Battle of the River Plate

In the early months of the Second World War, Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine sent out merchant raiders to attack Allied shipping. Admiral Graf Spee had sailed into the South Atlantic in August 1939, before the war began, and had begun commerce raiding after receiving the authorisation on 26 September 1939. It had sunk several merchantmen in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean without loss of life because of Captain Hans Langsdorff’s policy of taking all crews on board before sinking the ship.

The British Royal Navy responded with a group of seven groups – 23 warships in total under the command of Commodore Henry Harwood - to hunt down the killer battleship. 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.

The strategy for engaging a pocket battleship with a cruiser squadron had been devised by Harwood himself and 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 together, but in open order.

Having discovered the location of the Graf Spee the British surged into the first major naval engagement of the Second World War, attacking from three directions to minimise the German ship’s substantial advantage in gun range.

Langsdorff 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 his reconnaissance aircraft was out of service, Langsdorff relied on his lookouts for information and he decided to engage despite having received a report from the German naval staff outlining British activity in the River Plate area and included information that Ajax, Achilles, Cumberland and Exeter were patrolling the South American coast.

The first naval battle of WWII had begun.

During the battle, 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. After sustaining further damage Exeter retired to the Falklands for repairs with HMS Ajax also taking hits.

Graf Spee also sustained heavy damage including to the fuel system. Two-thirds of her anti-aircraft guns were knocked out, as well as one of her secondary turrets. No longer seaworthy and with no friendly naval bases within reach Graf Spee headed for Montevideo. There the ship took refuge for repairs, but international law allowed ships to remain in a foreign port only for repair and not for battle readiness. After initially demanding the Uruguayan authorities send the Graf Spee to sea after 24 hours, the British changed tactics and false reports were spread that additional Royal Navy warships had arrived. In reality, they were still some distance away.

Trapped

Under the terms of the Hague Convention, the Germans released 61 captive British merchant seamen who had been on board and then asked the Uruguayan government for two weeks to make repairs. British diplomats continued to press the Uruguayan authorities for the Graf Spee to leave. The only Royal Navy ships nearby were the undamaged Cumberland, Ajax and Achilles, both of which were damaged. Langsdorff then asked the Uruguayan government for two weeks to make repairs.

The British diplomats arranged for British and French merchant ships to leave Montevideo at 24-hour intervals thus keeping Graf Spee in harbour. Langsdorff was given options by his command in Germany but this did not allow for internment in Uruguay.

Capt Langsdorff took the bait that several Royal Navy ships were in the area and decided to take his ship out to sea with a skeleton crew aboard. With onlookers watching from the shore, Graf Spee headed down the River Plate towards the open sea then burst into flames from a series of explosions. Langsdorff had ordered his ship to be scuttled, something that infuriated Adolf Hitler.

Aftermath

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

Exeter reached the Falkland Islands for emergency repairs that allowed her to reach Stanley where she might have remained if First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wrote to the First Sea Lord and others, saying "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”.

Prisoners taken from merchant ships by Admiral Graf Spee who had been transferred to her supply ship Altmark, were freed by a boarding party from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. Prisoners who had not been transferred to Altmark and had remained aboard Admiral Graf Spee during the battle were released on arrival in Montevideo.

Over 1,200 sailors from Admiral Graf Spee were taken to Buenos Aires, Rosario Villa General Belgrano, a small town founded by German immigrants in 1932. Some of these sailors later settled there and after the war many German sailors settled permanently in various parts of Uruguay, some returning after being repatriated to Germany.

Three sailors killed aboard Achilles were buried in the British Cemetery in Montevideo, while those who died on Exeter were buried at sea.

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 Spee's end, with Peter Finch as Langsdorff and Anthony Quayle as Harwood.

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.