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Admiral Graf Spee was the first German warship to be equipped with radar. [6] A FMG G(gO) "Seetakt" set [7] [a] was mounted on the foretop range finder. [5] Admiral Graf Spee ' s primary armament was six 28 cm (11 in) SK C/28 guns mounted in two triple gun turrets, one forward and one aft of the superstructure.
The Battle of the River Plate was fought in the South Atlantic on 13 December 1939 as the first British naval battle of the Second World War.. The Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, engaged a Royal Navy squadron, [1] [2] commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood, [3] comprising the light cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Achilles (on loan to the New Zealand ...
After eight salvos from Exeter, Admiral Graf Spee scored a direct hit on 'B' turret that knocked it out of action and shrapnel from the hit killed all of the bridge personnel except three. Bell, wounded in the face, transferred to the aft conning position to continue the battle.
But Graf Spee, under Captain Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch), inflicts much damage on her foes. One of them, HMS Exeter, is particularly hard hit and is forced to retire to the Falklands for repair. For her own part, the Graf Spee sustains some damage and takes refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay, for repairs.
Alongside the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles, Exeter took part in the Battle of the River Plate to sink the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. Exeter partook in a flanking maneuver to distract Graf Spee so that Ajax and Achilles could sneak attack the German cruiser, and she paid the price for this. [6]
Vice-Admiral Harwood inspects ratings at HMS Canopus, the Royal Navy training base in Alexandria, in September 1942. Harwood suspected that Graf Spee would try to strike next at the merchant shipping off the River Plate estuary. With Cumberland being absent for repairs, Harwood deployed his other three cruisers off the estuary on 12 December.
Hans Wilhelm Langsdorff (20 March 1894 – 20 December 1939) was a German naval officer, most famous for his command of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee before and during the Battle of the River Plate off the coast of Uruguay in 1939.
Graf Spee may refer to: Graf Maximilian von Spee, German admiral in World War I; or to several German ships that were named after the admiral: SMS Graf Spee, incomplete Mackensen-class battlecruiser of World War I, scrapped in 1923; The German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, launched in 1934, that saw action in World War II