Prior to the hostilities begining, The German Navy ahd sent two of its "pocket" battleships in to the Atlantic to serve as commerce raiders. Deutchland in the North and Graf Spee in the South. Setting sail from their base in Wilhelmshafen on 21 August 1939, the Graf Spee and 3 days later, Deutchland remained undetected by the Royal Navy and Costal Command. Hitler had hoped the after Poland was defeated, Britain would seek peace with the third Reich. Both raiders would be inactive for the first 3 weeks of the war.
These restrictions were lifted on 26 September 1939. Graf Spee sank the British steamer Clement, a 5000 ton ship, off Pernambuco, Brazil. Deutchland, for it's part, sank the 5000 ton British Stone gate. Graf Spee's next successes would come in the sea lanes between Capetown, South Africa and England. In this region, the british freighters Newton Beach, Ashlea, Huntsman and Trevanion fell victim to the German warship. Graf Spee was then dispatched by the Navy to the Idian ovean, where she was less than succesfull, sinking only a small tanker, the Africa Shell. The battleship then returned to the South Atlantic waters.
Graf SpeeDoric Star(10000 tons) managed to send a message before sinking. Harwood decided that the most likely destination of Graf Spee was the river Plate. HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achillies were ordered to rendezvous 150 east of the River Plate on 12 december 1939. the battleship Cumberland remained in the Falklands for refit.
0600 hrs the next day, at 0614 hrs, smoke was spoted by Exeter who reported a possible pocket battleship. It was Graf Spee. The battle began with the German ship opening fire at 0618 followed by Exeterat 0620, Ajax at 0621 and Achilles at 0623. The first naval battle of the war was underway. Harwood was employing his ships as 2 seperate forces rather than a single one. This was not anticipated by the German commander, Captain Hans Langsdorff. This agve a great advantage to the British who were able to mutualy support each other to be more accurate when firing. Graf speeExeter within range. Of the shells fired, one burst amidship and killed the starboard torpedo crew and destroying both aircrafs on board. A more serious hit "B" turret and put it out of action. The ships captain was wounde by shell splinters.
Graf Spee was then hit herself by a shell from Exeter which hit the control tower. Of greater concern for the Germans was the proximity of Ajax and Achillies. Langsdorff had to direct his guns away from Exeter and use them agains the two cruisers, 13000 yards away. He the had to turn away to avoid torpedoes the had been fired by Exeter. Langsdorff changed direction once again and proceeded to lay smoke. Once again, Exeter was on the receiving end of German fire, and was hit, putting another turret out of action and acusing a fire. The Germans could not move in for the kill however, shells from the cruisers were causing casuakties in the superstructure. The British shells were not penetrating Graff Spee's armor however.
Langsdorff then decided to move away from his attackers to make full use of his bigger guns. Harwood saw no reason to let this happen. With their superior speed, the two cruisers got in closer. After more firing, Harwood received reports the his cruisers were low on ammunition and decided to break off. These reports were inacurate.
Graf Spee was by then looking for a place to carry out much needed repairs. She had used a fair quantity of ammunition and had a 6 foot hole in her bows and was in no condition to take to the North Atlantic. Even though no shell had gone through her armor, the rest of the ship was recked, 36 of the crew were dead and 60 were wounded, 6 seriously.
For the rest of the day, Harwood followed the German ship and often went in close, provoking the Germans into firing. By midnight, Graf Spee had enterd Montevideo and droped anchor. This was the end of the battle of the river plate.
From that point on, the fight would be diplomatic. Langsdorff wanted 15 days in port to make the ship sea and battle worthy. International conventions only allow vesels to remain in neutral ports for 24 hours. The only exception was for repairs urgently needed to make ships seaworthy. The British argues that since Graf Spee had saile 300 miles since breaking off, she was not unseaworthy and was required to leave the next day. The Uraguayans decided that they would inspect the ship and determine how long she could stay. The British changed their attitude suddenly: Harwood wanted reinforcements besides Cumberland which had sailed from the falkland islands. The British then made ckever use of psycological warfare. They started a rumor that a large British fleet, including the carrier Ark Royal were waiting outside of Uraguyan waters. They were a good 1000 miles away in reality.
Langsdorff the counsulted with Berlin. Convinced that his ship was too damaged to fight he pondered if he should accept internment or destroy his ship. Hitler ruled agains internment.
With 700 of it's crew on the German tanker Tacoma and only a skeleton crew aboard, Graf Spee set sail out of Montevideo on 17 December at 1800 hrs. 4 miles out she stoped and droped anchor. Captain Langsdorff and the rest of the skeleton crew left the ship. At 2000hrs, there was a series of 6 large explosions aboard. The Graf Spee had been scuttled rather than fight again.
Graf Spee's crew were taken to Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital. Most officers and a few men managed to escape internment. Some others setteled in argentina and the rest were repatriated in 1946. Captain Langsdorff shot himself in his hotel room.
