An ignominious end: Tothe Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic
At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the Kriegsmarine lay far behind the Royal Navy, as Hitler knew all too well. He had long come to the realisetion that fleet actions were out of the question, but had high hopes of isolating Britain from her suppliers abroad by means of commerce raiders ships such as the Bismarck, the Scharnhorst and the Admiral Graf Spee...
THE GRAFSPEE GOES TO WAR
The Admiral Graf Spee, under the command of Kapitn zur See Hans Langsdorff, left Wilhelmshaven a week before the outbreak of the Second World War, and made her way safely to the South Atlantic where, late the following month, she received orders to begin an offensive against merchant shipping. She was relatively successful, sinking nine ships totalling some thing over 50,000grt in a cruise which took her into the southern Indian Ocean and then back towards the eastern seaboard of South America. In view of the area in which the commerce raider was operating, the British commander in the area, Commodore Harwood, became convinced that sooner or later she would head for the convoy assembly area off the mouth of the River Plate, which separates Uruguay from Argentina, and ordered his forces to concentrate there. At 06.14hrs on 13 December one of his ships sighted smoke, and he ordered the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter to investigate. Eight minutes later her captain signalled: I think it is a pocket-battleship.
A RUNNING FIGHT
Harwoods force numbered three ships the light cruisers Achilles and Ajax, and the Exeter; only the 8in (203mm) guns of the latter could be expected to inflict any meaningful damage on the Graf Spee, and then only at a range well within that of her guns. Nonetheless, all three joined the action, Exeter turning west, the two smaller ships hurrying north-east and then sweeping round in a wide arc to port, so as to divide the Germans attention. The stratagem paid off initially, and Langsdorff split his 28cm (11 in) battery to fire on both divisions, but he soon decided that the two smaller ships were in fact destroyers, and switched all six of his big guns onto the Exeter. By 06.50hrs she had only one turret left in action, and Langsdorff could probably have closed with her and finished her off, but he became distracted by the accurate though hardly effective fire he was receiving from the north. He turned on the light cruisers, and Exeter was able to slip away. At 07.25hrs, Ajaxs two after turrets were put out of commission by a direct hit, and once again Langsdorff could probably have brought the matter to a conclusion, but he seems already to have decided to run for the very temporary sanctuary of the neutral harbour of Montevideo, though to what end, one can only speculate.
BOTTLED UP IN PORT
The Graf Spee arrived in Montevideo during the early hours of 14 December, and the next day Langsdorff asked permission to remain for 72 hours beyond the permitted 24, to effect repairs. On the evening of 16 December, by which time he had been fooled into reporting the presence of a superior force lying in wait for him, Langsdorff received orders from Berlin to scuttle his ship rather than allow her to be interned or sunk, and next day he slipped his moorings and took her down river under a skeleton crew. At 19.56hrs, timed charges detonated, and she sank in shallow water. Three days later, Langsdorff shot himself in a hotel room.
