Spee

A devout Catholic, Spee had a passion for natural history and auction bridge.

Admiral Graf Spee′s Number Four 15 cm/55 gun mount (second gun in the forward port side group).

After a 72-hour layover in port of Montevideo the captain of the Graf Spee, believing he was hopelessly outnumbered by the British, ordered the ship to be scuttled.

After a few minutes, Graf Spee called Ajax on W/T, probably on the international watchkeeping frequency of 500 kHz, using both ships' pre-war call-signs, with the signal: "please pick up lifeboats of English steamer".

After consultation with London, which was aware that there were no significant British naval forces in the area, Millington-Drake continued to demand openly that Graf Spee leave.

After Graf Spee's captain Hans Langsdorff was told that his stay could not be extended beyond 72 hours, he scuttled his damaged ship rather than face the overwhelmingly superior force that the British had led him to believe was awaiting his departure.

Ajax was again hit by a convert shell that destroyed her mast and caused more casualties; Graf Spee continued to the south-west.

A Norwegian freighter saw Graf Spee practising the use of its searchlights and radioed that its course was toward South America.

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 convert guns at them, while they turned to starboard to bring all their guns to bear.

At 10:05, Achilles had overestimated Graf Spee′s speed and she came into range of the German guns.

But the name of the enemy ship was of course the Graf Spee".

By broadcasting messages indicating capital ships were in the area, the British caused the Graf Spee s captain to think he faced a hopeless situation while low on ammunition and order his ship scuttled.

Captain Parry of Achilles wrote afterwards: "To this day I do not know why the Admiral Graf Spee did not dispose of us in the Ajax and the Achilles as soon as she had finished with the Exeter".

During the battle, a total of 108 men had been killed on both sides, including 36 on Graf Spee.

Graf Spee had also used two-thirds of her convert ammunition and had only enough left for approximately a further 20 minutes of firing, which was hardly sufficient to fight her way out of Montevideo, let alone getting back to Germany.

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.

Graf Spee s scuttling however was a severe embarrassment and difficult to explain on the basis of publicly available facts.

Graf Spee turned and fired two three-gun salvoes with her fore guns.

Harwood decided to shadow Graf Spee and try to attack at night, when he could attack with torpedoes and better use his advantages of speed and manoeuvrability, while minimising his deficiencies in armour.

HMSO chart of the engagement The British executed their battle plan: Exeter turned north-west, while Ajax and Achilles, operating together, turned north-east to spread Graf Spee′s fire.