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The battle of River Plate was the first major battle of the second world war (13 December 1939). The German pocket battleship Admiral Graff Spee was operating in the area off the coast of Argentina on a successful campaign to disrupting allied shipping routes and to tie up Allied warship presence there.

At dawn on December 13th the Graff Spree found itself engaged with one of the Royal Navy hunting forces send to destroy the German battleship. The allied force consisted of three smaller cruisers; HMS Exeter; HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles.

In the resulting battle, the Exeter was severely damaged and forced to retire and the other two cruisers received moderate damage. The Graff Spee was reportedly hit some 20 times by the three allied warships but during the battle she laid a smokescreen and retreated into the nearby neutral harbour of the Uruguayan capital Montevideo. The Graff Spee was not allowed to stay in the harbour for a period longer than 72 hrs. Hans Langsdorff, the captain of the German battleship scuttled his damaged ship rather than to face the overwhelming force the Allied had led him to believe had been assembled.

Although the outcome of the actual engagement could be seen as a German victory over the Allied in terms of losses but the subsequent actions taken by Langsdarff resulted in the general acceptance of an Allied victory.

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15y ago

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