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The Battle of the River Plate: The Hunt for the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee
This tale of the Battle of the River Plate follows the machinations of the German war machine as Kapitan zur See Hans Langsdorff commands the pocket battleship Graf Spee on a mission to cripple British shipping. Through clever subterfuge and daring, the Graf Spee takes ship after ship, ultimately forcing the British Navy to send twenty ships in search of the elusive German vessel. Pope presents a true, enthralling account of the men, ships, and tactics that culminated in this naval action which so brilliantly began Britain's war at sea.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Dudley Pope
137 books94 followersDudley Pope was born in Ashford, Kent.
By concealing his age, Pope joined the Home Guard aged 14 and at age 16 joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942). Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors.
After he was invalided out of the Merchant Navy, the only obvious sign of the injuries Pope had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then in 1944 moved to The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.
Pope's first book, "Flag 4", was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Horatio Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, "Ramage" appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.
Pope took to living on boats from 1953 on; when he married Kay Pope in 1954, they lived on a William Fife 8-meter named Concerto, then at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy in 1959 with a 42-foot ketch Tokay. In 1963 he and Kay moved to a 53-foot cutter Golden Dragon, on which they moved to Barbados in 1965. In 1968 they moved onto a 54-foot wooden yacht named Ramage, aboard which he wrote all of his stories until 1985.
Pope died April 25, 1997 in Marigot, St. Martin. Both his wife and his daughter, Jane Victoria survived him.
By concealing his age, Pope joined the Home Guard aged 14 and at age 16 joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942). Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors.
After he was invalided out of the Merchant Navy, the only obvious sign of the injuries Pope had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then in 1944 moved to The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.
Pope's first book, "Flag 4", was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Horatio Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, "Ramage" appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.
Pope took to living on boats from 1953 on; when he married Kay Pope in 1954, they lived on a William Fife 8-meter named Concerto, then at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy in 1959 with a 42-foot ketch Tokay. In 1963 he and Kay moved to a 53-foot cutter Golden Dragon, on which they moved to Barbados in 1965. In 1968 they moved onto a 54-foot wooden yacht named Ramage, aboard which he wrote all of his stories until 1985.
Pope died April 25, 1997 in Marigot, St. Martin. Both his wife and his daughter, Jane Victoria survived him.
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April 29, 2025
Despite France’s and Great Britain’s declarations of war against Germany in September 1939, the first months of the Second World War in Europe were characterized by a sustained period of armed inactivity. During this “Phoney War” or “Sitzkrieg,” as it was popularly dubbed, each side held off from attacking the other. For the Germans, the hope initially was that the fait accompli of Poland’s conquest would lead the Allied powers to back down. For their part, the British and the French believed that economic warfare alone might be sufficient to force Germany to sue for peace, thus avoiding the bloodshed that had characterized the last conflict between the two sides.
While the front lines in Europe remained eerily quiet, the war was waged elsewhere. One of these places was far off in the Atlantic Ocean, where the German “pocket battleship” Admiral Graf Spee had been sent to attack merchant shipping and disrupt maritime trade. For nearly three months the Graf Spee crisscrossed the South Atlantic, sinking nine cargo ships before she was cornered by three British cruisers on 13 December. What followed was the first naval battle of the war, one which ended with the German vessel damaged and her captain with little choice but to scuttle her. Dudley Pope’s book offers a narrative of these events, one that recounts both the details of Graf Spee’s voyage and the British Admiralty’s determined and ultimately successful pursuit of the German raider.
The Graf Spee's journey began before the war itself. Her departure was among the steps taken in advance of the invasion of Poland, so that the warship was in position to attack. Yet even after the Anglo-French declarations of war on 3 September, Adolf Hitler waited over three weeks before ordering her commander, Hans Langsdorff, to begin attacking shipping, so as to avoid provocations that might commit Britain irrevocably to war. During this period, the Graf Spee spent its days in conjunction with her supply ship Altmark avoiding any contact which might alert the British to her position.
Once Hitler authorized commerce raiding on 26 September, Langsdorff wasted no time commencing his mission, and by the end of the month his ship had claimed her first victim. Upon learning of the Graf Spee’s location, the British and French navies organized eight groups to hunt her down, assigning four aircraft carriers, three battleships, and 16 cruisers to the task. What might seem disproportionate force reflected the scale of their challenge, as these warships had to locate their quarry somewhere within the over fifteen and a half million square miles of the South Atlantic, with escape to the Indian Ocean also a possibility.
Making their mission even more difficult was the wiliness of their foe. Pope describes the many tactics adopted by Langsdorff to confuse his pursuers, from obscuring the identity of his warship to sailing briefly into the Indian Ocean and sinking a tanker off Madagascar. Such measures kept the British guessing while Langsdorff continued his mission. By early December, the Graf Spee had cruised for over 30,000 nautical miles, and Langsdorff began making plans to return to Germany for a much-needed overhaul.
It was while prowling the shipping lanes off of Uruguay, that the Graf Spee was discovered by one of the British groups. Pope gives considerable credit here to Henry Harwood, the commander of the Royal Navy’s forces in South America, who deduced Langsdorff’s move to the mouth of the River Plate after attacking his most recent target. Despite being outgunned by Langsdorff’s warship, the three cruisers under Harwood’s command nonetheless attacked the Graf Spee. The author recounts in considerable detail the battle that followed, during which the Graf Spee mauled two of her opponents while taking significant damage in return.
After little more than an hour, both sides broke off the engagement. Shadowed by two of the cruisers, Langsdorff put in to Montevideo to assess his situation. What followed was four days of diplomatic maneuvering, as the Germans tried in vain to get Langsdorff the two weeks he needed to repair his battered ship. While much of the damage was superficial, the destruction of key parts of the Graf Spee’s operating systems made it unlikely that she would make it to Germany in her condition. To this was added reports of the arrival of more powerful British warships off the coast, leaving the Graf Spee outmatched. Though this was bluff on the part of the British — the arrival of reinforcements was still days away — Hitler did not want to give Britain such a propaganda victory, leaving Langsdorff little choice but to scuttle his ship off the coast once he reached the limit of his legally permitted stay in Montevideo.
With his crew interned in Argentina for the remainder of the war, Langsdorff committed suicide in Buenos Aires three days after scuttling his ship, a last casualty of the Graf Spee’s voyage. It is one that is ably covered by Pope, whose book demonstrates the narrative ability that would made him such a successful author of nautical fiction. In it he captures effectively the drama of the hunt for the German warship and the tension of the battle that brought an end to her career as a surface raider. While more recent books may have more to offer in the way of context or analysis, for those looking for an engaging account of one of the most famous naval battles of the Second World War this is the book to read.
While the front lines in Europe remained eerily quiet, the war was waged elsewhere. One of these places was far off in the Atlantic Ocean, where the German “pocket battleship” Admiral Graf Spee had been sent to attack merchant shipping and disrupt maritime trade. For nearly three months the Graf Spee crisscrossed the South Atlantic, sinking nine cargo ships before she was cornered by three British cruisers on 13 December. What followed was the first naval battle of the war, one which ended with the German vessel damaged and her captain with little choice but to scuttle her. Dudley Pope’s book offers a narrative of these events, one that recounts both the details of Graf Spee’s voyage and the British Admiralty’s determined and ultimately successful pursuit of the German raider.
The Graf Spee's journey began before the war itself. Her departure was among the steps taken in advance of the invasion of Poland, so that the warship was in position to attack. Yet even after the Anglo-French declarations of war on 3 September, Adolf Hitler waited over three weeks before ordering her commander, Hans Langsdorff, to begin attacking shipping, so as to avoid provocations that might commit Britain irrevocably to war. During this period, the Graf Spee spent its days in conjunction with her supply ship Altmark avoiding any contact which might alert the British to her position.
Once Hitler authorized commerce raiding on 26 September, Langsdorff wasted no time commencing his mission, and by the end of the month his ship had claimed her first victim. Upon learning of the Graf Spee’s location, the British and French navies organized eight groups to hunt her down, assigning four aircraft carriers, three battleships, and 16 cruisers to the task. What might seem disproportionate force reflected the scale of their challenge, as these warships had to locate their quarry somewhere within the over fifteen and a half million square miles of the South Atlantic, with escape to the Indian Ocean also a possibility.
Making their mission even more difficult was the wiliness of their foe. Pope describes the many tactics adopted by Langsdorff to confuse his pursuers, from obscuring the identity of his warship to sailing briefly into the Indian Ocean and sinking a tanker off Madagascar. Such measures kept the British guessing while Langsdorff continued his mission. By early December, the Graf Spee had cruised for over 30,000 nautical miles, and Langsdorff began making plans to return to Germany for a much-needed overhaul.
It was while prowling the shipping lanes off of Uruguay, that the Graf Spee was discovered by one of the British groups. Pope gives considerable credit here to Henry Harwood, the commander of the Royal Navy’s forces in South America, who deduced Langsdorff’s move to the mouth of the River Plate after attacking his most recent target. Despite being outgunned by Langsdorff’s warship, the three cruisers under Harwood’s command nonetheless attacked the Graf Spee. The author recounts in considerable detail the battle that followed, during which the Graf Spee mauled two of her opponents while taking significant damage in return.
After little more than an hour, both sides broke off the engagement. Shadowed by two of the cruisers, Langsdorff put in to Montevideo to assess his situation. What followed was four days of diplomatic maneuvering, as the Germans tried in vain to get Langsdorff the two weeks he needed to repair his battered ship. While much of the damage was superficial, the destruction of key parts of the Graf Spee’s operating systems made it unlikely that she would make it to Germany in her condition. To this was added reports of the arrival of more powerful British warships off the coast, leaving the Graf Spee outmatched. Though this was bluff on the part of the British — the arrival of reinforcements was still days away — Hitler did not want to give Britain such a propaganda victory, leaving Langsdorff little choice but to scuttle his ship off the coast once he reached the limit of his legally permitted stay in Montevideo.
With his crew interned in Argentina for the remainder of the war, Langsdorff committed suicide in Buenos Aires three days after scuttling his ship, a last casualty of the Graf Spee’s voyage. It is one that is ably covered by Pope, whose book demonstrates the narrative ability that would made him such a successful author of nautical fiction. In it he captures effectively the drama of the hunt for the German warship and the tension of the battle that brought an end to her career as a surface raider. While more recent books may have more to offer in the way of context or analysis, for those looking for an engaging account of one of the most famous naval battles of the Second World War this is the book to read.
June 3, 2018
The battlefields of the Second World War must have seemed safely far away to the good people of Montevideo, back in December of 1939. After all, the Uruguayan capital, with its pleasant weather, courteous people, and relaxed pace of life, was thousands of miles away from the bloody battlefields of Europe and Asia. But those feelings of safe isolation ended one sunny day, when a German pocket battleship sailed up the Rio de la Plata or River Plate and anchored off Montevideo, flying the Nazi swastika.
The Battle of the River Plate’s author, Dudley Pope, was a British naval historian who may be best known for his Lord Ramage series of maritime adventure novels. Pope joined the British merchant marine in the early years of World War II, and was one of the few survivors when his merchant ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. Both his life experience and his formal training made him exceedingly well-suited to tell the story of The Hunt for the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee (the book’s subtitle).
In a clear and orderly manner, Pope sets forth the circumstances under which the Graf Spee set forth on the voyage that ultimately took it into the River Plate. The Nazi regime intended for the Graf Spee -- a pocket battleship that was lighter and faster than a conventional battleship, but stronger and more heavily armed than a cruiser – to operate as a commerce raider, attacking Allied merchant shipping in an attempt to choke off the supplies that the Allies needed if they were to continue with the war effort. It was a long-utilized naval tactic, and such parts of the book are not likely to be much of a surprise.
What may be surprising, to many readers, is the positive impression that emerges regarding the Graf Spee’s commander, Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff. His service to history’s cruelest and most wicked regime notwithstanding, Captain Langsdorff generally comes across as a perfect gentleman. Consider, for example, the testimony of Captain F.C.P. Harris of the British steamer Clement, one of the first of the nine ships sunk by the Graf Spee, after he and his chief engineer were taken aboard the Graf Spee for questioning:
“The Captain, speaking in good English, said, ‘If you will give me your word not to attempt any sabotage or espionage, and do exactly as we tell you, you will be left free. Otherwise I will have to put a guard on you.’ I said, ‘You can take my word. Neither the Chief nor I will attempt anything.’ He said, ‘All right, shake hands.” (p. 39)
Captain Harris and his chief engineer are then offered cigars and cold beer; a meal of sausage and bread-and-butter, accompanied by tea with rum – even a shave in the ship’s barber shop! Hard to believe there’s a war on, with such courteous treatment.
The British cruisers H.M.S. Ajax and H.M.S. Exeter, and the New Zealand cruiser H.M.N.Z.S. Achilles, had the needle-in-a-maritime-haystack task of finding the Graf Spee amidst the vastness of the South Atlantic – knowing, all the while, that if they found her, their light cruisers would be inferior, in armament and armour, to the German pocket battleship. Almost miraculously, the British strike force did find the Graf Spee off the South American coast, near where the Rio de la Plata empties into the Atlantic; and Pope dramatizes well the strains of combat decision-making that faced the commanders on both sides once battle was joined. Consider, for example, Pope’s reflections on Langsdorff’s tactical deliberations as battle draws near:
“[I]n a few seconds, the whole situation had changed alarmingly…and while Langsdorff thought, the Graf Spee raced at 24 knots towards the cruisers crossing her bow. Each couple of minutes’ thought brought the ships nearly a mile closer…A lucky hit by an 8-inch shell from the Exeter and nowhere to repair the Graf Spee…These British cruisers could make at least 30 knots compared with his 24…If he could not sink them could he shake them off in daylight? Darkness was more than 15 hours away…Or would they dog him like terriers round a slower, snarling badger, their yelps bringing up more powerful reinforcements?” (p. 104)
In the Battle of the River Plate, both sides fought tenaciously. All three British ships suffered damage during the battle -- Exeter most severely, with 61 sailors killed and 23 more wounded. The frustrated British commander, Commodore Henry H. Harwood, said of the Graf Spee that “We might just as well be bombarding her with a lot of bloody snowballs” (p. 156). But the Graf Spee too suffered damage – damage that was significant enough that she could not flee to continue her career as a commerce raider. In a fateful decision, Langsdorff decided to take the Graf Spee into the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay, and to hope that the Uruguayan authorities would grant him sufficient time to repair his stricken ship.
But the Uruguayan Government, understandably unhappy that the Second World War had thus arrived on their country’s doorstep, stuck to the letter of the law, insisting that the Germans could stay no longer than the 72 hours specified by international law – not nearly enough time for the Graf Spee to receive the repairs it needed. Suddenly, the eyes of the world were on Uruguay. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along the Montevideo waterfront, anxiously waiting to see if battle would once again be joined. Reporters from North America and Western Europe conveyed breathless broadcast updates to an anxious world. And the stricken British strike force waited for the Graf Spee, pretending to have a strength they did not actually possess – engaging, in effect, in a colossal bluff.
Yet the bluff worked! Langsdorff presided over a formal naval funeral for the 36 German sailors killed in the battle, and then scuttled his ship. “The time selected for the fuses to go off had been chosen with the Teutonic flair for heavy drama, because at 2054, as the sun dipped below the coastline, a sudden flash of flame leapt from the ship, followed by a vast double explosion. The centre of the Graf Spee seemed to dissolve into vast swirling black smoke which twisted upwards in tortured spirals towards the darkening sky” (p. 204). To this day, the Graf Spee sits at the bottom of Montevideo harbour, part of its superstructure still visible.
Yet what gives the story of the Graf Spee its drama is not strategic considerations or tactical decisions from the battle itself, but rather the behaviour of German commander Langsdorff once the battle was over. While Pope insists that Langsdorff “was a Nazi and believed wholeheartedly in Germany” (p. 201), Langsdorff twice thumbed his nose at Nazism in his last days of life. At the funeral for the slain sailors of the Graf Spee, while all the other Germans held their arms aloft in the Nazi salute, Langsdorff gave the traditional naval salute; a telling photo shows the German ambassador to Uruguay glowering at Langsdorff for saluting like a naval officer rather than a fascist. And when Langsdorff shot himself a few days later, he wrapped himself in a flag – not the Nazi swastika, but rather a pre-World War II German naval ensign. Thus did Langsdorff offer, twice over, a final rejection of the Nazi cause that he had served.
The symbolic significance of the Graf Spee saga has immortalized what otherwise would have been a minor battle of the Second World War. The British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger told the story in their 1956 film The Battle of the River Plate (released in the United States of America as Pursuit of the Graf Spee), with Anthony Quayle as Commodore Harwood and Peter Finch as a sympathetically portrayed Captain Langsdorff. For my part, I read Pope’s The Battle of the River Plate in the context of a brief visit to Uruguay. From the busy-ness of Buenos Aires, one crosses the River Plate to the historic Uruguayan city of Colonia del Sacramento. The river is wide and vast and brown, and from its midst one cannot see either the Argentine or the Uruguayan shore. Yet that peaceful and slow-flowing river was once a scene of high historical drama, as Pope chronicles well in The Battle of the River Plate.
The Battle of the River Plate’s author, Dudley Pope, was a British naval historian who may be best known for his Lord Ramage series of maritime adventure novels. Pope joined the British merchant marine in the early years of World War II, and was one of the few survivors when his merchant ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. Both his life experience and his formal training made him exceedingly well-suited to tell the story of The Hunt for the German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee (the book’s subtitle).
In a clear and orderly manner, Pope sets forth the circumstances under which the Graf Spee set forth on the voyage that ultimately took it into the River Plate. The Nazi regime intended for the Graf Spee -- a pocket battleship that was lighter and faster than a conventional battleship, but stronger and more heavily armed than a cruiser – to operate as a commerce raider, attacking Allied merchant shipping in an attempt to choke off the supplies that the Allies needed if they were to continue with the war effort. It was a long-utilized naval tactic, and such parts of the book are not likely to be much of a surprise.
What may be surprising, to many readers, is the positive impression that emerges regarding the Graf Spee’s commander, Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff. His service to history’s cruelest and most wicked regime notwithstanding, Captain Langsdorff generally comes across as a perfect gentleman. Consider, for example, the testimony of Captain F.C.P. Harris of the British steamer Clement, one of the first of the nine ships sunk by the Graf Spee, after he and his chief engineer were taken aboard the Graf Spee for questioning:
“The Captain, speaking in good English, said, ‘If you will give me your word not to attempt any sabotage or espionage, and do exactly as we tell you, you will be left free. Otherwise I will have to put a guard on you.’ I said, ‘You can take my word. Neither the Chief nor I will attempt anything.’ He said, ‘All right, shake hands.” (p. 39)
Captain Harris and his chief engineer are then offered cigars and cold beer; a meal of sausage and bread-and-butter, accompanied by tea with rum – even a shave in the ship’s barber shop! Hard to believe there’s a war on, with such courteous treatment.
The British cruisers H.M.S. Ajax and H.M.S. Exeter, and the New Zealand cruiser H.M.N.Z.S. Achilles, had the needle-in-a-maritime-haystack task of finding the Graf Spee amidst the vastness of the South Atlantic – knowing, all the while, that if they found her, their light cruisers would be inferior, in armament and armour, to the German pocket battleship. Almost miraculously, the British strike force did find the Graf Spee off the South American coast, near where the Rio de la Plata empties into the Atlantic; and Pope dramatizes well the strains of combat decision-making that faced the commanders on both sides once battle was joined. Consider, for example, Pope’s reflections on Langsdorff’s tactical deliberations as battle draws near:
“[I]n a few seconds, the whole situation had changed alarmingly…and while Langsdorff thought, the Graf Spee raced at 24 knots towards the cruisers crossing her bow. Each couple of minutes’ thought brought the ships nearly a mile closer…A lucky hit by an 8-inch shell from the Exeter and nowhere to repair the Graf Spee…These British cruisers could make at least 30 knots compared with his 24…If he could not sink them could he shake them off in daylight? Darkness was more than 15 hours away…Or would they dog him like terriers round a slower, snarling badger, their yelps bringing up more powerful reinforcements?” (p. 104)
In the Battle of the River Plate, both sides fought tenaciously. All three British ships suffered damage during the battle -- Exeter most severely, with 61 sailors killed and 23 more wounded. The frustrated British commander, Commodore Henry H. Harwood, said of the Graf Spee that “We might just as well be bombarding her with a lot of bloody snowballs” (p. 156). But the Graf Spee too suffered damage – damage that was significant enough that she could not flee to continue her career as a commerce raider. In a fateful decision, Langsdorff decided to take the Graf Spee into the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay, and to hope that the Uruguayan authorities would grant him sufficient time to repair his stricken ship.
But the Uruguayan Government, understandably unhappy that the Second World War had thus arrived on their country’s doorstep, stuck to the letter of the law, insisting that the Germans could stay no longer than the 72 hours specified by international law – not nearly enough time for the Graf Spee to receive the repairs it needed. Suddenly, the eyes of the world were on Uruguay. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along the Montevideo waterfront, anxiously waiting to see if battle would once again be joined. Reporters from North America and Western Europe conveyed breathless broadcast updates to an anxious world. And the stricken British strike force waited for the Graf Spee, pretending to have a strength they did not actually possess – engaging, in effect, in a colossal bluff.
Yet the bluff worked! Langsdorff presided over a formal naval funeral for the 36 German sailors killed in the battle, and then scuttled his ship. “The time selected for the fuses to go off had been chosen with the Teutonic flair for heavy drama, because at 2054, as the sun dipped below the coastline, a sudden flash of flame leapt from the ship, followed by a vast double explosion. The centre of the Graf Spee seemed to dissolve into vast swirling black smoke which twisted upwards in tortured spirals towards the darkening sky” (p. 204). To this day, the Graf Spee sits at the bottom of Montevideo harbour, part of its superstructure still visible.
Yet what gives the story of the Graf Spee its drama is not strategic considerations or tactical decisions from the battle itself, but rather the behaviour of German commander Langsdorff once the battle was over. While Pope insists that Langsdorff “was a Nazi and believed wholeheartedly in Germany” (p. 201), Langsdorff twice thumbed his nose at Nazism in his last days of life. At the funeral for the slain sailors of the Graf Spee, while all the other Germans held their arms aloft in the Nazi salute, Langsdorff gave the traditional naval salute; a telling photo shows the German ambassador to Uruguay glowering at Langsdorff for saluting like a naval officer rather than a fascist. And when Langsdorff shot himself a few days later, he wrapped himself in a flag – not the Nazi swastika, but rather a pre-World War II German naval ensign. Thus did Langsdorff offer, twice over, a final rejection of the Nazi cause that he had served.
The symbolic significance of the Graf Spee saga has immortalized what otherwise would have been a minor battle of the Second World War. The British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger told the story in their 1956 film The Battle of the River Plate (released in the United States of America as Pursuit of the Graf Spee), with Anthony Quayle as Commodore Harwood and Peter Finch as a sympathetically portrayed Captain Langsdorff. For my part, I read Pope’s The Battle of the River Plate in the context of a brief visit to Uruguay. From the busy-ness of Buenos Aires, one crosses the River Plate to the historic Uruguayan city of Colonia del Sacramento. The river is wide and vast and brown, and from its midst one cannot see either the Argentine or the Uruguayan shore. Yet that peaceful and slow-flowing river was once a scene of high historical drama, as Pope chronicles well in The Battle of the River Plate.
March 15, 2017
Dudley Pope's writing isn't the finest, but this study of a battle important to me and my family was at least comprehensive. Reading my Grandfather's name (H. V. Chalkley) was a joy, as Pope described the events and actions (somewhat understatedly) for which he was awarded the DSM. Overall a decent read, despite the occasionally clumsy prose. 4/5.
Read
June 20, 2024This is a very interesting portrait of the men and ships engaged in this early key battle. Pope has done thorough research and writes well, including excepts of many primary documents.
September 20, 2024
enjoyable sea story
July 23, 2026
Incredibly thorough and detailed recounting of this battle. A tribute to the men who lived and died.
NB: this is not a fictionalised account.
NB: this is not a fictionalised account.
Read
August 2, 2011The Graf Spee was a pocket battleship that attacked merchant ships in the South Atlantic and off Madagascar in 1939. An outgunned force of 3 British cruisers engaged the Graf Spee in the Battle of the Plate. The battle was inconclusive but the Graf Spee made a run for a neutral harbor, Montevideo in Uruguay. The British force lay in wait while a diplomatic struggle went on to limit how long the Graf Spee was allowed to stay in the port. The Germans ended up scuttling their ship.
The author's description of the battle makes the book worth reading. I got a little annoyed by the author's habit of introducing various British sailors by saying something like "If your name was" and then telling what the person was doing right before the battle instead of identifying people and telling about their roles.
The author's description of the battle makes the book worth reading. I got a little annoyed by the author's habit of introducing various British sailors by saying something like "If your name was" and then telling what the person was doing right before the battle instead of identifying people and telling about their roles.
August 9, 2016
Top Class.
This book is not especially long, which is a bonus for the non-naval specialists amongst us. It includes the assorted moves leading up to the battle - where the Graf Spee went, what the RN was doing to try to find her. I particularly liked the way Pope explained what the Royal Navy chiefs knew at the time - not working from hindsight - and why they took the decisions they did.
The battle is covered in as much detail as I could handle and included a good deal of personal anecdotes and details to liven up the technicals of which ship fired which guns at what time. The book also covers the aftermath of the battle, explaining the diplomatic moves very clearly.
Brilliant.
This book is not especially long, which is a bonus for the non-naval specialists amongst us. It includes the assorted moves leading up to the battle - where the Graf Spee went, what the RN was doing to try to find her. I particularly liked the way Pope explained what the Royal Navy chiefs knew at the time - not working from hindsight - and why they took the decisions they did.
The battle is covered in as much detail as I could handle and included a good deal of personal anecdotes and details to liven up the technicals of which ship fired which guns at what time. The book also covers the aftermath of the battle, explaining the diplomatic moves very clearly.
Brilliant.
September 5, 2011
I am hoping this is the same book because I have the American edition (1957) titled Graf Spee: The Life and Death of a Raider. This is a break down of what took place. Pope also hints at the reasons Langsdorff scuttled his ship and later committed suicide. Pope does not say it, yet if you read between the lines you will come to a conclusion about both ending events. He has given a very good blow-by-blow of what took place at the beginning of WW II.
September 14, 2014
Originally read the McBooks Press publication sometime in the early 1960's. Although I can't really remember the quality of the author's writing, I do remember being thrilled by the story and gobbling it up in a short period of time. I therefore assume the quality of the tale and its presentation to be very good indeed.
May 29, 2016
Terrific book about an exciting battle in the early days of WWII. The author relates the events leading up to the battle, the bravery of the fighting men on both sides, and final decision to scuttle ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE. I definitely liked this book, and would recommend it.
December 27, 2020
A well-written and generally unbiased account of the times of Captain Langsdorff's Admiral Graf Spee.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews