Pocket Battleship Admiral Graf Spee
This is a notable work on what could have been one of Germany's best ships of WWII. The Pocket Battleship Admiral Graf Spee. This fast and powerful ship briefly terrorized shipping in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans in 1939. She truly was one of the "Greyhounds of the Sea". With a maximum speed of about 32-mph, and a gross weight of just under 17,000 tons, she was built fast enough to rundown any cruiser, and with her eleven inch guns, able to stand off and destroy them before they were in range to fight back. In her brief fighting history, September-December 1939, she sank more than 50,000 tons of shipping. Her Captain, Hans Langsdorf, was considered by all to be a capable officer and was said to be a gentleman, preferring to make war on shipping and not the sailors and crewmen aboard. Having been ordered home for refit and rest in December, 1939, Langsdorf decided to make one last run at the meat and grain ships of Argentina. Here he sailed into a trap set by the British cruisers Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles. On Dec.13, 1939, at daybreak Capt. Langsdorf sighted what he thought was a cruiser and two destroyers. Instead of turning away, knowing that he possessed superior speed and firepower, he chose to attack. He opened fire on Exeter and badly disabled her, leaving her running and mostly ablaze. By this time, he realized his mistake. The other two ships were not destroyers, but also cruiser class war ships. He was now in range and outgunned. After a day long running battle, Langsdorf was forced to take refuge in Montevideo Harbor in the neutral country of Uruguay. His ship had sustained sixty-eight hits by enemy shell fire on its superstructure and turrets. One of its rear turrets was out of action and its front turret was also damaged but still useful. They had also sustained many casualties. Capt. Langsdorf has been holding about fifty officer crewmen from the ships he had sunk. None were injured in the battle, and all were released in Montevideo. After two days of diplomatic wrangling between both the British and German Councils with the Uruguayan Government, Langsdorf sailed out of Montevideo and dropped anchor about three miles off shore. Here, with the entire world watching, the Graf Spee self detonated and was sunk. Captain Langsdorf committed suicide the following day in Buenos Aries. The German high command had been fooled into thinking that there were at least six British capital ships and an aircraft carrier waiting for Graf Spee. The decision to scuttle was to preempt the embarrassment of a major defeat or capture of the ship by British forces. This was a very powerful ship and another case of superior Nazi weaponry compromised by the pride and recklessness of the German High-Command.Read full review
