Battle of the River Plate

Location: South Atlantic Ocean
Date: December 13, 1939

Commanders and Forces German: 
Pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee (captain Langsdorff);
Commanders and Forces British: 
Cruisers Exeter, Achilies, and Ajax (Commodore Harwood)

Casualties:
German:  36 killed, 60 wounded
British: 72 killed, 28 wounded

Key Actions:
After badly damaging HMS Exeter and scoring hits on HMS Ajax, Langsdorff, who had been wounded twice, ordered the lightly damaged pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee to seek safety in the neutral harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay, instead of remaining at sea and finishing off the British warships. Later when he thought he had no choice, Langsdorff ordered that the Admiral Graf Spee be scuttled.

Key Effects:
The scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee was the first real allied success of World War II, which has begun with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Adolf Hitler was furious with Captain Landsgorff’s  decision to sink his own warship.

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