German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee
| Admiral Graf Spee | |
| Career | .svg){kind=small}
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | October 1 1932 |
| Launched: | June 30 1934 |
| Commissioned: | January 6 1936 |
| Fate: | Scuttled December 17 1939 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 12,100 t standard; 16,200 t full load |
| Length: | 186 m (610 ft) |
| Beam: | 21.6 m (71 ft) |
| Draft (max.): | 7.4 m (24 ft) |
| Armament: | 6 × 280 mm (11 inch) 8 × 150 mm (5.9 inch) 6 × 105 mm (4.1 inch) 8 × 37 mm 10 × 20 mm 8 × 533 mm (21 inch) torpedo tubes |
| Rate of fire: | 28 cm guns: 2.5 round/min each 15 cm guns: 6 to 8 round/min each |
| Gun range: | 28 cm guns at 40 deg; (armor-piercing shells): 36,475 m |
| Estimated gun life: | 28 cm guns: about 340 rounds; 15 cm guns: about 1,100 rounds |
| Munitions supply: | 28 cm guns: 105 to 120 rounds per gun |
| Armor: | turret face: (160 mm) belt: (80 mm) deck: (40 mm) |
| Sensors: | early version of Seetakt radar |
| Aircraft: | Two Arado 196 seaplanes, one catapult |
| Propulsion: | Eight 9-cylinder double-acting two-stroke MAN diesels two screws, 52,050 hp (40 MW) |
| Speed: | 28.5 knots (53 km/h) |
| Range: | 8,900 nautical miles at 20 knots (16,500 km at 37 km/h) |
| or | 19,000 nautical miles at 10 knots (35,000 km at 18.5 km/h) |
| Crew: | 1,150 |
Admiral Graf Spee was a Panzerschiff, which served with the German Kriegsmarine before and during the early stages of World War II. In view of her comparatively heavy artillery of 28 cm (11 inch) guns, she and her two sisters, Deutschland (later renamed Lützow) and Admiral Scheer, were frequently referred to as pocket battleships by the British. The Admiral Graf Spee is considered one of the most famous German warships, along with the Bismarck. A year after the Graf Spee's loss, her sisters were reclassified as heavy cruisers.
Admiral Graf Spee was launched in 1934 and named after the World War I Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee who died, along with two of his sons, in the first Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. She was the second vessel to be named after him, the first being the uncompleted World War I German battlecruiser SMS Graf Spee.
Description
After World War I, replacement capital ships for the German Navy were limited to 10,000 tons and 11 inch (280 mm) guns. Before Admiral Graf Spee was given her official name, she was referred to as Panzerschiff C and Ersatz Braunschweig, as she would be replacing the old battleship Braunschweig in the fleet inventory. She cost 82 million Reichsmark to build. Much weight was saved by using electric arc welding instead of rivets.
Technologically, Admiral Graf Spee was ahead of her time, especially in terms of her speed. Some theorized at the time that two such ships must have existed, so as to explain a rapid series of sightings in distant locations.
History
After commissioning in 1936, Admiral Graf Spee served as fleet flagship until 1938 and performed international maritime control duties off the coast of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Prior to the invasion of Poland plans were made to deploy the Panzerschiffe as raiders in the Atlantic Ocean. Admiral Graf Spee sailed from Wilhelmshaven on 21 August 1939, to act as a raider in the South Atlantic. Supported by her supply ship, the tanker Altmark, her orders were to sink British merchant ships but to avoid combat with superior enemy forces, thus threatening vital Allied supply lines and drawing British naval units off their stations in other parts of the world.
From September through December 1939 Admiral Graf Spee sank nine merchant ships in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean, the first on 30 September 1939. Captain Hans Langsdorff strictly adhered to the rules of mercantile warfare at the time and saved all of the crew members of these ships; not a life was lost in these sinkings. The captured crews were transferred to the tanker Altmark. Later, these 303 crew members were freed by force in neutral Norwegian territorial waters by the British destroyer HMS Cossack (the Altmark Incident).
Battle of the River Plate
Britain formed eight hunting groups in the Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean to look for Admiral Graf Spee, totalling three battleships, two battlecruisers, four aircraft carriers, and 16 cruisers (including several French ships). More groups were assembled later.
On 13 December 1939, she was located by the British Hunting Group G, consisting of the 8 inch (203 mm) gunned cruiser HMS Exeter and the 6 inch (152 mm) gunned light cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles (of the Royal New Zealand Navy), and the Battle of the River Plate ensued. During the battle, the Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage upon the Exeter, forcing the latter to break off the engagement. Late in the exchange, one of Graf Spee's shells caused some casualties on the Achilles. In return, the Graf Spee was hit repeatedly by the 6-inch shells of the light cruisers, which could not penetrate her armour but nonetheless inflicted significant topside damage.
On the other hand, Exeter’s 8-inch hits ran through the armour easily. About 06:38 an 8-inch shell penetrated two decks then exploded in Graf Spee’s funnel area - causing crippling hidden damage.
Graf Spee’s main engines used diesel fuel stored in bunkers around the hull. The raw refinery fuel needed treatment before feeding the engines. A separating system routinely pre cleaned the fuel and deposited it in six ready tanks situated close to the engines. The separators used high pressure steam produced in a boiler room lying between decks, aft of the funnel and above the armoured deck. Exeter’s early 8-inch hit wrecked the boiler room - shutting down the separating system. Chief Engineer Commander Klepp advised the captain they could not repair the damage at sea. Klepp estimated the ship had about sixteen hours of running time, using pre cleaned fuel from the day tanks. They could not replace the rapidly depleting fuel.
Admiral Graf Spee entered the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay for repairs. The damage was spectacular looking but actually relatively superficial. There were some critical hits: for instance, damage to the unarmoured bow reduced the ship's seaworthiness in the rough seas of the North Atlantic. Captain Langsdorff and the Chief Engineer carefully kept the fuel problem secret. Although the specific details were signaled to SKL in January 1940 this vital information lay buried from public knowledge for sixty years.
On 15 December the ship's dead were buried in a Montevideo cemetery. At the funeral ceremony, Captain Hans Langsdorff used the naval salute, while all others around him used the Nazi salute. A ruse by the British encouraged the captain to think that he was out-numbered, with aircraft carriers and battleships on their way (in fact, not a single additional vessel could have arrived in time), and that his escape route was cut off. On 17 December 1939, with the British 6-inch gunned cruisers Ajax, Achilles, and the 8-inch gunned Cumberland waiting in international waters - inside the mouth of the Río de la Plata - the German warship sailed just outside the harbour and was scuttled by her crew, to avoid risking the crew in what Captain Langsdorff expected to be a losing battle. Captain Langsdorff committed suicide three days later by shooting himself. The crew of the Graf Spee were interned in Argentina and many stayed there even after 1945. Since Argentina was friendlier than Uruguay, the Captain expected the crew would be released but in the end this was not the case.
The Germans' behaviour during their stay in Montevideo, especially Langsdorff's action when faced with possible defeat at British hands, was held in high regard in Uruguay. Many locals feared that their city could become directly endangered during any hostilities, and Langsdorff's decision to leave port was seen as partly motivated by a desire to not cause such harm.
One of Langsdorff's first actions when he entered Montevideo was to release the crews of the merchant ships he had sunk during her most recent voyage. Out of nine merchant ships sunk, none of the crews had been killed. All of those released spoke highly of their treatment and of Langsdorff, who spoke perfect English and lent them English books to pass the time. As a matter of fact, many officers of the sunk ships attended the burial of those killed in the battle. Captain Dove of the Africa Shell had already become friends with Langsdorff.
Salvage
Immediately after the scuttling in shallow water much of the ship's superstructure remained above water level, but then over the years the wreck subsided into the muddy bottom and today only the tip of the mast remains above the surface.
The first salvage from the ship was most likely carried out by Royal Navy intelligence teams which recovered the highly advanced Seetakt radar not destroyed in the scuttling. In February, 1940 the wreck was boarded by US Navy sailors from the light cruiser USS Helena.
In 1997, one of Admiral Graf Spee's 15 cm secondary gun mounts was raised and restored; it can now be seen outside Montevideo's National Maritime Museum.
In February 2004 a salvage team began work raising the wreck of the Admiral Graf Spee. The operation is in part being funded by the government of Uruguay, in part by the private sector, as the wreck is now a hazard to navigation. The first major section, the 27-ton heavy gunnery control station, was raised on 25 February 2004. It is expected to take several years to raise the entire wreck. Film director James Cameron is filming the salvage operation. After it has been raised, it is planned that the ship will be restored and put on display at the National Marine Museum in Montevideo.
Many German veterans do not approve of this restoration attempt, as they consider the wreck to be a war grave and an underwater historical monument that should be respected. One of them, Hans Eupel, former specialist torpedo mechanic, 87 years old in 2005, added "this is madness, too expensive, and senseless. It is also dangerous, as one of the three explosive charges we placed did not explode."
On 10 February 2006, the eagle figurehead of the Admiral Graf Spee was recovered. To protect the feelings of those sensitive to Nazi Germany, the swastika on the figurehead was covered as it was pulled from the water.
Commanding Officers
Construction Indoctrination - KzS Conrad Patzig - 7 October 1935 - 6 January 1936
KzS Conrad Patzig - 6 January 1936 - 2 October 1937
KzS Walter Warzecha - 2 October 1937 - 1 November 1938
KzS Hans Langsdorff - 1 November 1938 - 17 December 1939
In Popular Culture
- The sinking of the Graf Spee was dramatised in the 1956 film The Battle of the River Plate, directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger.
- A tactical computer game called Admiral Graf Spee was released by Temptation Software for the ZX Spectrum in 1982.
References
- Captain Patrick Dove, I Was Graf Spee's Prisoner (Cherry Tree Books, London & Manchester, 1940)
- Siegfried Breyer, Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970 (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970, J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970). Contains various line drawings of the ship as designed and as built.
- Jak P. Malmann Showell, The German Navy in World War Two (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1979), ISBN 0-87021-933-2
- Dudley Pope, The Battle of the River Plate (William Kimber & Co, 1956; Republished Pan Books 1974), ISBN 0-330-24020-X
- Eric J Grove, The price of disobedience, UK 2000 , ISBN 1-55750-429-6
- Joseph Gilbey, Langsdorff of the Graf Spee: Prince of Honor, Canada 1999, ISBN 0-9685994-0-0
- Joseph Gilbey, Kriegsmarine: Admiral Raeder's Navy - A Broken Dream., Canada 2005, ISBN 0-9685994-1-9
- Enrique R. Dick, Tras La Estela del Graf Spee, Buenos Aires 1996, ISBN 950-43-8113-8 (published in Spanish, author is son of a Graf Spee crew member)
See also
- List of World War II ships
- List of Kriegsmarine ships
- List of naval ships of Germany
- List of ship launches in 1934
- List of ship commissionings in 1936
- List of shipwrecks in 1939
- Other ships of the Deutschland class
External links
