Battle of the River Plate

13–17 December 1939, Off the estuary of the River Plate, Uruguay

British victory; Graf Spee took refuge at Montevideo and was scuttled

Graf Spee had sunk nine merchant ships in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean since the war began. Commodore Henry Harwood guessed that she would come for the rich shipping off the River Plate, and was waiting there with the heavy cruiser Exeter and the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles when she appeared at dawn on 13 December 1939. Captain Hans Langsdorff closed, thinking at first that he faced a cruiser and two destroyers. Harwood split his ships so that she had to divide her fire. Her 11-inch guns wrecked Exeter, putting all three of her turrets out of action and killing 61 men, and knocked out two of Ajax's turrets. But Graf Spee was hit about twenty times, 36 of her crew were dead and her fuel plant was damaged, and Langsdorff broke away into Montevideo. Uruguay gave him 72 hours. British diplomacy and false radio traffic convinced him that Ark Royal and Renown were waiting outside; in fact only Cumberland had arrived. On the evening of 17 December he took Graf Spee out to the edge of the estuary and scuttled her in front of a crowd of thousands. Three days later he shot himself in Buenos Aires.