BBC The Battle of the River Plate
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00:00Against overwhelming firepower, three British ships took on the pride of the German fleet,
00:07the pocket battleship Graf Spee.
00:12It would become known as the Battle of the River Plate.
00:18The battle would pit two great naval officers against each other in a deadly duel.
00:23Graf Spee was commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, a decorated hero from the First World War.
00:28A thousand men owe their lives to Langsdorff.
00:37Facing him was Commodore Henry Harwood, a brilliant naval tactician.
00:43He had a happy neck of getting results by being nice.
00:48People trusted him.
00:51As the world watched, the battle moved ashore in a gripping story of deception, and one
00:57of the biggest bluffs of the Second World War.
01:00One of the commanders would be decorated and returned home a hero.
01:05The other would lose his ship, his reputation, and eventually his life.
01:14In this battle we have good versus evil, weak versus strong, the weak triumph over the strong.
01:25But the strong is represented by a good man fighting for an evil cause.
01:32He pays the price of this impossible situation.
01:36It's a tragedy that most playwrights could make a great deal from.
01:40Tonight, Time Watch re-examines the evidence and tells the full story of the Battle of
01:45the River Plate.
02:12The Admiral Graf Spee was the pride of the German Navy.
02:18Even before the Second World War had begun, she was central to secret plans for a guerre
02:23de cause, a war against commerce at sea.
02:28A special ship would need a special captain.
02:32The man chosen was one of the best and most highly respected officers in the German Navy,
02:38Captain Hans Langsdorff.
02:41The great thing about Langsdorff was that he was a very gentlemanly officer.
02:47He was a very old style naval officer.
02:51And he was a very attractive figure as well.
02:56Langsdorff came from a family of lawyers and Lutheran pastors and had been brought up in
03:00a strict moral tradition.
03:06The Christian concept of the world meant a lot to him, as did morality.
03:15These were the things which he valued.
03:22He had thought about becoming a vicar, which the family would have definitely approved
03:26of.
03:27But on reflection, he decided to join the Navy.
03:37When I reported to Captain Hans Langsdorff, he struck me as someone who had had a humanistic
03:43education.
03:48He was somewhat different from the image one had of an officer in the Imperial Navy.
04:01Langsdorff's Graf Spee was nicknamed a pocket battleship.
04:05It was boasted that she was bigger than anything faster.
04:09And faster than anything bigger.
04:12Her newly designed diesel engines allowed her to cruise for 16,000 miles without refueling.
04:18Bristling with huge 11-inch guns, she was capable of sinking ships 15 miles away.
04:31My father must have been really proud and happy to be on such a beautiful ship.
04:36Not only beautiful to look at, but great in every way.
04:44On August 21st, 1939, Graf Spee sailed quietly away from her base in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
04:52On board were 1,134 crew.
04:57Her departure was carefully timed so that she would cross the main shipping lanes at
05:01night without being spotted.
05:04When Britain declared war on September 3rd, Germany already had an ace hiding in the Atlantic.
05:11Her orders were to act as a lone surface raider and to wreak havoc with Allied merchant shipping.
05:23Langsdorff's intention was to create as much chaos as he could.
05:27So he'd sink something somewhere and then motor away as fast as he could somewhere else
05:33to give the impression there was more than one ship and to create as much chaos as possible.
05:38In fact, the main aim was not so much the physical damage that was involved in sinking
05:45the ships.
05:47It was the whole chaos that was inflicted on shipping in this broad area.
05:53Shipping that was of crucial importance to Britain's survival in the war.
05:59On September 30th, Graf Spee sank the British steamship Clement, but she got off a radio
06:05message warning that she was being attacked.
06:08The presence of an unidentified German raider in the South Atlantic was met with swift action
06:12at the Admiralty.
06:14With merchant shipping vital to the war effort, Churchill made the German raider his number
06:19one target.
06:22Twenty warships were dispatched to hunt her down.
06:29Three of them were under the command of Commodore Henry Harwood.
06:34Henry Harwood is possibly the archetypal cruiser Commodore.
06:39He knew the area perfectly.
06:41He'd served there before the war.
06:43He knew it like the back of his hand.
06:46And he had thought long and hard before the war about how to deal with pocket battleships
06:51in general, when he'd worked at the Naval College at Greenwich, and how to deal with
06:54them in particular in South American waters.
06:58Graf could not have faced a more formidable opponent.
07:06Henry Harwood was a family man who had joined the Navy as a 15-year-old cadet.
07:11In 1906, he passed out top of his class and went on to serve in the First World War.
07:19He was quite sociable.
07:23He enjoyed country sports.
07:26He was a good golfer.
07:30He had a happy neck of getting results by being nice.
07:35People trusted him.
07:37And his ship's company, I think, always realised that he required a high standard and they
07:45gave a high standard.
07:49Serving under Commodore Harwood was 19-year-old Basil Trott.
07:54He was a great skipper.
07:56He was a great seaman.
07:58He decided that when we left England, we were going to be an efficient ship.
08:03It didn't matter what time of the day or night it was.
08:05If he was up, he would think of something for us to do.
08:11Action stations at midnight.
08:13Lower a seaboat and try and pick up a lifebuoy, which he'd thrown over the side.
08:18Lower all the pulling boats and row them round the ship.
08:21And he also used to stop the ship in mid-Atlantic and say hands to bathe, which was great.
08:26You just dropped whatever you were doing and leapt over the side.
08:29Anyway, by the time we'd been in commission six months, we found he wasn't really a bad
08:36old stick.
08:38Commodore Harwood and Captain Langsdorff were set on a very public collision course, one
08:44which would shape both their destinies.
08:51In a deadly game of cat and mouse, Langsdorff continued to hunt Allied merchant shipping.
08:59To cause the maximum confusion possible, he now also began to disguise his ship, adding
09:05a fake gun turret and an extra funnel.
09:09He played his sister ships.
09:13In the South Atlantic, he was the Admiral Scheer.
09:15In the Indian Ocean, he was the Admiral Graf Spee.
09:18He made the Allies think there were a number of German raiders around when there was only
09:24one.
09:25He played this game, and I think he enjoyed it.
09:30Apparently, during the entire trip, he took great delight in avoiding being found by the
09:37English ships.
09:39To me, doing that seems almost boyish, even though he was 45 years old by then.
09:51Graf Spee next intercepted the Newton Beach, a British merchant ship.
09:57To keep his position secret, Langsdorff ordered the merchantmen not to use the radio to report
10:02his presence, or he'd open fire.
10:05He then transferred her crew to the Graf Spee before sinking their ship.
10:10On October the 7th, the Ashley, carrying 7,300 tons of sugar, was sent to the bottom.
10:16Again, Langsdorff transferred her crew to the Graf Spee.
10:20He was worried about the fate of the crews of the ships he sank, and he would compromise
10:27his own position, in fact, in order to secure the lives of the crews that he'd sunk.
10:36In fact, one very touching thing is the way that when ships would not obey his orders
10:42and still signal, and he would shoot at them, he would congratulate the officers at the
10:46end to say, you did the right thing.
10:53Throughout October and November, Langsdorff led the British a merry dance around the South
10:57Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.
11:00He continued to sink merchant shipping, but insisted on saving lives.
11:12Hans Langsdorff conducted an outstanding cruiser war, which in the form it took was unique
11:17in naval war history, unique because he fulfilled his task as a merchant raider.
11:30And yet, during the deployment of the ship, not a single human life was lost.
11:38Because Graf Spee was a lone raider, thousands of miles from home, Langsdorff had strict
11:43orders from Berlin not to attack other warships.
11:48Hitler did not want to risk losing his prize asset.
11:52But these were orders that went against the grain for an old-school officer like Langsdorff.
12:03In his heart of hearts, he considered this somehow insulting, which was clearly shown
12:08by what he said.
12:15And my father also thought it dishonorable to attack a much weaker opponent who had no
12:20chance of defense at all.
12:27Graf Spee had been at sea for three months and was coming to the end of her patrol.
12:34Langsdorff was eager to win a significant victory over a British warship before returning
12:38to Germany.
12:40It is precisely because Graf Spee is disappearing from the South Atlantic, and it cannot be
12:44foreseen when a second commerce raider can operate here, that it must be perceived to
12:49have achieved an objectively significant success before leaving the area.
12:55You can see from the war diary that Langsdorff was getting very frustrated at just sinking
13:00merchant ships.
13:02He wanted a victory over the British before he went home.
13:07By early December, Commodore Harwood's cruiser Exeter and his two light cruisers, Ajax and
13:13Achilles, were patrolling the South American coast between Brazil and the Falkland Islands.
13:19Harwood, a tactical expert, had a hunch as to where Langsdorff might eventually be found.
13:26The idea had come to him on a day out with his wife.
13:30At the World Trade Fair, he was transfixed by a map which showed the shipping routes
13:37in the South Atlantic, and how they all focused on the plate.
13:43And he was so transfixed that Mother, who was there at the time, had great difficulty
13:46in getting him away from it.
13:50On December 2nd, Graf Spee sank the steamship Doric Star, but not before she was able to
13:56send the emergency code signal announcing she was being attacked.
14:03For the first time, Harwood now knew where the German raider was.
14:07I've got here a rough diagram which Father made in making his plans for where Graf Spee
14:17was after sinking Doric Star, and various calculations of her speed and probable speed
14:23and range and where she'd get to.
14:26And he had three options.
14:28One was to go to Rio, where he'd get on the 12th.
14:31He'd go down to the plate for the 13th, or to Falkland Islands on the 14th.
14:35So it's quite an interesting little bit of paper, which he sent home to Mother, saying,
14:40keep it.
14:41It is of interest.
14:43Harwood's thinking that Langsdorff would head for the River Plate is one of the most classic
14:48examples of inspired intuition, I think, in naval history.
14:54He knew from his experience that the River Plate was a focal point, that if there was
15:00a German raider in the area, which it looked as if there was because of the sinkings, then
15:05it was more than likely he would come to the River Plate.
15:08There was no code-breaking.
15:09There was no intelligence.
15:11This was just inspired professional instinct, and he was absolutely right.
15:17On December the 7th, Graf Spee sank the merchantman Straeonshau and captured secret documents
15:23that revealed Allied convoys were forming off the mouth of the River Plate.
15:28It was the opportunity for a major victory that Langsdorff had been looking for.
15:38He presumed that these convoys were protected by one or two destroyers, but he didn't reckon
15:46on finding Admiral Harwood's squadron there.
15:57Graf Spee headed towards the River Plate.
16:00Although neither Langsdorff nor Harwood knew it, they were now just 20 miles apart.
16:07There was tension building up in the ship.
16:08I mean, we knew that it was a German raider, and they were a modern ship.
16:15And the equipment we had was the same sort of equipment that they had in the First World
16:20War.
16:21It was fairly hit-and-miss stuff.
16:37It was in the early hours of the morning, and the commander was asleep in the tower
16:41cabin.
16:48And when the tops of the masts could be made out, the commander was woken and the alarm
16:54was sounded.
17:03I don't think the sailors had even got their breakfast from the galley when something was
17:08sighted, and they sounded off action stations on the bugle.
17:17And I can feel the cold shiver now, even sitting here, that I felt then, what's going
17:28to happen?
17:29Of course, we were all snarling and abusing, who's joke is this?
17:33The commander's being funny.
17:35We all turned out until somebody's screaming, it's the real thing, it's the real thing.
17:39Messenger went down to Father in his cabin and said, I think I've heard that one before.
17:44But nevertheless, he put his uniform on, over his pyjamas, went up to the bridge and
17:49was there all day.
17:55He waited for a moment, and then it became increasingly clear that these were warships.
18:05To begin with, he had assumed them to be destroyers, and then he said very calmly, OK, let's do
18:14it.
18:18The key moment is when Langsdorff sights three British warships.
18:24He chooses to engage.
18:26He knows that that's going against his basic orders, not to engage warships, but he thinks
18:32that the time has come to do it.
18:34He could have got away.
18:35His diesel engines allowed him to accelerate away in the opposite direction.
18:40He chose deliberately not to.
18:51Had he realized in time that he was faced with three cruisers, he certainly would not
18:55have engaged in battle.
19:01It sounds very unfair, really, three ships versus one, but yet the one ship has the advantage.
19:07But you can see clearly from here why it does.
19:09It has got six guns that can fire these huge 670-pound shells.
19:14One of these hitting you, you know about it, as Exeter particularly found out.
19:24Whereas the British ships, the two smaller ones with the six-inch shells, they can spew
19:28out large numbers of these, but clearly the effect of 100 pounds hitting you is going
19:32to be a good deal less than the effect of 670 pounds hitting you.
19:36All the British can hope to do is to peck their enemies to death.
19:42But Harwood had a brilliantly simple plan, which now came into its own.
19:48He was convinced that his smaller ships could beat a pocket battleship by using a simple
19:52strategy.
19:54He would split his ships into two flanks, thus forcing Graf Spee to make choices as
19:59to which side to fire at, effectively halving her firepower.
20:05Poor old Graf Spee, throughout the Battle of the River Plate, is firing at one ship
20:09and then at the other two ships, one ship, the other two ships.
20:14Its attention is entirely split, and that worked absolutely brilliantly.
20:22Harwood's tactics of dividing his ships were revolutionary at the time, but the plan called
20:28for the Exeter to head straight for Graf Spee.
20:31This exposed her to the full fury of Langsdorff's 11-inch guns.
20:36In the battle that followed, Exeter took seven direct hits.
20:43Some of us were directed up to the bridge area, where a shell had passed through what
20:48was known as the remote control office.
20:51And the people there were cut to ribbons.
20:55And we had to sort of, really, I suppose, put people together, you know.
21:04And well, it's difficult to sort of talk about it, I suppose.
21:09But there was a body here and an arm over there, and you knew that that arm belonged
21:16to that body because he had the right buttons on his sleeve.
21:23The Exeter was now a limping wreck.
21:26Amazingly, Graf Spee did not move into Sinker and bring Langsdorff the victory he had sought.
21:32But for Kurt Diggins, the answer lies in Langsdorff's character.
21:43He didn't pursue the Exeter because the Exeter had been rendered unfit for combat.
21:51It's possible that his own personal attitude played a part here, too.
21:56Why sink a ship if it would entail six or seven hundred men losing their lives?
22:07Graf Spee now turned her guns on Harwood's other two ships.
22:12Seven men were killed on Ajax, four more on Achilles.
22:17When you hear them land, there's an almighty percussion.
22:26Because we're down below in a deck, and as you come down below, there's a steel hatch,
22:32and the steel hatch there is around about two foot six square, I suppose, that we went
22:38down through with a wire lid, and that clang, stop, and you're shut in down there.
22:46Often thought afterwards, you know, it came to you, then there's fear after, hell, what
22:51if something had happened?
22:52How the hell were we ever going to get out of there?
22:54At 7.40, after 80 minutes of ferocious battle, Harwood ordered the Ajax and Achilles to break
23:00off the action under a smoke screen.
23:04To Harwood's surprise, Langsdorff didn't pursue, but instead turned Graf Spee away.
23:11That British firing had taken its toll on the German ship.
23:16The impact was recorded by one of Langsdorff's officers.
23:22Above deck, they have punished us severely.
23:25What one sees there is disastrous.
23:28When from my control station I have to go to the command post or to one of the gun turrets,
23:32I have to cross the chief first aid post.
23:35The floor is running with blood.
23:40It made a huge impression on him.
23:47There's one of those pictures of him standing there, his head bare, wearing a coat, receiving
23:56the first reports.
24:00He then walked through the ship and visited the hospital below deck, where the injured
24:05and also some of the dead were laid.
24:09And this made a profound impression on him.
24:14Having finished his inspection of the damage, Langsdorff decided that his ship urgently
24:18needed repairs.
24:21He headed for the nearest major port, Montevideo, in neutral Uruguay.
24:28It was a move that would have grave consequences.
24:34Langsdorff telegraphed Berlin, explaining his fateful decision.
24:3936 killed, 5 seriously wounded, 53 slightly wounded.
24:44As ship cannot be made seaworthy for breakthrough to the homeland with means on board, decided
24:49to go into the River Plate, at risk of being shut in there.
24:55With Graf Spee's arrival in the harbour, the Battle of the River Plate turned into
24:59the first great media event of the war, as the world's press arrived to cover the story.
25:07First on the scene was local reporter, 22-year-old Hugo Rocha.
25:14The first assignment was to cover the arrival of the ship on Wednesday night.
25:18It was tremendously impressive.
25:19We had never seen anything like that, especially inside the harbour.
25:26The second day, I went around the ship with my photographer.
25:31My impression was of pity, pity.
25:35I knew that 36 of them had died, that many more were wounded.
25:40Most of the crew, I saw them, were boys, 18, 19 years old.
25:47We were very conscious that we were suddenly part of the great world war that had started
25:54three months earlier in Europe, that we were following with passionate interest, and that
26:00suddenly the war was happening here.
26:07The following morning, as the cameras rolled, Langsdorff released 61 British merchant sailors
26:13who had been held captive on board Graf Spee after their ships were sunk.
26:21Langsdorff's next task was to bury his dead.
26:31Hundreds of German citizens attend the ceremonies at the grave.
26:34Captain Langsdorff watches in silence as the boys he once commanded find final peace.
26:41This is a good photo of Graf Spee, isn't it?
26:50Sixty-six years after he first sailed the seas around the River Plate, Bob Batt and
26:55fellow veteran Roy Dickey return for the first time since 1939.
27:03They have come back to Montevideo for a memorial service and to remember their fallen shipmates.
27:12We actually collected together 62 bodies on that morning and laid them out and the
27:23folks were for burial.
27:32And the captain stood there with his prayer book and read the burial service.
27:39Then he said, we now commit their bodies to the sea and each one is then gently allowed
27:46to slide over the side.
27:50The reality came home to you that you had lost chaps and that you knew.
27:57It did come home to you really, as I can believe it now.
28:03I remember just watching those bodies slide down the plank, pipes and what have you.
28:12No, it does come home to you.
28:19It's a very moving moment. I don't think you ever really sort of get over it.
28:25It's something you like to try and forget.
28:33The morning after the battle, it was headline news across Britain.
28:38Here is the news. There has been an important naval engagement between a German pocket battleship
28:43and three British cruisers in the South Atlantic.
28:46I was at prep school in my last year. It was even worse than the first year.
28:53And we were rehearsing a play.
28:57And I remember one of the masters coming in with the evening papers.
29:02And I saw them and I was very frightened.
29:06But the news was good.
29:09Commodore Harwood had been knighted and promoted to rear admiral.
29:14Churchill, obviously, and rightly so,
29:19had been promoted to rear admiral.
29:23Churchill, obviously and rightly,
29:27wanted to make much of what really was the first British victory in the war.
29:34And he did this in spades.
29:37He promoted father immediately.
29:40He had him made a knight commander of the bath.
29:44He made the captains commanders of the bath.
29:47And BBC press followed it, etc, etc.
29:52It was rather unkind because there, as father said,
29:59here we were showered with honours and the job not completed.
30:04The first half of the story is a classical naval battle.
30:07The second half of the story is a story of guile and deception.
30:14And perhaps one of the biggest bluffs of the Second World War.
30:23In Montevideo, Langsdorff requested a meeting with the Uruguayan government.
30:31Accompanied by the German minister,
30:33Langsdorff was seeking permission to stay in the port for two weeks
30:37to complete repairs to his ship.
30:40The Uruguayans eventually agreed
30:42to permit him to stay for a maximum of four days.
30:47Outside the harbour, the British force was now reduced
30:50to two small cruisers, the Achilles and Ajax.
30:57Harwood was concerned that without reinforcements
31:00he would not be able to stop Graf Spee if she made a run for it.
31:04A plan had to be found to ensure Langsdorff was kept in Montevideo longer.
31:10The man given responsibility for this
31:12was the senior British diplomat, Eugène Millington-Drake.
31:18My grandfather was a great eccentric and a very colourful character.
31:23He was known for his enthusiasm for taking exercise
31:29and he was a great sportsman.
31:31And he would walk down the street
31:35and possibly stop suddenly on the way to the office
31:38for a few press-ups or a few stretches.
31:46Millington-Drake quietly recruited a band of British pensioners
31:50and sent them down to the harbour to spy on the new arrival.
31:54He then went to meet the Uruguayan foreign minister
31:59and in a cunning move invoked an international law
32:03called the 24-hour rule.
32:05Whenever a merchant ship sailed,
32:07a foreign warship was not allowed to sail within 24 hours.
32:11And the British used this mercilessly
32:14to try and keep Graf Spee in Montevideo,
32:17much to the disgust of the Uruguayan government.
32:22Millington-Drake secretly arranged for a British merchant ship
32:25to leave Montevideo every day.
32:29Eventually the Uruguayans were so frustrated
32:31that they said, you aren't allowed to send any more ships to sea
32:34because they could see how they were being manipulated by the British.
32:40Undaunted, Millington-Drake and naval intelligence
32:44kept up the pressure on Langsdorf.
32:49The British knew that their telephone line was tapped by the Germans.
32:54A call was deliberately put in to the ambassador in Buenos Aires
32:58pretending to arrange for the imminent arrival
33:00of two more heavy British warships.
33:04As anticipated, the call was intercepted by German intelligence
33:09and reported to Berlin.
33:13The British also leaked the story to the press.
33:17The Germans were convinced that Harwood
33:19had major reinforcements arriving in the river Plate.
33:25Millington-Drake had been pulling the strings again.
33:28He was, as I like to put it,
33:30the man behind the curtain.
33:32And he was very good at it.
33:36My grandfather would have loved the cloak and dagger element
33:39of the diplomatic battle, of the drama.
33:43In particular, the need to create a lot of force intelligence
33:48which would cause the Germans to think
33:52that there is a huge force out there waiting.
33:56Langsdorf and his officers became totally of the view
34:01that if they went out of the Plate,
34:03they would run into a much more powerful force.
34:07The deception had worked brilliantly.
34:12And now time had run out for Langsdorf.
34:18Despite his appeals,
34:20the Uruguayan government insisted
34:22Graf Spee had to leave Montevideo
34:24before 8 o'clock Sunday evening.
34:27A second battle now seemed inevitable.
34:31It was clear from the outset
34:33that whatever was to happen,
34:35were the ship to leave the harbour
34:37and engage in battle,
34:39one way or another,
34:41it meant destruction.
34:45Langsdorf signalled Berlin,
34:47explaining his predicament
34:49and asking for instructions.
34:52Inside the ship,
34:54there was a lot of confusion.
34:56Inside Montevideo,
34:58we have Langsdorf
35:00who is increasingly worried
35:02about the presence of Allied capital ships.
35:04Outside the harbour,
35:06we have Harwood
35:08who is only too aware
35:10that those capital ships
35:12have not turned up
35:14and are miles away
35:16and is very, very concerned
35:18that if Langsdorf does come out,
35:20he'll be able to get by him
35:22out into the open ocean
35:25and get home.
35:29On board HMS Ajax,
35:31Harwood wrote of his fears
35:33in a letter to his family.
35:36I have a most difficult problem
35:38to catch him again
35:40and if he escapes,
35:42all the good we have done
35:44will be upset.
35:46Not all, but a lot of it.
35:48The mouth of the plate is wide
35:50and there are so many ways out
35:52that it's very difficult.
35:54It's the best.
35:56You'll know by the time you get this.
36:00If the worst happens,
36:02bring my sons up to be men.
36:05Everybody was waiting for the battle
36:07to continue, naturally.
36:09That was the assumption.
36:11It's an unfinished battle.
36:15The Graf Spee cannot remain
36:17in Montevideo.
36:19The British are waiting outside.
36:21The German has to leave the port.
36:23It would be a clash, Herr Stöcker.
36:25At first, no one knew
36:27what was going to happen.
36:29To begin with,
36:31nobody knew what was going to happen.
36:33Is the Graf Spee going to set sail again?
36:35Will the Graf Spee try
36:37to reach another harbour?
36:39Will the ship engage in battle
36:41with the English ships
36:43anchored off the river plate estuary?
36:45What is going to happen?
36:49The pressure on Langsdorf
36:51was intolerable.
36:53Again, he signalled Berlin
36:55for instructions.
36:57The reply was not helpful.
36:59He was ordered
37:01not to let the ship
37:03fall into enemy hands,
37:05but was given no direct orders
37:07as to what action to take.
37:13Why Langsdorf did
37:15what he did next
37:17is one of the enduring mysteries
37:19But Time Watch
37:21has, for the first time,
37:23been given access to Langsdorf's
37:25personal archive.
37:33For 66 years,
37:35his daughter has kept his last letter
37:37home, hidden away,
37:39secret even from her own children.
37:41I am writing this letter
37:43on my last day as commander
37:45of this proud ship.
37:47My decision was not an easy one,
37:49but two rules served
37:51as guiding principles.
37:53Firstly, being prepared to take on
37:55any responsibility, as long as
37:57there was the slightest chance of harming
37:59the enemy. Secondly,
38:01the dispassionate consideration
38:03not to send my men to their deaths
38:05unnecessarily, but to maintain
38:07the ship's honour and the flag's
38:09honour to the last.
38:17The Graspe
38:19slowly
38:21started moving
38:23just at sunset.
38:27It was very theatrical, you know.
38:29It was a beautiful summer day.
38:31Half the population
38:33of Montevideo,
38:35hundreds of thousands of people,
38:37was concentrated along the Rambla.
38:41Langsdorf's final showdown
38:43with Harwood now seemed
38:45inevitable.
38:49But as the crowds watched,
38:51most of her crew was transferred
38:53to tugboats before the pocket
38:55battleship slowly left the harbour.
39:03I remember this precisely.
39:051955,
39:07755,
39:09the disk of the sun was slowly
39:11sinking
39:13in the ocean.
39:15And then
39:17the sound
39:19an explosion
39:21which at first, it seemed
39:23like a cannon.
39:25People thought
39:27the battle had started.
39:29Others said, no, that's only
39:31a smoke screen.
39:33No, actually, it was
39:35a suicide.
39:37It was a suicide.
39:40The German ship
39:42was committing suicide.
39:48Langsdorf,
39:50outmanoeuvred, believed all was lost.
39:52With no clear
39:54orders forthcoming from Berlin,
39:56he disembarked the rest of his crew
39:58and scuttled
40:00the Graf Spee.
40:04The English have
40:06managed to surround us in such a way
40:08that leaving to engage in battle
40:10with an opponent overwhelmingly superior
40:12to us would lead to our certain
40:14demise.
40:24I think this was the deciding factor
40:26for Langsdorf.
40:31His conscience told him that it was
40:33pointless to sacrifice the lives
40:35of a thousand young men
40:37in pursuit of a task
40:39that could not succeed.
40:43If he sailed, he was facing
40:45certain death and a death
40:47that would mean dishonour
40:49because the ship might well sink
40:51in shallow water and a lot
40:53of his secret equipment,
40:55especially his radar,
40:57be captured.
40:59The Battle of the River Plate
41:01was over.
41:07Langsdorf and his men would return
41:09home as heroes.
41:15Everyone wants to see these men
41:17who gave the Graf Spee such a beating.
41:19A memorable day for Londoners
41:21able to watch the sailors march past.
41:23The sinking of the Graf Spee
41:25was hugely important.
41:27It was the first major naval
41:29victory of the war and was
41:31immediately used to full effect
41:33by the Allied propaganda machine.
41:35And I may add
41:37that in a dark,
41:39cold winter,
41:41it warmed the cockles
41:43of the British heart.
41:50Langsdorf took his crew
41:52across the River Plate to Buenos Aires.
41:57On arrival, he was branded
41:59a coward by the press
42:01for not taking the fight back to the British
42:03even though the odds were against him.
42:05When he landed in Buenos Aires,
42:07he came under great pressure
42:09from the press as to why had he come
42:11to Buenos Aires.
42:13And the pressures on the man must have been
42:15absolutely unbearable.
42:17He knew that on his personal decision
42:19he had thrown away one of the German
42:21Navy's greatest assets.
42:23That instead of a victory,
42:25he'd suffered a defeat.
42:27And it was understandable, therefore,
42:29that he would decide
42:31to go his own way out.
42:37Saying goodbye to me in Montevideo
42:39when I was transferred, he said,
42:41say hello to Germany for me,
42:43say hello to my family.
42:49There's a lot in that sentence.
42:58That was a truly moving moment
43:00for me when he said this
43:02and said goodbye.
43:08On December the 19th,
43:10Langsdorff gathered his crew together
43:12in Buenos Aires and assured them
43:14that they were now safe
43:16and would be looked after.
43:20That evening, he joined fellow officers
43:22in the senior ratings mess
43:24of the Arsenal building
43:26where they had been stationed.
43:28He was said to have been
43:30at ease and in good spirits.
43:32He then retired to his room
43:34and wrote a letter home
43:36to his family.
43:38It would be his last.
43:40Now deep down inside me
43:42I am happy and content.
43:44Everything is being prepared
43:46and I have the peace and quiet
43:48in which to write you this letter
43:50to bid you farewell and thank you.
43:54If this is God's will,
43:56then I shall cheerfully meet my death
43:58despite life having been
44:00so dear to me
44:02because it gave me all
44:04that it had to offer.
44:06Then there are some very
44:08personal lines
44:10and then in conclusion
44:12my father writes
44:14be proud in your grief
44:16and prove yourself to be
44:18a true soldier's wife.
44:20Give my love to Jochen and Inge.
44:22And then his signature.
44:25It still moves me.
44:35Sometime in the early hours
44:37of the morning
44:39Captain Hans Langsdorff shot himself.
44:49The captain of the pocket battleship
44:51Graf Spee was buried
44:53at the Naval Honours in Buenos Aires.
44:57His officers and crew were joined
44:59by Argentine armed forces
45:01informing a guard of honour
45:03through the streets.
45:05German and Argentine dignitaries
45:07stood next to representatives
45:09of the British merchant sailors
45:11whose lives Langsdorff had spared.
45:17The Battle of the River Plate
45:19was the first great media event
45:21The world looked on
45:23as Langsdorff made his fateful decisions.
45:27Many branded him a coward
45:29for not leaving Montevideo
45:31with all guns blazing.
45:33I think in a way
45:35Langsdorff was more heroic
45:37doing what he did
45:39than going out and immolating himself
45:41at the hands of the British
45:43because Langsdorff was very conscious
45:45that the young men
45:47in his crew
45:49would pay the price
45:51for his error
45:53for his disobedience
45:55for his mistake.
45:59I maintain
46:01that Langsdorff's decision
46:03was the correct one at the time
46:05that it was the correct one later on
46:07and that it remains
46:09the correct one today.
46:13A thousand men
46:15owe their life to Langsdorff.
46:17But Langsdorff was only one
46:19of many victims.
46:21A total of 108 men
46:23lost their lives that day.
46:25Sixty-six years later
46:27survivors from both sides
46:29joined together in a cemetery
46:31in Montevideo
46:33to remember those who fell
46:35in the Battle of the River Plate.
46:37They shall grow not old
46:39as we that are left grow old
46:41Age shall not weary them
46:43nor the years condemn
46:45In the dawn of the sun
46:47and in the morning
46:49we will remember them.
46:51We will remember them.
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