Bell's attitude is compared with Admiral Cradock's decision to engage at Coronel. In this interpretation, Cradock's choice arose from the Royal Navy's aggressive culture, with personal folly or outside pressure offering incomplete explanations. Although Cradock's force was destroyed, the German squadron expended roughly half of its ammunition before meeting British battlecruisers at the Falklands. That expenditure left the raiders in a worse condition for the later and much more powerful British response. The sequence reflects a belief that immediate resistance could constrain an enemy and make eventual victory easier even when the first force paid heavily.
Notable Point · 12:06-13:51
From Coronel to River Plate: damage that enables victory
The losses at Coronel frame a doctrine in which ammunition spent and damage inflicted could prepare a later British victory.