SMS Gneisenau
"Gneisenau" was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, Germany in 1904, under construction number 144. She was launched on 14 June 1906, and commissioned into the fleet nearly two years later on 6 March 1908. The ship cost the German government 19,243,000 goldmarks. The ship had been designed for service with the High Seas Fleet, though it was found to be too weak for service with the battle fleet; instead it was deployed overseas, a role in which it performed well.
SMS Gneisenau
By 13:20, the faster British ships had caught up with "Gneisenau" and the other cruisers, and began to fire at a range of . Von Spee realized his armored cruisers could not escape the much faster battlecruisers, and so ordered the three light cruisers to attempt to break away while he turned about to engage the British with "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst". However, Sturdee detached his armored and light cruisers to pursue the German light cruisers, while the battlecruisers dealt with "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst". "Inflexible" attacked "Gneisenau" while "Invincible" opened fire at "Scharnhorst". Sturdee attempted to widen the distance by turning two points to the north to prevent von Spee from closing to within the range of his smaller guns. Von Spee counteracted this maneuver by turning rapidly to the south, which forced Sturdee to turn south as well. This allowed "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" to get close enough to engage with their secondary guns; their shooting was so effective that it forced the British to haul away temporarily.