VOL 72 No3 - Navy League of Australia

THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE . . . continued
at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. By
December 1939 Force G comprised the heavy
cruisers, CUMBERLAND and EXETER plus the
light cruisers AJAX and ACHILLES.
At sea, the war had not gone well for the
Royal Navy. On 14 September the fleet carrier
COURAGEOUS was sunk by U-29 with heavy
loss of life, on 14 October the battleship ROYAL
OAK was sunk by U-47 in Scapa Flow and
on 23 November the armed merchant cruiser
RAWALPINDI was sunk by the battlecruisers
SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU during a brief
foray into the North Atlantic (see THE NAVY Vol
69 No.4 pp 10-13 ‘A Defiant Stand’). Three
destroyers and a submarine had also been lost
and ships damaged included the battleship
NELSON, two cruisers, a cruiser minelayer and
the old gunnery training battleship IRON DUKE.
In reply, nine U Boats had been sunk. A victory
at sea was badly needed.
THE COMBATANTS
The GRAF SPEE was the third of three sister
ships built to circumvent Versailles Treaty
limitations on the size of German battleships.
Instead of building small coastal defence
battleships as expected, the Deutschland class
panzerschiffe were designed as commerce
raiders with a large economical radius of
operations. This was achieved by electrical
welding to save weight and diesel engines
The forward
11-inch (280mm) triple gun
turret of the GRAF SPEE.
Each gun fired a 670lb shell
to 30,000 yards at 60 degrees
elevation.
carried for reconnaissance. Top speed was
26 knots with a radius of 19,000 miles at 19
knots. Protection was similar to that of a heavy
cruiser and although it might be called a pocket
battleship, the GRAF SPEE was in reality no
more than a heavily gunned cruiser.
Operating as a supply ship for the GRAF SPEE,
the ALTMARK also served as a prison ship for
the crews of the GRAF SPEE’s victims. While
the ALTMARK was not present at the River
Plate action, the liberation of these prisoners of
war within Norwegian territorial waters on 16
February 1940 was to mark the final footnote
to the battle.
The CUMBERLAND was a County class cruiser
of the Kent group and a sister ship of the RAN’s
AUSTRALIA and CANBERRA. Its armament
consisted of eight 8-inch guns in four twin
turrets and eight 4-inch guns. The EXETER was
of the York class and was effectively a cut-down
County with six 8-inch guns in three twin turrets,
four 4-inch guns and six 21-inch torpedo tubes
in two triple mountings. One Fairey IIIF seaplane
was carried.
The AJAX and ACHILLES were half sisters to
the RAN’s Improved Leander class cruisers
SYDNEY, PERTH and HOBART. They were armed
with eight 6-inch guns in four twin turrets, eight
4-inch guns and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes
in two quadruple mountings. AJAX carried a
Fairey Seafox seaplane but ACHILLES’ Walrus
aircraft had been lost in a pre-war accident. It
will be readily apparent that Harwood’s force
was outgunned in range and by weight of shell
but he did have one significant advantage, all
of his cruisers were 5-6 knots faster than the
GRAF SPEE.
THE NAVAL BATTLE
On 2 December the cargo liner Doric Star
reported she was being attacked by a raider
and this was followed by a similar report from
the Tairoa the following morning 170 miles to
the south west of the Doric Star’s last position.
The RN Leander class cruiser HMS ACHILLES.
providing enough speed to escape from any
warships they could not overcome with their
heavy guns. The GRAF SPEE’s main armament
comprised six 11-inch guns in two triple turrets
with eight single 5.9 inch and six 4.1 inch as
secondary armament. Eight 21-inch torpedo
tubes were fitted in two quadruple mounts at
the stern and two Arado Ar 196 seaplanes were
HMS AJAX. Seven ratings were killed in the battle with another 14 wounded.
28 THE NAVY VOL. 72 NO. 3