The Battle of the Rio de la Plata 13 December 1939 was the first major naval battle of World War II, which ended with the scuttling of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf von Spee after a three month campaign against British merchant ships in the Atlantic Ocean.
Admiral Graf von Spee following the attacks on merchant ships that allowed England to survive is sought by the entire Home fleet with one goal, to sink him. The reich not having a port where to refuel the ship went to Uruguay in the bay of Rio Plata. The British in the know circulated the rumor that the Home fleet was waiting for Admiral Graf von Spee at the exit of the bay. But this information was false and had 2 goals - that the cruiser remains cloistered at the bottom of the bay while waiting for the "home fleet" running out of fuel to leave - to have time to stir up all the English ships possible. Then a second rumor said that the home fleet was gone. So the battleship sailed but at the exit of the bay encountered the Home Fleet. The UK squadron included the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter (3 turrets (2 × 203 mm), 6 turrets (2 × 102 mm), 32 mm batteries, 1 seaplane) and the light cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles, which engaged in combat with the German ship (2 turrets (3 × 280 mm), 8 turrets (1 × 132 mm), batteries of 64 and 32 mm, 2 seaplanes). The British fleet had divided into two groups before contact, the Exeter had hidden behind a smoke screen and arrived at a good distance launched its illuminating shells to frame the Graf Spee. The latter immediately realized that he had another fight to fight at the first salvo of shells launched by Exeter. The only weakness of the German battleship lay in its poorly distributed armament (two unique triple 280 mm turrets), which did not allow it to fight too many targets at the same time. Langsdorff made a second error of judgment there by concentrating the fire on the Exetern, neglecting the light cruisers, which took the opportunity to close.
He stalked the British flagship so much so that the light cruisers came within torpedo range of the battleship. However, once launched, the torpedoes missed the target; Langsdorff, realizing his mistake, changed his tune and retaliated violently on Ajax, which was seriously damaged, but 2865
had closed within 5,000 meters, which made the main turrets of the battleship inoperative, he turned again on the Exeter, from which a large 203 mm shell had just pierced her hull above the waterline. A deluge of fire fell on Exeter, which lost two of its three main turrets, silenced by broadsides of 280 mm shells.
The Exeter had to leave the theater of operations abruptly so as not to sink as it was so damaged, however before leaving it launched its torpedoes on the Graf Spee:only one reached its objective, right in the center, where the shielding was the thickest. , which caused some minimal damage; however a last 203 mm shell swept the upper deck of the Graf Spee, causing many casualties.
Exeter unable to continue the fight, Achilles and Ajax had to withdraw in turn, short of torpedoes, their armament being insufficient. Langsdorff set sail for the port of Montevideo.
The British Admiralty only had the heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland available, which had come from the Falkland Islands, but pretended that the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the battlecruiser Renown were coming.
Langsdorff chose to scuttle the ship to spare his crew, who left for Buenos Aires, and himself committed suicide.
The prisoners taken by the Graf Spee and placed in the supply ship Altmark were liberated by a commando from the British destroyer HMS Cossack in the Jøssingfjord, in neutral waters