Battle of the River Plate

History -- Military history -- List of battles -- World War II

The Battle of the River Plate (December 13, 1939) resulted in the eventual sinking of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee by scuttling, ending her successful three-month campaign against British merchant shipping.

The British light cruisers Ajax, Exeter and Achilles engaged the battleship close to the estuary of the River Plate between Argentina and Uruguay. Following intense gunnery action where the battleship had the advantage of longer range guns, while the British were able to divide fire, the Graf Spee eventually headed for Montevideo harbour in Uruguay.

Intense negotiations were undertaken, Uruguay being neutral. Rather than face internment or risk being destroyed in further action, Captain Langsdorff of the Graf Spee was given instruction from Hitler to scuttle her in the Rio Plata estuary (December 17).

The prisoners taken by the Graf Spee prior to her sinking of enemy ships were transferred to her German supply ship Altmark, from which they were freed (February 16, 1940) by a boarding party from the British destroyer Cossack while in Jøssingfjord, in neutral Norwegian waters.

A film of the battle and the Graf Spee's end entitled The Battle of the River Plate (US Title: Pursuit of the Graf Spee) is regularly shown on television.