of the next ship to carry the same name, and every German navy ship of that name since has carried one.

Host A Why does it matter? The victory removed the main threat to the sea lanes between Australia and Britain, and helped troop convoys cross the Indian Ocean safely.

Host A There is something else, too. The winning crew cared for the German survivors, and that decency helped ease bitterness between the two sides.

Host A Also on this day, in 1864, at Kingston, Georgia, a Union general issued Special Field Orders No. 120, splitting his army into two wings for the coming March to the Sea, and directing that it will forage liberally on the country.

Host A And in 1918, as revolution spread through Germany, the chancellor announced the abdication of the Kaiser, who soon went into exile in the Netherlands.

Host A Thanks for tuning in, see you back here tomorrow.