Battle of the River Plate

The diesels were more responsive and Graf Spee's spotting top was taller; Graf Spee could have got away before the British saw her. But you are right that the British cruisers should have been able to shadow, given their speed advantage. As it was they harried Graf Spee to her doom.

Disruption was important in that the intention was to delay sailings and generally slow down British shipping. It was pressure rather than decisive action - but then in December 1939 WWII was still a limited war.

Graf Spee might perhaps have been able to drive off or sink Ajax and Achilles if she had continued in action. Ajax was quite badly damaged in any case with only half her armment in action. It is possible that a surviving light cruiser might have been able to shadow Graf Spee and bring in more and heavier Allied units. The German ship was getting low on ammunition. Langsdorff's main problem, however was that he had suffered such significant damage to his bow and his cooking and fuel purification equipment that he HAD to put into port before even beginning to try to get home.

The idea was to get two groups of similar fighting power. Ajax and Achilles were not much individually but as a pair they could deluge Graf Spee with coordinated sixteen gun combined 6-in broadsides that were demoralising as well as damaging. Exeter had bigger guns, 8-in and was significant on her own. The Germans had to fire all six of their main guns at one target to ensure hits given the uncertainties of contemporary gunnery. At any one time one of the two British groups was not under fire from Graf Spee's main guns.The Germans could not concentrate on one threat; this was probably the main reason Exeter was not sunk.

Graf Spee did have big guns for a ship of her size and speed. Her designers, limited by the Treaty of Versailles, skimped on armour and produced not really a battleship but a cruiser with extra heavy guns. Britain had REAL battleships and battlecruisers with bigger guns still, 15-in and 16-in. It was by convincing Langsdorff that one or more of these assets was waiting outside that he was persuaded to scuttle.

Could anyone please tell me if this particular episode of Timewatch will be repeated on BBC or whether I could get hold of a copy on DVD.

My grandfather was serving on the HMS Ajax during this Battle and my father watched this documentary and later told me that he had seen his father in some of the footage towards the end.

My father only saw his dad for 2 years after he left the Navy as he died of cancer when my Dad was 8 years old. This is the only time he has ever seen a moving picture of his father since that time.

If anyone can help me, I would be extremely grateful. Maybe someone recorded this episode onto DVD and perhaps I could make a small donation in exchange for the DVD.

Many many thanks in advance

Louise Sewell (nee Order)

[Edited by: admin on 13-May-2006 11:20]
I'm afraid that copies of the programme are not available and at present there are no plans to repeat this programme.

Had to compliment all concerned on the Graf Spee documentary. I'm sick to the back teeth of producers digging out any old footage to fill in space - classic example recently on History Channel where a programme on the U Boat offensive in the Gulf of Mexico included film of the burning Graf Spee. At least they got the war right.

The Timewatch programme was excellent and I could only complain in a very minor way when the two forward turrets of Scharnhorst or Gneisenau featured fleetingly. The computer generated effects were very good too.

I was fortunate enough back in the late 70s early 80s to enter into lengthy correspondence with Federico Rasenack who was a senior gunnery officer on Graf Spee who got out of Argentina and made his way back to Germany.

And in 1984 I was helped by the Norwegian naval attache in London in organising a visit to the WW2 German gun emplacement near Trondheim - no less than a complete main turret and three 11" guns from the Graf Spee's bigger sister, Gneisenau.

Shame that no mention was made on the Timewatch programme of the attempt started in early 2004 to raise the Graf Spee. I'm not sure how much progress has been made in what was deemed to be a 5 year project, but Graf Spee's main range finder that sat on top of her control tower was raised with many other artifacts that can now be seen in Montevideo.

But my criticisms are very, very minor - a very well put together programme and I look forward to more in the series. Nice one.

The battle took place during the period of the "Phoney War" when not much else was happening. It seemed to be the first real engagement between the British and the Germans and the winners naturally made much of it. It also happened in the Americas which kindled a lot of Transatlantic interest. There was even live commentary on the scuttling on American radio with a reporter in Montevideo. This was I think also carried on the BBC. The whole affair was both public and dramatic, and the British had little else to cheer about for some time!