"smaller destroyers and that the British ships were protecting a merchant convoy, the destruction of which would be a major prize. Since ""Admiral Graf Spee""'s reconnaissance aircraft was out of service, Langsdorff relied on his lookouts for this information. He decided to engage, despite having received a broadly accurate report from the German naval staff on 4 December, outlining British activity in the River Plate area. This report included information that ""Ajax"", ""Achilles"", ""Cumberland"" and ""Exeter"" were patrolling the South American coast. Langsdorff realised too late that he was facing three cruisers. Calling on the immediate acceleration of his diesel"
"1939, a flotilla of British warships — HMS ""Ajax"", and HMS ""Achilles"" — commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood — engaged and routed the powerful German pocket battleship ""Admiral Graf Spee"" at the Battle of the River Plate, near the Uruguayan port of Montevideo in South America. ""Ajax"" was chosen as the name of this war-born community. After the war, the University of Toronto leased much of the D.I.L. plant to house the flood of newly discharged soldiers who had enrolled as engineering students. War machines were moved out and the buildings were converted to classrooms and laboratories. By 1949, the"
"Second World War, command of HMS ""Exeter"" passed to Captain F.S. Bell. Harwood commanded a squadron consisting of the heavy cruisers and HMS ""Exeter"", and the light cruisers HMS ""Achilles"" and HMS ""Ajax"". He flew his broad pennant in ""Ajax"" as his flagship. The squadron was deployed to the South Atlantic against the ""Admiral Graf Spee"", which was attacking Allied shipping there. Harwood suspected that ""Graf Spee"" would try to strike next at the merchant shipping off the River Plate estuary. With ""Cumberland"" being absent for repairs, Harwood deployed his other three cruisers off the estuary on 12 December. In"
"Both ships were scuttled by their crews to avoid being taken as prizes. After a brief deployment in and around the Falkland Islands, ""Ajax"" returned to her station off the Plate on 21 September. When the German raider, , became a threat, Force G was formed from ""Ajax"" (flagship, Commodore Henry Harwood), and , all cruisers. (""Cumberland"", also part of this force, was undergoing a refit at Port Stanley). Force G located and engaged ""Graf Spee"" on 13 December, despite the German warship's greater firepower. ""Ajax"" was hit seven times by the Germans: X and Y turrets were disabled, structural"
"Hill. During the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939, the ""Graf Spee"" concentrated fire upon the ""Exeter"" inflicting some 40 direct hits and causing major damage. On the 16 December, ""Exeter"" limped into Stanley Harbour, with 60 of the 600 crew dead and 49 wounded. The crew had to be boarded out in Stanley as ""Exeter"" was too badly damaged. In the aftermath of the Falklands War, Stanley Harbour was the departure point for many of the Argentine POWs being transported back to continental Argentina. Due to the lack of accommodation, for a while, British troops were billetted"
"as well as one of her secondary turrets. There were no friendly naval bases within reach, nor were any reinforcements available. She was not seaworthy and could make only the neutral port of Montevideo. ""Admiral Graf Spee"" hauled round from an easterly course, now behind ""Ajax"" and ""Achilles"", towards the north-west and laid smoke. This course brought Langsdorff roughly parallel to ""Exeter"". By 06:50, ""Exeter"" listed heavily to starboard, taking water forward. Nevertheless, she still steamed at full speed and fired with her one remaining turret. Forty minutes later, water splashed in by a near-miss short-circuited her electrical system for"
"the cruiser and was in transit on 17 December when the Germans scuttled ""Admiral Graf Spee"" following the Battle of the River Plate. ""Exeter"" had been badly damaged in the battle with ""Admiral Graf Spee"", and ""Dorsetshire"" escorted her back to Britain in January 1940, before returning to South American waters to search for German supply ships. On 11 February, her reconnaissance aircraft spotted the German supply freighter ""Wakama"" twelve miles off the coast of Brazil, which was promptly scuttled by her crew. ""Dorsetshire"" arrived on the scene shortly thereafter, picked up ten officers and thirty-five crewmen and sank ""Wakama"""
"where she was assigned to the South American Division under Commodore Henry Harwood and allocated to ""Force G"" (with ""Exeter"" and ). In the early morning of 13 December 1939, a force consisting of ""Achilles"", ""Ajax"" and ""Exeter"" detected smoke on the horizon, which was confirmed at 06:16 to be a pocket battleship, thought to be the but which turned out to be . A fierce battle ensued, at a range of approximately . ""Achilles"" suffered some damage. In the exchange of fire, four crew were killed, her captain, W. E. Parry, was wounded; 36 of ""Graf Spee""’s crew were"
"view, it was too late for the Italian battleships and cruisers to operate against the convoy. A flotilla of four destroyers and three torpedo boats was, at the same time, patrolling between 35° 45’ N and 35° 25′N, at about apart, in full moonlight. The Italian destroyers—all Soldati-class—were the ""Artigliere"", ""Camicia Nera"", Aviere, and ""Geniere"". The torpedo boats were the Spica-class ""Ariel"", ""Alcione"", and ""Airone"". At 01:37, ""Ajax"" was sighted by ""Alcione"", steaming eastward, away on the port side. At 01:48, the three torpedo boats were closing the British cruiser at full speed. The cruiser was completely unaware of the"
"HMS Exeter (68) HMS ""Exeter"" was the second and last heavy cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s. Aside from a temporary deployment with the Mediterranean Fleet during the Abyssinia Crisis of 1935–36, she spent the bulk of the 1930s assigned to the Atlantic Fleet or the North America and West Indies Station. When World War II began in September 1939, the cruiser was assigned to patrol South American waters against German commerce raiders. Then the ""Exeter"" was one of three British cruisers that fought the German pocket battleship, the , later that year in the Battle"
"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 , 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 River Plate on 13 December) and had been informed of the departure of the ""Ussukuma"" by the British naval attaché in Montevideo and by a Dutch ship which had met the ""Ussukuma"" shortly after the latter's departure. The ""Ajax"" threatened not to rescue the German crew if they left their ship but also ordered them not to sink it. Captain Wilmsen decided to scuttle her nevertheless and the ""Ajax"" fired three rounds at her, the first across the bows, the second whilst she was lowering her lifeboats and the third when the boats were dropped into the water,"
"at 05:20, the British squadron was proceeding on a course of 060° at 14 knots with ""Ajax"" at 34° 34′ South 48° 17′ West, east of Montevideo. At 06:10, smoke was sighted on a bearing of Red-100, or 320° (to the north-west). Harwood ordered the ""Exeter"" to investigate. She swung out of line and at 06:16 she signaled by lamp: ""I think it is a pocket-battleship"", and Captain Bell ordered Flag N hoisted to the yard arm — ""Enemy in sight"". ""Admiral Graf Spee"" had already sighted mastheads and identified ""Exeter"", but initially suspected that the two light cruisers were"
"Spee"" then took refuge in neutral Montevideo, Uruguay. By broadcasting messages indicating capital ships were in the area, the British caused ""Admiral Graf Spee""s captain to think he faced a hopeless situation while low on ammunition and order his ship scuttled. On 8 June 1940 the German capital ships and , classed as battleships but with large cruiser armament, sank the aircraft carrier with gunfire. From October 1940 through March 1941 the German heavy cruiser (also known as ""pocket battleship"", see above) conducted a successful commerce-raiding voyage in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. On 27 May 1941, attempted to finish"
"and included three other battleships, two aircraft carriers, six cruisers, and 16 destroyers. The only remarkable incident during the convoy was some damage to the destroyer when she ran into a minefield. The merchantmen reached their destination on 11 October. Until then, bad weather had prevented the intervention of the Italian Fleet. An aircraft spotted the returning ships shortly after they had left Malta. Meanwhile, HMS ""Ajax"" was detached from the other cruisers for a scouting mission. The Italian commander—Admiral Inigo Campioni—ordered a force of destroyers to Cape Bon, in case the British warships were going to Gibraltar. In Campioni's"
"battleships"" were the (renamed ""Lützow""), , and . Modern commentators favour classifying these as ""heavy cruisers"" and the ""Kriegsmarine"" itself reclassified these ships as such (""Schwere Kreuzer"") in 1940. In German language usage these three ships were designed and built as ""armoured ships"" (Panzerschiffe) – ""pocket battleship"" is an English label. The ""Graf Spee"" was scuttled by her own crew in the Battle of the River Plate, in the Rio de la Plata estuary in December 1939. ""Admiral Scheer"" was bombed on 9 April 1945 in port at Kiel and badly damaged, essentially beyond repair, and rolled over at her"
"South African personnel. In December 1939, several months after war was declared, ""Neptune"" was patrolling in the South Atlantic in pursuit of German surface raider pocket battleship (heavy cruiser) . ""Neptune"", with other patrolling Royal Navy heavy units, was sent to Uruguay in the aftermath of the Battle of the River Plate. However, she was still in transit when the Germans scuttled ""Graf Spee"" off Montevideo on 17 December. ""Neptune"" was the first British ship to spot the Italian Fleet in the battle of Calabria, on 9 July 1940, marking also the first time since the Napoleonic Wars that the"
"Greece, departing that evening to Crete, then heading north to join Force A (cruiser ) at Pireaus. From there the combined force under the command of Vice Admiral Henry Pridham-Wippell moved east into the Straits of Otranto to divert the Italian Fleet whilst the balance of the British forces attacked the port of Taranto in Operation Judgement. Whilst in the straits, the cruisers intercepted an Italian convoy of four ships and destroyed three. In March 1941, again under Pridham-Whippel, ""Ajax"" and the cruisers ""Orion"", and formed Force B in an operation to bring the Italian fleet to battle, resulting in"
"to repeat this exercise with a Belgian crew failed when the bag was dropped down the ship's funnel. By this time, ""Graf Spee"" had put into Montevideo to repair damage received during the battle of the River Plate. Two Royal Navy cruisers followed the raider, and patrolled the harbour entrance while reporting ""Graf Spee""s position to the fleet. ""Ark Royal"" and ""Renown"" were dispatched to join the British ships outside the harbour, but as they were 36 hours away, the British naval attaché came up with a plan to make the Germans believe that the two capital ships had already"
"German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee Admiral Graf Spee was a """"Panzerschiff"""" (armored ship), nicknamed a ""pocket battleship"" by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The two sister-ships of her class, and , were reclassified as heavy cruisers in 1940. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron that fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action, in World War I. She was laid down at the ""Reichsmarinewerft"" shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936."
"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, scored more hits, and forced ""Exeter"" to withdraw again, 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"
"of Otranto (1940)). Force X also bombarded the port of Durazzo (now Durres) and set the oil refinery on fire. before it rejoined the fleet. ""Ajax"" and other vessels were detached from the fleet and refuelled at Suda Bay before they returned to Alexandria. From 15 to 20 November, ""Ajax"" and four other cruisers transported troops from Alexandria to Piraeus, the port of Athens, and returned to Alexandria. On 23 November, she was deployed with Force B to cover a convoy to Crete and to support air attacks on Tripoli from ""Eagle"". ""Ajax"" participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan"
"On 31 July 1945, in Operation Struggle, the British midget submarine ""XE3"", crewed by Lieutenant Ian Fraser, Acting Leading Seaman James Magennis, Sub-Lieutenant William James Lanyon Smith, RNZNVR, and Engine Room Artificer Third Class, Charles Alfred Reed, attacked Japanese shipping at Singapore. They heavily damaged the heavy cruiser , while docked at her berth at Selatar Naval Base, although she did not sink. Fraser and Magennis were both awarded the Victoria Cross, Smith received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Reed the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (CGM). Battleships and aircraft from the fleet also attacked the Japanese home islands. The battleship"
"Convoy HX 84 Convoy HX 84 was the 84th of the numbered series of Allied North Atlantic HX convoys of merchant ships from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England during the battle of the Atlantic. Thirty-eight ships escorted by the armed merchant cruiser departed Halifax on 28 October 1940, eastbound to Liverpool. On 5 November 1940, the German pocket battleship found the convoy at and attacked immediately. Captain E.S.F. Fegen of ""Jervis Bay"" attacked the raider so as to delay ""Admiral Scheer"" and to allow the convoy to scatter. ""Jervis Bay"" was sunk after 20 minutes of fighting with the"
"Force to sweep the Heligoland Bight, but bad weather prevented operations in the southern North Sea. As a result, the operation was confined to the northern end of the sea. Another sweep began on 6 March, but had to be abandoned the following day as the weather grew too severe for the escorting destroyers. On the night of 25 March, ""Ajax"" and the rest of the fleet sailed from Scapa Flow to support Beatty's battlecruisers and other light forces raiding the German Zeppelin base at Tondern. By the time the Grand Fleet approached the area on 26 March, the British"
"of Ajax in Ontario, Canada, which is named after the Royal Navy cruiser involved in Graf Spee's destruction, and which also has streets within it named after Royal Naval personnel involved in the action, named a street in 2007 in honour of Hans Langsdorff - ""Langsdorff Drive"". 4.Entre Hitler y Perón, Autor: Juan Bautista Yofre, Editorial: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Argentina, 2016, . Hans Langsdorff Hans Wilhelm Langsdorff (20 March 1894 – 20 December 1939) was a German naval officer, most famous for his command of the ""Panzerschiff"" (pocket battleship) ""Admiral Graf Spee"" during the Battle of the River"
"dead. Three sailors killed aboard ""Achilles"" were buried in the British Cemetery in Montevideo, while those who died on ""Exeter"" were buried at sea. Immediately after her scuttling, the wreck of ""Admiral Graf Spee"" rested in shallow water, with much of the ship's superstructure remaining above water level, but over the years, the wreck has subsided into the muddy bottom and today only the tip of the mast remains above the surface. A radar expert was sent to Montevideo shortly after the scuttling and reported a rotating aerial, probably for gunlaying, transmitting on either 57 or 114 centimetres. In February"
"and outgunned British squadron. From the summer of 1940 a small but steady stream of warships and armed merchant raiders set sail from Germany for the Atlantic. The power of a raider against a convoy was demonstrated by the fate of convoy HX 84 attacked by the pocket battleship on 5 November 1940. ""Admiral Scheer"" quickly sank five ships and damaged several others as the convoy scattered. Only the sacrifice of the escorting armed merchant cruiser (whose commander, Edward Fegen, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross) and failing light allowed the other merchantmen to escape. The British now suspended North"
"four casemates. She later supported the landings in southern France. ""Ajax"" also operated in the Aegean during the reoccupation of Athens and the communist uprising in Greece. After the war, ""Ajax"" was used to repatriate German sailors from the crew of ""Admiral Graf Spee"" from Uruguay back to Germany - a historic irony since ""Ajax"" had been a member of the squadron that battled the German ship in 1939 and ultimately caused her to be scuttled. ""Ajax"" was then assigned to the Royal Navy Palestine Patrol and took part in the efforts to halt illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine. In"
"times during its journey, with only one present when the Germans attacked. Convoy HX 84 Convoy HX 84 was the 84th of the numbered series of Allied North Atlantic HX convoys of merchant ships from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England during the battle of the Atlantic. Thirty-eight ships escorted by the armed merchant cruiser departed Halifax on 28 October 1940, eastbound to Liverpool. On 5 November 1940, the German pocket battleship found the convoy at and attacked immediately. Captain E.S.F. Fegen of ""Jervis Bay"" attacked the raider so as to delay ""Admiral Scheer"" and to allow the convoy to"
"sweep into the North Sea from 13 to 15 October. Almost three weeks later, ""Ajax"" participated in another fleet training operation west of Orkney during 2–5 November and repeated the exercise at the beginning of December. The Grand Fleet sortied in response to an attack by German ships on British light forces near Dogger Bank on 10 February 1916, but it was recalled two days later when it became clear that no German ships larger than a destroyer were involved. The fleet departed for a cruise in the North Sea on 26 February; Jellicoe had intended to use the Harwich"
"on her bridge and erected a dummy second funnel behind the aircraft catapult to alter her silhouette significantly in a bid to confuse allied shipping as to her true identity. ""Admiral Graf Spee""s Arado floatplane located the merchant ship ""Doric Star"": Langsdorff fired a shot across her bow to stop the ship. ""Doric Star"" was able to send out a distress signal before she was sunk, which prompted Harwood to take his three cruisers to the mouth of the River Plate, which he estimated would be Langsdorff's next target. On the night of 5 December, ""Admiral Graf Spee"" sank the"
"Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, commanding the British Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, that the battalion was now on loan to the Royal Navy and would be moving to Crete as soon as possible in the cruiser HMS ""Ajax"". On 1 November 1940, the battalion sailed for Crete, arriving at Suda Bay on the 2 November. Their arrival was met by an attack from the Italian Air Force, Lance-Corporal Loosemore and Private Lister were both wounded. They were the battalions first casualties of the Second World War. On 31 December 1940 Lieut.Col.Sim went to Egypt and Maj.A.Gilroy (Black Watch), who would later command"