Fun Fact #471
Fun Fact #471
It was December 1940, and Britain was in trouble. The last 4 hunting missions for German Commerce raiders and Submarines had resulted in failure and now reports were pouring in of another raider “The Graf Spee” rampaging off the coast of Madagascar. Churchill ordered every ship (14 in all) in the area to pursue.
Later, off the coast of South America Commodore Henry Harwood was having trouble of his own. Three of his 4 ships under his command , “The Exeter”, “The Achilles”, and “The Ajax” had found “The Graf Spee'' had fled to SouthAmerica . While it put two of the ships out of action, “The Achilles'' had managed to corner it in the Plate River Estuary, where being at a neutral port, the battle would have to wait for 3 days. Yet like the myth, there was a flaw in Achilles’ plan –they couldn't harm the Spee and help was over a week out.
Facing defeat the Commodore decided to get in the life boat with The Exeter”s radio where he rowed to the far side of the estuary and began sending messages to “The Achillies”. The Plan worked like a charm as The Germans thought the entire British Hunting fleet was outside. Fearing for his crew’s lives The Graf Spee was scuttled in front of almost every major news publication scoring a massive moral win for Britain. As for the Graf Spee’s crew, they would wind up waiting out the rest of the second world war in Argentina.
Image of The Graf Spee” shortly after her scuttling.
