Admiral Graf Spee

[Wunderwaffen1945]

http://www.yaplakal....44218687674.jpg

 

Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser, also known as a Pocket battleship class which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron that fought the battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands in World War I. She was laid down at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936. The ship was nominally under the 10,000 long tons (10,000 t) limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of 16,020 long tons (16,280 t), she significantly exceeded it. Armed with six 28 cm (11 in) guns in two triple gun turrets, Admiral Graf Spee and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph) left only a handful of ships in the Anglo-French navies able to catch them and powerful enough to sink them.

 

The ship conducted five non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1938, and participated in the Coronation Review for King George VI in May 1937. Admiral Graf Spee was deployed to the South Atlantic in the weeks before the outbreak of World War II, to be positioned in merchant sea lanes once war was declared. Between September and December 1939, the ship sank nine ships totaling 50,089 gross register tons (GRT), before being confronted by three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December. Admiral Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage on the British ships, but she too was damaged, and was forced to put into port at Montevideo. Convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship, Hans Langsdorff, the commander of the ship, ordered the vessel to be scuttled. The ship was partially broken up in situ, though part of the ship remains visible above the surface of the water.

 

Service History

Following the outbreak of war between Germany and the Allies in September 1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the German Navy to begin commerce raiding against Allied merchant traffic. Hitler nevertheless delayed issuing the order until it became clear that Britain would not countenance a peace treaty following the conquest of Poland. The Admiral Graf Spee was instructed to strictly adhere to prize rules, which required raiders to stop and search ships for contraband before sinking them, and to ensure that their crews are safely evacuated. Langsdorff was ordered to avoid combat, even with inferior opponents, and to frequently change position. On 1 September, the cruiser rendezvoused with her supply ship Altmark southwest of the Canary Islands. While replenishing his fuel supplies, Langsdorff ordered superfluous equipment transferred to the Altmark; this included several of the ship's boats, flammable paint, and two of her ten 2 cm anti-aircraft guns, which were installed on the tanker.

 

On 11 September, while still transferring supplies from Altmark, Admiral Graf Spee's Arado floatplane spotted the British heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland approaching the two German ships. Langsdorff ordered the two ships to depart at high speed, successfully evading the British cruiser. On 26 September, the ship finally received orders authorizing attacks on Allied merchant shipping. Four days later, Admiral Graf Spee's Arado located and sank a merchant ship, the steamer Clement; Langsdorff ordered a distress signal sent to the naval station in Pernambuco to ensure the rescue of the ship's crew, which had gone into lifeboats. The British Admiralty immediately issued a warning to merchant shipping that a German surface raider was in the area.

 

On 5 October, the British and French navies formed eight groups to hunt down Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic. The British aircraft carriers HMS Hermes, Eagle, and Ark Royal and the French carrier Béarn, the British battlecruiser Renown, and French battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg, and sixteen cruisers were committed to the hunt. Force G, commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood and assigned to the eastern coast of South America, comprised the cruisers Cumberland and Exeter. Force G was reinforced by the light cruisers Ajax and Achilles; Harwood detached Cumberland to patrol the area off the Falkland Islands while his other three cruisers patrolled off the River Plate.

 

Battle of the River Plate

At 05:30 on the morning of 13 December 1939, lookouts spotted a pair of masts off the ship's starboard bow. Langsdorff assumed this to be the escort for a convoy mentioned in the documents recovered from Tairoa. At 05:52, however, the ship was identified as HMS Exeter; she was accompanied by a pair of smaller warships, initially thought to be destroyers but quickly identified as Leander class cruisers. Langsdorff decided not to flee from the British ships, and so ordered his ship to battle stations and to close at maximum speed. At 06:08, the British spotted Admiral Graf Spee; the force commander, Cmde Henry Harwood, R.N., divided his forces up to split the fire of Admiral Graf Spee's 28 cm guns. The German ship opened fire with her main battery at Exeter and her secondary guns at the flagship Ajax at 06:17. At 06:20, Exeter returned fire, followed by Ajax at 06:21 and Achilles at 06:24. In the span of thirty minutes, Admiral Graf Spee had hit Exeter three times, disabling her two forward turrets, destroying her bridge and her aircraft catapult, and starting major fires. Ajax and Achilles moved closer to Admiral Graf Spee to relieve the pressure on Exeter.

Langsdorff believed the two light cruisers to be making a torpedo attack, and so he turned away under a smokescreen. The respite allowed Exeter to withdraw from the action; by now, only one of her gun turrets was still in action, and she had suffered 61 dead and 23 wounded crew members. At around 07:00, Exeter returned to the engagement, firing from her stern turret. Admiral Graf Spee fired on her again, and after scoring more hits, forced Exeter to again withdraw, this time with a list to port. At 07:25, Admiral Graf Spee scored a hit on Ajax that disabled her aft turrets. Both sides broke off the action, Admiral Graf Spee retreating into the River Plate estuary, while Harwood's battered cruisers remained outside to observe any possible breakout attempts. In the course of the engagement, Admiral Graf Spee had been hit approximately 70 times; 36 men were killed and 60 more were wounded, including Langsdorff, who had been wounded twice by splinters while standing on the open bridge.

 

Scuttling

As a result of battle damage and casualties, Langsdorff decided to put into Montevideo, where repairs could be effected and the wounded men could be evacuated from the ship. Most of the hits scored by the British cruisers caused only minor structural and superficial damage, but the oil purification plant, which was required to prepare the diesel fuel for the engines, was destroyed. After arriving in port, the wounded men were taken to local hospitals and the dead were buried with full military honours. Captive Allied seamen still aboard the ship were released. Repairs necessary to make the ship seaworthy were expected to take up to two weeks. British naval intelligence worked to convince Langsdorff that vastly superior forces were concentrating to destroy his ship if he attempted to break out of the harbour. Langsdorff was unwilling to risk the lives of his crew, so he therefore decided to scuttle the ship. He was aware that although Uruguay was neutral, the government was on friendly terms with Britain, and if he allowed his ship to be interned, the Uruguayan Navy would allow British intelligence officers access to the ship.[30] Neutrality restrictions limited Admiral Graf Spee to a period of 72 hours in Montevideo before she would be interned for the duration of the war. On 17 December 1939, Langsdorff ordered the destruction of all important equipment aboard the ship. The ship's remaining ammunition supply was dispersed throughout the ship in preparation for scuttling. On 18 December, the ship, with only Langsdorff and 40 other men aboard, moved into the outer roadstead to be scuttled. A crowd of 20,000 watched as the scuttling charges were set; the crew was taken off by an Argentine tug and the ship was sunk at 20:55. The explosions from the munitions sent jets of flame high into the air and created a large cloud of smoke that obscured the ship.

[NagatoroHayase]

Nice article, +1

[Wunderwaffen1945]

Must love germans

[Masterrix]

It would be interesting to know, how this ship will be classified in game.

 

Although she was called "pocket-battleship" she was at most a "heavy cruiser" with an extraordinaire design, hard to campare with other cruisers.

 

What "Tier" would u give her in the cruiser-tree ? Would u give her a higher or lower tier than Admiral Hipper class ?

[JeeWeeJ]

I'd say a tier 8 or 9-ish heavy cruiser, with the P-project class as tier 10.

I mean...a cruiser with BB guns! This thing will shoot straight through a Baltimore or Des Moines! (which is compensated by the limited amount of turrets and probably low rate of fire)

[AceF]

JeeWeeJ, on 09 December 2012 - 02:00 PM, said:

I'd say a tier 8 or 9-ish heavy cruiser, with the P-project class as tier 10.
I mean...a cruiser with BB guns! This thing will shoot straight through a Baltimore or Des Moines! (which is compensated by the limited amount of turrets and probably low rate of fire)

but it has à powerfull secondary that will componsate for the low rof on the elevens :)

[Appollosnos]

JeeWeeJ, on 09 December 2012 - 02:00 PM, said:

I'd say a tier 8 or 9-ish heavy cruiser, with the P-project class as tier 10.
I mean...a cruiser with BB guns! This thing will shoot straight through a Baltimore or Des Moines! (which is compensated by the limited amount of turrets and probably low rate of fire)

Really? I was thinking maybe tier 7 for the Spree. Especially considering two Light Cruisers and 1 cruiser were the cause of the ships demise.

[Capcon]

Appollosnos, on 12 December 2012 - 08:54 PM, said:

Really? I was thinking maybe tier 7 for the Spree. Especially considering two Light Cruisers and 1 cruiser were the cause of the ships demise.

Assuming the "P" class is the top (a lot of assuming but it IS what we do here) Is the Prinz Eugen likely to be better in the game than the Spee?

PE is ~ 15% bigger
PE is ~ 3+ knots faster
GS has bigger but fewer main guns 11" > 8" and 2x3 < 4x2
PE has more heavy AA guns 10>6 and more AA directors 4>2
PE has more torpedoes tubes 4x3 > 2x4
armoring is very similar based on thickness and extent.

I'd have to say based on the above that the Graf Spee is less than the Prinz Eugen in the game. I guess that means no higher than VIII for the Spee?

[imlost19]

Graf will breakoff the PE tree at the same tier as PE leading to a second tree of battleships.

 

Mark my words.

[Capcon]

imlost19, on 12 December 2012 - 09:24 PM, said:

Graf will breakoff the PE tree at the same tier as PE leading to a second tree of battleships.

Mark my words.

Hmmm, can't quite agree there.

Bismark is clearly the daughter of the Baden class and Scharnhorst is just as clearly a Mackensen daughter.

If anything Graf Spee is the cruiser line's weird Uncle that only the family understands and outsiders find creepy and unsettling.