13 December in military history: Battle of the River Plate, 1939

13 December 1939 · 86 years ago

Hunting the raider

Since the start of the war Graf Spee had been sinking merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. When she was thought to be heading for South America and the River Plate, Commodore Henry Harwood’s cruisers went to meet her. Harwood had the heavy cruiser Exeter, with 8-inch guns, and the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles, with 6-inch guns; Graf Spee carried heavier 11-inch guns. Achilles served with New Zealand’s navy, and many of her crew were New Zealanders.¹

Harwood split his ships into two groups, so that the German would have to divide her fire.²

The battle

At dawn on 13 December smoke was sighted, Exeter was sent to investigate, and she soon reported a pocket battleship; Graf Spee opened fire at once. Captain Hans Langsdorff turned his heavy guns on Exeter. Her forward turrets were knocked out and splinters swept her bridge, but she kept firing until her last turret failed. Graf Spee then turned on the light cruisers and put two of Ajax’s turrets out of action. The fighting lasted about 80 minutes.³

The British lost 72 men killed: 61 in Exeter, seven in Ajax and four in Achilles. In Achilles the four were killed by splinters from a shell that burst in the water close by. Graf Spee lost 36 men killed. Shadowed by Ajax and Achilles, she entered neutral Montevideo shortly after midnight.⁴

Scuttled in the estuary

Langsdorff believed that a stronger British force was gathering off the estuary and, after consulting Berlin, decided to scuttle his ship rather than fight his way out. On the evening of 17 December Graf Spee steamed out into the estuary with a skeleton crew and was blown up. Her crew was landed in Argentina and interned. On the night of 19 to 20 December Langsdorff shot himself in Buenos Aires.⁵