Thanks to all of the Forum contributors -you amaze me!

[I'm goin' down]

I have been playing SH4 for about a month. It is the first game I have played. (I swiped my son's CD when he left for college.) I started knowing nothing about it, and I do not have a understanding of nautical matters although naval warfare has intrgued me since I read a New York Times contemporaneous account of the encounter between three British warships and the Graf Spay in 1939 off the coast of Uraguay. I want to thank all of the gamers who make this Forum extraordinary. It is informative, displays depth of knowledge, interesting, funny at times, and technically amazing. I have been slowly improving my skills, and am ready to try auto targeting on my next mission. I would name the personnel whose help has demonstrated skill and commitment to SH4 and an indomitable spirit that reflects credit on themsleves and the Navy, but the list is too long. You know who they are and so do the rest of us. So, I will make a contribution to the Forum, as it is well deserved and earned. And, I leave you with the amazing story of demise of the Graf Spay, as recalled from an article in the New York Times and republished in the book containing the top 100 headlines from that paper.

The story of the battle off the coast Uraguay: The British believed the Graf Spay, a pocket battleship [smaller than a battleship with the speed of cruiser and armed with battleship caliber guns], was off the coast of Africa attacking British shipping. It had been credited with sinkingk eighteen British ships. British intelligence was wrong. The Graf Spaf appeared in the morning and confronted three British battleships, including the Exeter, that were escorting a French passenger liner off the coast of South America. The passenger liner dropped back and the British ships engaged the Graf Spay. The battle raged all day. Damage to the Exeter forced it to drop out of the battle, but not before it had scored several hits on the Graf Spay, forcing the Graf Spay to run southwards towards Montevideo, Uraguay, a neutral country which potetially afforded it safe harbor. The British ships pursued. Late in the day, when the sun was setting (in the west, last time I looked!), the commander of one of the British battleships steered his ship into shallow waters at a point of land near the mouth of the River Platte. The rays of the setting sun shone off the hull of the Graf Spay, illumitating it as darkness was falling. The glint from the sun off the Graf Spay lit it up, providing British gunners an hour of additional firing time, while the gunners on the Graf Spay could not locate the British ship nestled against the darkening shore, plus their targetng was impaired by the glare of the setting sun. (What a brilliant tactic! No wonder the British Navy ruled the seas for centuries!) The Graf Spay limped up the River Platte into Montevideo, capital of neutral Uraguay. Sixty of its crew had been killed or injured. The British government issued an ultimatum the Uraguayan government -- surrender the Graf Spay or the British Navy will sink it in the harbor. The Graf Spay tried to breach the British blockade at the mouth of the River Platte but was turned back by canon fire from British guns. It's captain ordered and sunk it in the harbor at Montevideo approximately three days after it arrived.

p.s. A Project Director on a job I worked on oveseas 25 years ago was a former sailor on an American destroyer in WWII. He served in the Atlantic and Mediteranean, and his ship was a rear guard at Normandy on DDay, searching for German subs. He was at sea for seven months after the war broke out. His ship chased a German sub for 3 days and captured it when it surfaced for air. His crew was rewarded with a tour of the east coast to raise War Bonds, where people paid to tour their boat (it may have been to tour the German sub., but I cannot remember.) He said they would give the girls a free pass for .... (you can figure out the rest.) He noted that the British captured a German sub that was highly publicized, but that the U.S. Navy had captured one as well, and it was his ship. His brother was a Marine. He remarked that American soldiers knew they could defeat the Japanese after the Marines caught a crack Japanese unit on the beach in Guadalcanal and decimated them. After that encounter the word was out amongst the soldiers that the best the Japenese could field could be defeated by the Marines. A morale booster, I am sure.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by I'm goin' down

I read a New York Times contemporaneous account of the encounter between three British warships and the Graf Spay in 1939 off the coast of Uraguay.

Contemporary account? That explains all the errors.

The British believed the Graf Spay, a pocket battleship [smaller than a battleship with the speed of cruiser and armed with battleship caliber guns],

KMS Graf Spee (not Spay - the ship was named for the WWI squadron commander Admiral Graf (Count) Maximilian von Spee, who led his squadron to beat British admiral Sir Christopher Craddock's squadron at the battle of Coronel, then was himself defeated and killed by admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee at the first battle of the Falklands. Spee's main ships were the original Scharnhorst and Gniesenau) was only called a 'Pocket Battleship' by the British press. The ship was in fact a WWI-style armored cruiser - not particularly large, or fast, or heavily armed. Her 28cm (11.1") guns weren't even battleship standard in 1914, let alone those of 1939.

was off the coast of Africa attacking British shipping. The Graf Spaf appeared in the morning and confronted three British battleships, including the Exeter, that were escorting a French passenger liner off the coast of South America. The passenger liner dropped back and the British ships engaged the Graf Spay.

I could be misremembering, but I don't recall the three British cruisers - not battleships by any means - escorting anything. I'm pretty sure Exeter, Ajax and Achilles were part a group that was actively hunting Graf Spee.

The battle raged all day. Damage to the Exeter forced it to drop out of the battle, but not before it had scored several hits on the Graf Spay, forcing the Graf Spay to run southwards towards Montevideo, Uraguay, a neutral country which potetially afforded it safe harbor. The British ships pursued. Late in the day, when the sun was setting (in the west, last time I looked!), the commander of one of the British battleships steered his ship into shallow waters at a point of land near the mouth of the River Platte. The rays of the setting sun shone off the hull of the Graf Spay, illumitating it as darkness was falling. The glint from the sun off the Graf Spay lit it up, providing British gunners an hour of additional firing time, while the gunners on the Graf Spay could not locate the British ship nestled against the darkening shore, plus their targetng was impaired by the glare of the setting sun. (What a brilliant tactic! No wonder the British Navy ruled the seas for centuries!) The Graf Spay limped up the River Platte into Montevideo, capital of neutral Uraguay. Sixty of its crew had been killed or injured. The British government issued an ultimatum the Uraguayan government -- surrender the Graf Spay or the British Navy will sink it in the harbor. The Graf Spay tried to breach the British blockade at the mouth of the River Platte but was turned back by canon fire from British guns. It's captain ordered and sunk it in the harbor at Montevideo approximately three days after it arrived.

Very little of the above has anything to do with any of the accounts that I've read. After Exeter's withdrawaly Ajax and Achilles did indeed shadow Graf Spee, but "glinting sun"? In fact the two British light cruisers got too close on a couple of occassions and were driven back by German gunfire, not the other way around.

The best book on the subject is still Dudley Pope's The Battle Of The River Plate.

[I'm goin' down]

The account is what I remembered from the NY Times article posted at the time. I tried to find it on the internet years ago, but did not. I read the article overseas in 1984, and it was in a book with a big red cover named 100 best headlines or articles in the NY Times. That is all I can remember. But I am not smart enough to make up about the ship that sailed close to shore to gain additional firing time.

[Arclight]

Well, whatever the case, nice contribution I'm goin' down.

[I'm goin' down]

I tried to find the article in the New York Times archive. I wasn't willing to pay to search the archives. However, I did read some articles and watched a video from Victory at Sea. The Graf Spee sunk about 50 tons of allied shipping. The three British ships were indeed cruisers and they outmanuevered the Graf Spee. The Graf Spee was a pocket battleship, outfitted with the most modern armor of the time and had advanced firing power. As for speed, I am not sure about that, but it should have had the speed of a cruiser. Yes, the Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles were cruisers.

As for the errors that Sailor Steve point s out, they are minor in the context of the battle, and are not material to the point of the story wihch is about a battle considered a historic naval confrontation. I read the article in 1984. As for the implied embellishment regarding the "glint" in the setting sun, if that is an error, it should be ascribed to the reporter who wrote the story, and it may not have been an employee of the Times. I cannot speak for him.

Also, one of the articles talked about the Ajax scoring hits on the Graf Spee.


So there!

[Rockin Robbins]

Reporters of the day realized that stories sold for their dramatic content and where military stories were concerned, hesitated not to bring some lively details to an otherwise drab and dreary drubbing of a single German warship in a far-off prosaic port. The military didn't mind either, for propaganda reasons. And it built morale that a large, dangerous and successful German raider was successfully treed and eliminated from the war.

This was from a period in the war where battle was still romantic and men were more than hamburger. The writing reflects that idealism of a nasty business.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Thanks for the kind words, I-G-D