Battle of the River Plate

Admiral Graf Spee had been at sea at the start of the Second World War in September 1939 and had sunk several merchantmen in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean without loss of life because of her captain's policy of taking all crews on board before sinking the victim. The Royal Navy assembled nine forces to search for the surface raider: Force G, the South American Cruiser Squadron, comprised the heavy cruiser of with eight guns in four turrets, the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter of with six guns in three turrets, and two light cruisers, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles, both of with eight guns. Although technically a heavy cruiser because of the calibre of her guns, Exeter was a scaled-down version of the County class. The force was commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood whose flagship was Ajax, captained by Charles Woodhouse. Achilles was on loan to the New Zealand Division (precursor to the Royal New Zealand Navy) and captained by Edward Parry. Exeter was commanded by Captain Frederick Secker Bell. At the time of the battle, Cumberland (commanded by Captain Walter Herman Gordon Fallowfield) was refitting in the Falkland Islands but was available for sea at short notice. Force G was supported by the oilers RFA Olna, RFA Olynthus, and RFA Orangeleaf. Olynthus replenished HMS Ajax and Achilles on 22 November 1939, and Exeter on 26 November, at San Borombon Bay. Olynthus was also directed to keep observation between Medanos and Cape San Antonio, off Argentina south of the River Plate estuary (see chart below). Following a raider-warning radio message from the merchantman Doric Star, which was sunk by Admiral Graf Spee off South Africa, Harwood suspected that the raider would try to strike next at the merchant shipping off the River Plate estuary between Uruguay and Argentina. He ordered his squadron to steam toward the position 32° south, 47° west. Harwood chose that position, according to his dispatch, because it was the most congested part of the shipping routes in the South Atlantic and therefore the point at which a raider could do the most damage to enemy shipping. A Norwegian freighter saw Admiral Graf Spee practising the use of her searchlights and radioed that her course was toward South America; the three available cruisers of Force G rendezvoused off the estuary on 12 December and conducted manoeuvres. Regarding strategy, the British combat instructions for engaging a pocket battleship with a cruiser squadron had been devised by Harwood himself during his period at the Royal Naval War College between 1934 and 1936. The strategy specified an attack at once, day or night. During the day, the ships would attack as two units, in this case with Exeter separate from Ajax and Achilles. At night, the ships would remain in company, but in open order. By attacking from two sides, Harwood hoped to give his lighter warships a chance of overcoming the German advantage of greater range and heavier broadside by dividing the enemy's fire. By splitting his force, Harwood would force the Germans to split their fire and reduce its effectiveness, or to keep it focused on one opponent and allow the other vessels to attack with less fear of return fire. Although outgunned by Admiral Graf Spee and therefore at a tactical disadvantage, the British had the upper hand strategically since any raider returning to Germany would have to run the blockade of the North Sea and might reasonably be expected to encounter the Home Fleet. For victory, the British had only to damage the raider enough so that she was either unable to make the journey or unable to fight a subsequent battle with the Home Fleet (by contrast, the Germans would have to destroy the British force without being severely damaged). Because of overwhelming numerical superiority, the loss of even all three cruisers would not have severely altered Britain's naval capabilities, but Admiral Graf Spee was one of the Kriegsmarine's few capital ships. The British could, therefore, afford to risk a tactical defeat if it brought strategic victory. == Battle ==

On 13 December at 05:20, the British squadron was proceeding on a course of 060° at 14 knots with Ajax at , east of Montevideo. At 06:10, smoke was sighted on a bearing of Red-100, or 320° (to the north-west). Harwood ordered the Exeter to investigate. She swung out of line, and at 06:16, she signaled by lamp: "I think it is a pocket-battleship". Captain Bell ordered Flag N hoisted to the yard arm – "Enemy in sight". Graf Spee had already sighted mastheads and identified Exeter but initially suspected that the two light cruisers were smaller destroyers and that the British ships were protecting a merchant convoy, the destruction of which would be a major prize. Since Graf Spees reconnaissance aircraft was out of service, Langsdorff relied on his lookouts for that information. He decided to engage despite having received a broadly accurate report from the German naval staff on 4 December. It outlined British activity in the River Plate area and included information that Ajax, Achilles, Cumberland and Exeter were patrolling the South American coast. Langsdorff realised too late that he was facing three cruisers. Graf Spee opened fire on Exeter at with her six guns at 06:18. Exeter opened fire at 06:20, Achilles at 06:21, Exeters aft guns at 06:22 and Ajax at 06:23. Lieutenant-Commander Richard Jennings, Exeters gunnery officer remembers: As I was crossing the compass platform [to his Action Station in the Director Control Tower], the captain hailed me, not with the usual rigmarole of "Enemy in sight, bearing, etc", but with "There's the fucking Scheer! Open fire at her!" Throughout the battle the crew of the Exeter thought they were fighting the [sister ship] Scheer. But the name of the enemy ship was of course the Graf Spee. From her opening salvo, Graf Spee's gunfire proved fairly accurate, her third salvo straddling Exeter. At 06:23, a shell burst just short of Exeter, abreast the ship. Splinters from the shell killed the torpedo tubes' crews, damaged the ship's communications, riddled the ship's funnels and searchlights and wrecked the ship's Walrus aircraft just as it was about to be launched for gunnery spotting. Three minutes later, Exeter suffered a direct hit on her "B" turret, putting it and its two guns out of action. Shrapnel swept the bridge, killing or wounding all bridge personnel except the captain and two others. Captain Bell's communications were wrecked. Communications from the aft conning position were also destroyed. The ship had to be steered via a chain of messengers for the rest of the battle. Meanwhile, Ajax and Achilles closed to and started making in front of Graf Spee, causing her to split her main armament at 06:30 and otherwise use her guns against them. Shortly after, Exeter fired two torpedoes from her starboard tubes but both missed. At 06:37, Ajax launched her Fairey Seafox spotter floatplane from her catapult. At 06:38, Exeter turned so that she could fire her port torpedoes and received two more direct hits from shells. One hit "A" turret and put it out of action, the other entered the hull and started fires. Exeter was severely damaged, having only "Y" turret still in action under "local" control, with Jennings on the roof shouting instructions to those inside. She also had a 7° list, was being flooded and being steered with the use of her small boat's compass. However, Exeter dealt the decisive blow; one of her 8-inch shells had penetrated two decks before exploding in Graf Spees funnel area, destroyed her raw fuel processing system and left her with just 16 hours fuel, insufficient to allow her to return home. At this point, nearly one hour after the battle had started, Graf Spee was doomed since she could not make fuel system repairs of that complexity under fire. Two thirds of her anti-aircraft guns were knocked out, as well as one of her secondary turrets. There were no friendly naval bases within reach or reinforcements available. She was not seaworthy and could make only the neutral port of Montevideo. Graf Spee hauled round from an easterly course, now behind Ajax and Achilles, towards the north-west and laid smoke. That course brought Langsdorff roughly parallel to Exeter. By 06:50, Exeter listed heavily to starboard and took water forward. Nevertheless, she still steamed at full speed and fired with her one remaining turret. Forty minutes later, water splashed in by a near miss short-circuited her electrical system for that turret. Captain Bell was forced to break off the action. That would have been the opportunity to finish off Exeter. Instead, the combined fire of Ajax and Achilles drew Langsdorff's attention as both ships closed the German ship. Twenty minutes later, Ajax and Achilles turned to starboard to bring all their guns to bear, causing Graf Spee to turn away and lay a smoke screen. At 07:10, the two light cruisers turned to reduce the range from even though that meant that only their forward guns could fire. At 07:16, Graf Spee turned to port and headed straight for the badly damaged Exeter, but fire from Ajax and Achilles forced her at 07:20 to turn and fire her guns at them, while they turned to starboard to bring all their guns to bear. Ajax turned to starboard at 07:24 and fired her torpedoes at a range of , causing Graf Spee to turn away under a smoke screen. At 07:25, Ajax was hit by a shell that put "X" turret out of action and jammed "Y" turret, causing some casualties. By 07:40, Ajax and Achilles were running low on resources, and the British decided to change tactics and move to the east under a smokescreen. Harwood decided to shadow Graf Spee and try to attack at night, when he could attack with torpedoes, better use his advantages of speed and manoeuvrability and minimise his deficiencies in armour. Ajax was again hit by a shell that destroyed her mast and caused more casualties. Graf Spee continued to the south-west. According to Dudley Pope, a merchant ship was sighted at 11:03 close to Admiral Graf Spee. After a few minutes, Admiral Graf Spee called Ajax on W/T, probably on the international watchkeeping frequency of 500 kHz, and used both ships' pre-war call signs, with the signal: "please pick up lifeboats of English steamer". The German call sign was DTGS, confirming to Harwood that the pocket-battleship he had engaged was indeed Admiral Graf Spee. Ajax did not reply, but a little later, the British flagship closed with SS Shakespeare with her lifeboats still hoisted and men still on board. Admiral Graf Spee had fired a gun and ordered them to stop but when they did not obey orders to leave the ship, Langsdorff decided to continue on his way, and Shakespeare had a lucky escape. The shadowing continued for the rest of the day until 19:15, when Admiral Graf Spee turned and opened fire on Ajax, which turned away under a smokescreen. It was now clear that Admiral Graf Spee was entering the River Plate estuary. Since the estuary had sandbanks, Harwood ordered Achilles to shadow Admiral Graf Spee while Ajax would cover any attempt to double back through a different channel. The sun set at 20:48, with Admiral Graf Spee silhouetted against the sun. Achilles had again closed the range and Admiral Graf Spee opened fire, forcing Achilles to turn away. During the battle, a total of 108 men had been killed on both sides, including 36 on Admiral Graf Spee. Admiral Graf Spee entered Montevideo in neutral Uruguay and dropped anchor at about 00:10 on 14 December. That was a political error since Uruguay, while neutral, had benefited from significant British influence during its development and favoured the Allies. The British Hospital, for example, where the wounded from the battle were taken, was the leading hospital in the city. The port of Mar del Plata on the Argentine coast and south of Montevideo would have been a better choice for Admiral Graf Spee. Trap of Montevideo , with battle damage showing possible exit channels. In Montevideo, the 13th Hague Convention came into play. Under Article 12, "belligerent war-ships are not permitted to remain in the ports, roadsteads or territorial waters of the said Power for more than twenty-four hours". Under Article 14, a "belligerent war-ship may not prolong its stay in a neutral port beyond the permissible time except on account of damage". British diplomats duly pressed for the speedy departure of the Graf Spee. Also relevant was Article 16 of which part reads, "A belligerent war-ship may not leave a neutral port or roadstead until twenty-four hours after the departure of a merchant ship flying the flag of its adversary". In accordance with their obligations, the Germans released 61 captive British merchant seamen who had been on board. Langsdorff then asked the Uruguayan government for two weeks to make repairs. Initially, the British diplomats in Uruguay, principally Eugen Millington-Drake, made several requests for Admiral Graf Spee to leave port immediately. The crew of Admiral Graf Spee were taken to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Captain Langsdorff shot himself on 19 December. He was buried there with full military honours, and several British officers attended. Many of the crew members made their homes in Montevideo with the help of local people of German origin. The German dead were buried in the Cementerio del Norte, Montevideo. == Aftermath ==

The German propaganda machine had reported that Admiral Graf Spee had sunk a heavy cruiser and heavily damaged two light cruisers and had been only lightly damaged herself. The scuttling of Admiral Graf Spee, however, was a severe embarrassment and difficult to explain on the basis of publicly available facts. The battle was a major victory for the British, as Ajax and Achilles were still capable warships and Exeter, as badly damaged as she was, had managed to reach the Falkland Islands for emergency repairs. Lieutenant Atwill, who wrote an account of the battle in which he served on Exeter, detailed the damage done and the emergency repairs to make the ship seaworthy enough to reach Stanley, Falkland Islands. There were rumours that she would remain there and become a rusting hulk until the end of the war, but First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wrote to the First Sea Lord and others, "We ought not readily to accept the non-repair during the war of Exeter. She should be strengthened and strutted internally as far as possible . . . and come home". Exeter returned to Devonport for a 13-month refit. While highly praised for his excellent performance in battle, Harwood received criticism directed towards his lack of initiative and for not employing a more aggressive approach; those criticisms are mostly due to Admiral Graf Spee being allowed to escape though outnumbered by ships able jointly to make a more damaging rate of fire. Prisoners taken from merchant ships captured by Admiral Graf Spee who had been transferred to her supply ship Altmark were freed by a boarding party from the British destroyer in the Altmark incident (16 February 1940) in the Jøssingfjorden, at the time neutral Norwegian waters. Prisoners who had not been transferred to Altmark had remained aboard Admiral Graf Spee during the battle; they were released on arrival in Montevideo. On 22 December 1939, over 1,000 sailors from Admiral Graf Spee were taken to Buenos Aires and interned there; at least 92 were transferred during 1940 to a camp in Rosario, some were transferred to Club Hotel de la Ventana in Buenos Aires Province and another group to Villa General Belgrano, a small town founded by German immigrants in 1932. Some of these sailors later settled there. After the war many German sailors settled permanently in various parts of Uruguay, some returning after being repatriated to Germany. Rows of simple crosses in the Cementerio del Norte, in the north of the city of Montevideo, mark the burial places of the German dead. Three sailors killed aboard Achilles were buried in the British Cemetery in Montevideo, while those who died on Exeter were buried at sea. Intelligence gathering and salvage Immediately after her scuttling, the wreck of Admiral Graf Spee rested in shallow water, with much of the ship's superstructure remaining above water level, but over the years, the wreck has subsided into the muddy bottom, and only the tip of the mast remains above the surface. In 1964, on the 25 anniversary of the battle, a memorial to the ship was erected in Montevideo's port. Part of it is Admiral Graf Spees anchor. In 1997, one of Admiral Graf Spees secondary gun mounts was raised and restored; it can now be seen outside Montevideo's National Maritime Museum. In February 2004, a salvage team began work raising the wreck. The operation is being funded in part by the government of Uruguay, in part by the private sector, as the wreck is now a hazard to navigation. The first major section, the heavy gunnery control station, was raised on 25 February 2004. It is expected to take several years to raise the entire wreck. James Cameron filmed the salvage operation. After she has been raised, it is planned that the ship might be restored and put on display at the National Marine Museum. Many German veterans did not approve of the restoration attempt, as they considered the wreck to be a war grave and an underwater historical monument that should be respected. One of them, Hans Eupel, a former specialist torpedo mechanic, 87 years old in 2005, said that "this is madness, too expensive and senseless. It is also dangerous, as one of the three explosive charges we placed did not explode". On 10 February 2006, the , 400 kg eagle and swastika crest of Admiral Graf Spee was recovered from the stern of the ship. The spread-wing statue of a Nazi eagle with a wreath in its talons containing a swastika was attached to the stern, not the bow like traditional figureheads. It was a common feature of prewar German warships. In other cases, it was removed for a variety of practical reasons on the outbreak of the war, but because Admiral Graf Spee was already at sea when the war began, she went into action and was scuttled with it attached, which permitted its recovery. To protect the feelings of those with painful memories of Nazi Germany, the swastika at the base of the figurehead was covered as it was pulled from the water. The figurehead was stored in a Uruguayan naval warehouse after German complaints about exhibiting "Nazi paraphernalia". == Legacy ==

in Montevideo In 1956, the film The Battle of the River Plate (US title: Pursuit of the Graf Spee) was made of the battle and Admiral Graf Spees end, with Peter Finch as Langsdorff and Anthony Quayle as Harwood. Finch portrays Langsdorff sympathetically as a gentleman. The Achilles, which had been recommissioned in 1948 as HMIS Delhi, flagship of the Royal Indian Navy, played herself in the film. HMS Ajax (twin turrets) was "played" by HMS Sheffield (triple turrets), HMS Exeter (twin turrets) by HMS Jamaica (triple turrets) and HMS Cumberland by herself (although de-gunned as a trials platform). Admiral Graf Spee (two turrets) was portrayed by the U.S. heavy cruiser (three turrets). The incomplete Battle-class destroyer HMS River Plate was named after the battle. The battle was for many years re-enacted with large-scale model boats throughout the summer season at Peasholm Park in the English seaside resort of Scarborough. The re-enactment now portrays an anonymous battle between a convoy of British ships and an unspecified enemy in possession of the nearby shore. After the battle, the new town of Ajax, Ontario, in Canada, constructed as a Second World War munitions production centre, was named after HMS Ajax. Many of its streets are named after Admiral Harwood's crewmen on Ajax, Exeter and Achilles. Its main street is named after Admiral Harwood, while a small street was named (after some controversy) for Captain Langsdorff. According to an article in the German language paper Albertaner on 6 October 2007, Steve Parish, the mayor of Ajax, defended the decision, declaring that Langsdorff had not been a typical Nazi officer. An accompanying photograph (in the "Aftermath" section above) from the funeral of crew members shows Langsdorff paying tribute with a traditional naval salute, while people beside and behind himeven some clergymenare giving the Fascist salute. The street name was changed in 2021 in response to public opposition. Also in Canada, the names of the ships, and the commander of Force G, have been used for Cadet Corps. The Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps (RCSCC) Ajax No. 89 in Guelph, Ontario; the Navy League Cadet Corps (NLCC) Achilles No. 34 in Guelph, Ontario; the Navy League Wrenette Corps (NLWC) Lady Exeter (now disbanded) and the camp shared by all three corps, called Camp Cumberland (this camp no longer exists; it was decommissioned around 1999). RCSCC Harwood No. 244 and NLCC Exeter No. 173 are situated in Ajax, Ontario. In Auckland, home port of the Royal New Zealand Navy, streets have been named for Achilles, Ajax and Exeter. The battle is also significant as it was the first time the Flag of New Zealand was flown in battle, from HMS Achilles. Also in New Zealand, four mountain peaks in the Two Thumb Range region of the South Island are named in commemoration of the battle. These are Achilles (2,544 m), Exeter (2,327 m), Ajax (2,319 m) and Graf Spee (2,267 m). == References ==