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The Battle of the River Plate (December 13, 1939) was the first major naval battle of World War II. The German pocket battleship (heavy cruiser) Admiral Graf Spee which had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September was found and engaged off the estuary of the River Plate in South America, by three smaller Royal Navy cruisers, HMSs Exeter, Ajax and HMS Achilles, the last of the New Zealand Division.

In the ensuing battle, Exeter was severely damaged and forced to retire, while all other ships received moderate damage. Ajax and Achilles then shadowed the Graf Spee which entered the neutral port of Montevideo. After a tense period, the captain of the Graf Spee, Hans Langsdorff scuttled his ship rather than face battle again. The battle was a major propaganda blow for the Germans.

Background

The Admiral Graf Spee had been at sea at the start of the Second World War in September 1939 and had sunk several merchantmen in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean, without loss of life due to her captain's policy of taking all crews on board before sinking the victim.

The Royal Navy assembled forces to search for the surface raider. Force G, the South American Cruiser Squadron comprised the County class heavy cruiser HMS Exeter (8,400 tonnes, six 8-inch (203 mm) guns) and two Leander class light cruisers (both 7,000 tons, eight 6-inch (152 mm) guns) — HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles . The force was commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood from Ajax, which was captained by Charles Woodhouse. Achilles was of the New Zealand Division (precursor to the Royal New Zealand Navy) and captained by Edward Parry. Exeter was captained by F.S. Bell. A second County class cruiser, HMS Cumberland (10,000 tons, eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns) was self-refitting in the Falkland Islands at the time, though available at short notice.

Unable to divide his force, Harwood suspected that the raider would try to strike next at the merchant shipping off the River Plate estuary between Uruguay and Argentina. The three cruisers were convened off the estuary on 12 December and conducted manoeuvres.

By and large, the guns and armour of warships are balanced, so that a ship of a given class is relatively vulnerable only to guns of a ship of at least the same class. Larger guns also have longer range, allowing a capital ship to pound an adversary while remaining out of its range. Torpedoes fired by smaller, faster ships can seriously damage large ships, but at suicidally close range. By this rule Admiral Graf Spee was relatively well-protected against the 6- and 8-inch guns of the cruisers, while they were very vulnerable to 11-inch gunfire. Crudely speaking, 8-inch shells would almost bounce off the Admiral Graf Spee, while an 11-inch shell would massively damage a cruiser. So it proved.

The battle

At about 06:14 local time (GMT -2) on 13 December the ships sighted each other and closed. Admiral Graf Spee, despite having correctly identified Exeter, 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.

The British executed their battle plan: Exeter turned to the north-west whilst Ajax and Achilles, operating together, turned to the north-east. The Graf Spee opened fire with her six 11-inch (280 mm) guns at 06:18, eventually splitting her turrets between the two targets to the detriment of accurate gunnery, as the British had planned. Exeter opened fire at 06:20, Achilles at 06:21, Exeter's aft guns at 06:22 and Ajax at 06:23.

At 06:23 an 11-inch (280 mm) shell burst just short of Exeter, abreast the middle of the ship. Splinters from this shell killed the torpedo tubes' crews, damaged the ship's communications, and riddled the funnels and searchlights. One minute later Exeter suffered a direct hit. This shell struck her B-turret, putting it and its two guns out of action. Shrapnel swept the bridge, killing or wounding all bridge personnel except the captain and two others. Captain Bell's communications were wrecked. Communications from the aft conning position were also destroyed, and the ship had to be steered via a chain of messengers for the rest of the battle.

Meanwhile Ajax and Achilles had closed and started making in front of the Graf Spee, causing Admiral Graf Spee to split her main armament at 06:30, and otherwise using her 5.9-inch (150 mm) guns against them.

At 06:32 Exeter fired two torpedoes from her starboard tubes but both missed. At 06:37 Ajax launched her spotter aircraft from its catapult. At 06:38 Exeter turned so that she could fire her port torpedoes, and received two more direct hits from 11-inch shells. One hit A-turret and put it out of action, the other entered the hull and started fires. At this point Exeter was severely damaged, having only Y-turret in action, a seven degree list, was being flooded and being steered with the use of her small boat's compass.

At 06:40 an 11-inch shell burst just short of Achilles, in line with the bridge, damaging her and causing a few casualties, However, gunnery continued from the secondary control position. At about this time Admiral Graf Spee turned to the west under the cover of a smokescreen. The light cruisers were now doing about 31 knots, having worked up to speed from 14 knots initially.

At 06:56, Ajax and Achilles turned to starboard to bring all their guns to bear, causing at 07:10 Admiral Graf Spee to turn away and lay a smokescreen. At 07:10 the two light cruisers turned to reduce the range from 8 miles (13 km), even though this meant only their forward guns could fire.

At 07:16 Admiral Graf Spee turned to port and headed straight for the heavily damaged Exeter, but fire from Ajax and Achilles forced the Graf Spee at 07:20 to turn and fire her 11-inch guns at them, who turned to starboard to bring all their guns to bear.

Ajax turned to starboard at 07:24 and fired her torpedoes at a range of 4.5 miles (7 km), causing Admiral Graf Spee to turn away under a smokescreen.

At 07:25 Ajax was hit by an 11-inch shell that put X-turret out of action and jammed Y-turret, causing some casualties.

At 07:30 Exeter's remaining turret was put out of action by loss of electrical power caused by flooding. Severely damaged, unable to fire and keep up with the action, Exeter broke off at about 07:40 and steamed slowly towards the Falklands.

By 07:40, Ajax and Achilles were running low on ammunition and the British decided to change tactics, moving to the east under a smokescreen. Harwood decided to shadow Admiral Graf Spee and try to attack at night when he could attack with torpedoes and better utilise his advantage of speed and manoeuvrability while minimising his deficiencies in armour. Ajax was again hit by an 11-inch shell that destroyed her mast and caused some casualties. Admiral Graf Spee continued on a westward course.

The pursuit

The battle now turned into a pursuit. The British and New Zealand cruisers split up keeping about 15 miles (24 km) from Admiral Graf Spee, Ajax keeping to the German's port and Achilles to the starboard.

At 09:15 Ajax recovered her aircraft. At 09:46 Harwood signalled to Cumberland for reinforcements and the Admiralty also ordered ships within 3,000 miles (5,000 km) to proceed to the River Plate.

At 10:05 Achilles had overestimated the Graf Spee's speed and came into range of German guns. Admiral Graf Spee turned and fired two three-gun salvoes with her foreguns. Achilles turned away under a smokescreen.

The shadowing continued for the rest of the day until 19:15, when Admiral Graf Spee turned and opened fire on Ajax, who turned away under a smokescreen.

It was now clear that Admiral Graf Spee was entering the River Plate. As the estuary had sandbanks, Harwood ordered Achilles to shadow Admiral Graf Spee while Ajax would cover any attempt to double back through a different channel.

The sun set at 20:48 with the Admiral Graf Spee silhouetted against the sun. Achilles had again closed the range and Admiral Graf Spee opened fire, Achilles turning away. During the battle a total of 108 men had been killed on the two sides, including 36 on the Graf Spee.

The Graf Spee entered Montevideo in neutral Uruguay and dropped anchor at about 00:10 on the 14 December. This was a political error, as Uruguay, while neutral, favoured the Allies. Buenos Aires in Argentina was on the other side of the wide estuary, and Argentina, while neutral, favoured Germany.

If the Graf Spee should leave port again, the damaged Ajax and the Achilles were the only Commonwealth warships in the area.

In Montevideo

In Montevideo the Germans released 61 British merchant seamen who had been on board. Langsdorff then asked the Uruguayan government for two weeks to make repairs. Initially, the British diplomats in Uruguay, principally Eugen Millington-Drake, tried to have Admiral Graf Spee forced to leave the neutral port immediately. After consultation with London, who were aware that there were no significant British naval forces in the area, they continued to demand openly that the Graf Spee leave, but managed circumstances such that she could not. They secretly arranged that British merchant ships would sail from Montevideo at intervals of 24 hours, whether they were ready and intending to sail or not. There was a rule in force at the port whose terms prevented a belligerent warship from leaving a neutral port less than 24 hours after a merchant ship of the other side. This arrangement kept the Graf Spee in port and allowed more time for British forces to reach the area.

At the same time efforts were made by the British to feed false intelligence to the Germans that an overwhelming British force was being assembled, including the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and the battlecruiser HMS Renown, when in fact only the heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland was nearby. Cumberland, one of the earlier County class, was only a little more powerful than Exeter, with two more 8-inch (203 mm) guns; she was no match alone for Admiral Graf Spee, whose 11-inch guns had longer range and fired much heavier shells. Cumberland arrived at 22:00 on 14 December after steaming at full speed for 36 hours from the Falkland Islands. Though several other warships were steaming to the location at full speed, none would have arrived for days; the total force comprised intact Cumberland and damaged Ajax and Achilles.

The Germans, however, were entirely deceived, and expected to face a far superior force on leaving the River Plate.

Intense negotiations were undertaken. While the ship was prevented from leaving the harbour, Captain Langsdorff consulted with his command in Germany. He received orders that permitted various options, but not internment in Uruguay. Ultimately he chose to scuttle his ship in the River Plate estuary (December 17) to avoid unnecessary loss of life for no military advantage, a decision that is said to have infuriated Hitler. The crew of Admiral Graf Spee was taken to Buenos Aires, where Captain Langsdorff subsequently committed suicide on 19 December. He was buried there with full military honours and several British officers attended. Some crew members were reported to have moved to Montevideo with the help of local people of German origin.

Aftermath

The German propaganda machine had reported that Admiral Graf Spee had sunk a heavy cruiser and heavily damaged two light cruisers while only being lightly damaged herself (this was closer to the truth than is generally realised—Exeter was a wreck, albeit still afloat, and Admiral Graf Spee's damage, while appearing serious to an external observer, was superficial rather than structural). Admiral Graf Spee's scuttling was therefore a severe embarrassment and difficult to explain. The Battle of the River Plate was a contributory factor to Adolf Hitler's low opinion of the German surface fleet. The battle was a major propaganda victory for the British during the Phony War, and the reputation of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill was enhanced.

Exeter limped to the Falkland Islands for emergency repairs and later to Devonport for a 13-month refit. It has been said that she was damaged beyond economic repair, but that Churchill chose to carry out repairs so that she could not be reported as having been destroyed.

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, in the Altmark Incident (February 16, 1940) — whilst in Jøssingfjord, at the time neutral Norwegian waters. Prisoners who had not been transferred to Altmark had remained aboard Graf Spee during the battle, and were released on arrival in Montevideo.

On 22 December 1939 over 1,000 sailors from the Admiral Graf Spee were taken to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and interned. There are many stories, but little reliable information, about their later wartime activities, including escapees illegally returning to the German armed forces, espionage, and clandestine German submarine landings in Argentina. After the war many German sailors settled permanently in various parts of Argentina and Uruguay, some returning after being repatriated to Germany.

Plans to raise the wreck are discussed in the article on Admiral Graf Spee .

The film

In 1956 the film The Battle of the River Plate (U.S. title: Pursuit of the Graf Spee) was made of the battle and Admiral Graf Spee’s end. HMS Achilles, which had been recommissioned in 1948 as RIN Delhi, flagship of the Royal Indian Navy, played herself in the movie.

The battle is re-enacted with large-scale model boats throughout the summer season in the UK seaside resort of Scarborough.

A town, Ajax, Ontario. Canada, was named after the battle; 400 of its streets are named after Admiral Harwood's crewmen on Ajax, Exeter and Achilles.

Footnote

1. In 1939 HMS Achilles (His Majesty's Ship Achilles) was part of the New Zealand Division of the Royal (British) Navy. She became HMNZS Achilles (His Majesty's New Zealand Ship Achilles) when the Royal New Zealand Navy was formally instituted in 1941.

External links

• Grafspee.com
• History learning site articles with much detail on The Battle of the River Plate and The Graf Spee in Montevideo
• The Battle of the River Plate, Capt(Retd) AA Jilani; Defence Journal, December 1999;
• Photos of Admiral Graf Spee at http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ron.greenwood/graf/graf1.html
• Official HMSO report
• The crew of the Graf Spee (in Spanish) has information, largely anecdotal, on activities of the interned crew after the battle

• Naval battles of World War II
• History of Uruguay
• Battle of the River Plate