Hellmuth von Mücke (1881-1957), first officer of SMS Emden and commander of the landing party at Cocos on November 9. Over the next seven months, he led the fifty-three men of the landing party successfully back to Europe, losing only four men in the process. After the war, he became an early member of and politician for the Nazi Party, but became a pacifist in the late 1920s and disavowed the Nazis, an action which precluded him from serving in any capacity in the next war.

January 9, Hodeida [Al Hudaydah]—Two months before, the SMS Emden had been destroyed at the Battle of Cocos; most of her men had captured by the Australians or killed in the battle. However, the fifty-three men the Emden landed on Cocos Island to destroy the wireless station there earlier that morning had escaped capture aboard the schooner Ayesha, and had since been attempting to make their way back to friendly territory. This was no easy task; with the Emden gone, there was no German naval presence in the whole Indian Ocean (apart from the Königsberg holed up in the Rufiji delta). The British and their allies controlled the Indian Ocean and the vast majority of its ports; the only friendly ports in the ocean were those in German East Africa (which was itself isolated) or in Turkish-controlled Arabia (which would require passing through the British-controlled Straits of Aden). There were a few neutral ports scattered around the ocean—Portuguese ports in Africa (and Goa) and Dutch ports in Indonesia. The Ayesha made for the latter, arriving at the Dutch port of Padang in Sumatra. The Ayesha was in no condition to sail across the ocean again, but their captain, von Mücke (formerly first officer of the Emden), was unwilling to risk internment, and set off the next day.

While in Padang, von Mücke had arranged for a German merchant ship, the Choising, which had been sheltering in Padang, to meet the Ayesha off the coast of Sumatra. There, the Emden survivors transferred off the leaky Ayesha and the Choising began its cruise across the unfriendly Indian Ocean. The Choising disguised herself as an Italian merchant vessel in an attempt to avoid the British, but it was unlikely the ruse would stand up under close inspection. On January 8, the Choising had reached the Straits of Aden and the entrance to the Red Sea. Sailing through at night, they managed to avoid nearby British ships, and von Mücke’s men had disembarked in the Turkish port of Hodeida [Al Hudaydah, in modern-day Yemen] by January 9. There, von Mücke met with the commander of the Turkish 40th Division in an effort to determine the best way back to Germany. He received little help from the Turks, and after several weeks of delays, von Mücke decided to march his men to Sana’a, the major city in Yemen.

Sources include Randal Gray, Chronicle of the First World War (Volume I).