Author: Pretty Girl of World War II (Reproduction of the full text without permission is prohibited!)
On September 30, 1939, a 5,000-ton mail ship "Clement" No. 1, sailing leisurely northward off the coast of Brazil. But this poor mail ship didn't know that its "bad luck" had quietly arrived!
A German warship had already "peeped" at it from a distance. Taking advantage of the "Clement" mail ship, which was unprepared, the German warship quickly rushed towards the mail ship at full power, and the two sides shortened the distance. Then the German warship fired a salvo of artillery, and the mail ship "Clement" instantly turned into a sea of ??flames.
Before the crew of the "Clement" had time to see the flag flying on the battleship clearly, the pilothouse and engine room were blown up by the first round of shooting. However, although the "Clement" suffered heavy damage, it had not yet sunk.
However, the German warships refused to "let it go easily", so they approached the "Clement" and used two torpedoes to directly send the mail ship to the bottom of the sea.
The sinking of the "Clement" shocked the entire Atlantic shipping industry. Especially British and French merchant ships, they had no choice but to start sailing in "groups" and carefully avoid those "dangerous waters", although at the time they did not even know whether their opponents were warships or submarines.
The day the "Clement" sank was less than a month after Britain, France and Nazi Germany declared war! The German battleship that carried out that attack was: "Graf Spee" pocket battleship.
Nazi Germany invaded Poland brazenly on September 1, 1939. On September 3, the British Ambassador to Germany submitted an ultimatum to the German government: If the British government still does not receive support from Germany before 11 o'clock, If Poland withdraws its troops, the two countries will be in a "state of war."
However, Hitler has decided to "go all out"! The British will certainly not get the answer "Germany will withdraw its troops." Therefore, after 11 o'clock on September 3, 1939, Britain and Nazi Germany9 were already in a state of war.
Now that the war has broken out, the armies of both Britain and Germany cannot remain idle! What was a bit sad at the time was the German Navy. After all, there was a huge gap between their strength and the British Royal Navy. But according to the character of the German people, no matter how weak the German navy is, it will accompany the British in the fight.
Of course, Marshal Raeder of the German Navy did not intend to fight directly with the British Navy. He learned the painful lesson of World War I: It is indeed difficult to rely on surface ships to fight the British Royal Navy. Very big. However, if the navy's tactics are changed to attack British transportation lines, the situation is likely to undergo a "surprising" change!
The senior German navy officials finally decided to change their way of thinking about combat and dispatch some more flexible "pocket battleships" to attack Britain's maritime trade transportation lines on a mobile basis. After the tactical ideas became clear, Redl gave this "harassment" tactic a nice name: "cruise guerrilla warfare" at sea.
As the main force of "cruising guerrilla warfare", the "pocket battleship" was the first to bear the brunt of the "Graf Spee". In fact, this battleship is not compact at all. Its displacement is larger than that of ordinary cruisers, and its armor thickness is not inferior. The ship is equipped with battleship-level 11-inch guns, and its more important advantage is its high speed.
The classification of "pocket" ships like the "Graf Spee" in the German Navy series has always been a big problem: because it is neither a cruiser nor a battleship in the true sense. .
When this so-called pocket battleship encounters a cruiser, it can completely destroy the opponent. If you encounter a battleship, you can successfully escape by relying on high speed. It can be said that the "Graf Spee" is simply a warship specially designed for "cruising and guerrilla warfare".
After Britain and Germany declared war, the "Graf Spee" lurked in the South Atlantic like a giant shark, repeatedly attacking merchant ships on the British shipping line. The vast ocean provides it with a good hiding space. Often after each attack, the giant shark "Graf Spee" has already swam away before the British fleet arrives.
A German surface ship appeared in the South Atlantic and launched frequent attacks. This was something that had never happened before in World War I. Moreover, the flexible and maneuverable "Graf Spee" made it difficult for the British fleet to capture it. The British were once "helpless" with this German battleship.
In order to completely eliminate this "big trouble" and protect the shipping channels that Britain depends on for survival. Churchill finally decided to use 26 large warships, including 3 aircraft carriers, and a large number of other ships to conduct a "draft-net" search in the Atlantic Ocean. Even when it sank the German battleship "Bismarck", the British Royal Navy never used such a large fleet.
However, such an "aimless" search by the British fleet was as futile as "finding a needle in a haystack." What makes the British Navy even more "shameful" is that during their "drafting" search, the "Graf Spee" was still not idle!
On November 15 of the same year, the "Graf Spee" sank a British oil tanker in the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Just half a month later, the Graf Spee sank three more merchant ships on the West African route from the Cape of Good Hope. By early December 1939, the "Graf Spee" destroyed 50,000 tons of British merchant ships in one attack in the South Atlantic.
The "Graf Spee" is like a "ghost killer" in the Atlantic Ocean, attacking Britain's maritime lifeline without restraint. And the captain of the "Graf Spee": Hans Langsdorff, may have been dazzled by the series of "victories", and he was a little "inflated" invisibly!
General Langsdorf decided to implement a "kill two birds with one stone" coup: Let the "Graf Spee" deliberately appear in the Indian Ocean to attract the British fleet to the Indian Ocean, and the "Graf Spee" quickly Turn back and fight back to the Atlantic Ocean "without anyone noticing" on the southernmost route to the Cape of Good Hope.
However, Langsdorf made a fatal mistake: while the "Graf Spee" was sailing to the South Atlantic, it encountered a British freighter "Multiple Ships" near the Tristan Islands. Rick's Star." Under the huge temptation, Captain Langsdorff was a little tempted, so he attacked the British 10,000-ton freighter.
But after the attack, Langsdorf immediately regretted it! Because he realized that: This attack had exposed his whereabouts. After learning that the "Doric Star" was attacked, the British fleet that originally planned to sail into the Indian Ocean quickly turned back and headed towards the sea area where the "Graf Spee" appeared. Start a big search.
On December 12, 1939, three British cruisers assembled on the route 100 nautical miles east of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Their mission was to intercept the possible "Graf Spee".
As a result, the Germans did not disappoint these three British cruisers: At 6 o'clock in the morning on December 13, a British ship observer discovered the thick smoke of warships rising from the sea in the distance, and it was " "Graf Spee".
Obviously, the "Graf Spee" had not yet discovered the three British cruisers waiting ahead for a long time. When Captain Langsdorf saw the British battleship opposite clearly, it was already too late!
The two sides immediately launched a fierce and bloody artillery battle. The "Graf Spee" relied on its superior firepower and armor to first defeat the British heavy cruiser "Exeter". Dying! Two other British light cruisers were also slightly damaged during the battle.
However, the British warships had a numerical advantage after all. During the battle, the "Graf Spee" had to frequently switch attack targets, which gradually caused the fire control on the "Graf Spee" to fail. During the battle, many of the equipment on the Graf Spee were damaged by shelling.
In addition, the "Graf Spee" was running out of fuel, so Captain Langsdorff did not dare to fight, so he ordered the warship to release a smoke screen while taking the opportunity to break through the British artillery fire. The blockade fled westward, while three British ships were "pursuing" behind.
Seeing that it was difficult to get rid of these British ships, the "Graf Spee" broke into the nearby port of Montevideo during its escape, and this port belonged to Uruguay. Uruguay was a neutral country at the time, so the British ships did not follow them into the port, but stayed outside the port to enforce the blockade.
After learning that the "Graf Spee" was blocked in the port, the British Navy quickly dispatched a large reinforcement fleet to the port. The original three British ships had been standing outside the port, monitoring the "Graf Spee"'s movements.
A German warship broke into the port, which made the Uruguayan government instantly "embarrassed"! However, neither Britain nor Germany could afford to offend, so after intense diplomatic negotiations, the Uruguayan government chose a "compromise plan": the Graf Spee was allowed to stay in the port for 72 hours, but then it had to leave on its own!
As a result, the "Graf Spee" took the time to make some simple repairs in the port. After some local German overseas Chinese heard the news, they also came to help repair the "isolated" German warship.
Time passes little by little! The 72 hours stipulated by the Uruguayan government soon arrived, and Captain Langsdorf decided to weigh anchor and leave the port. After thanking the German expatriates who provided free maintenance services to the warship, he then drove the ship out of the port with all the officers and soldiers on the ship.
When the "Graf Spee" weighed anchor, the German expatriates had been standing on the port. They looked at the "poor" German warship, all of them looked "forlorn", and some even I couldn't help crying.
In fact, Captain Langsdorff did not fully know the specific battle situation at the time: When the "Graf Spee" sailed out of the port, the British reinforcement fleet closest to the "Graf Spee" was still there. Thousands of nautical miles away. The three British ships guarding the port were not completely sure that they could sink the "Graf Spee".
If Langsdorff had chosen to continue fighting, the worst possible outcome would have been: both sides would suffer, or both sides would perish. However, Langsdorf misjudged the situation. He thought that reinforcements from the British fleet outside the port had arrived and that the "Graf Spee" was "certain to die."
So when the "Graf Spee" sailed 3 nautical miles from the edge of Uruguay's territorial waters, the "Nazi loyalist" captain Langsdorff, in order to prevent the British from getting the ship "carrying "Honor" the German battleship, he personally ordered to "sink the battleship."
After receiving the order, the "Graf Spee" braked suddenly on the sea, and then quickly lowered all the escape boats on the ship. The captain and sailors all jumped on the escape boat and sailed away from the "Graf Spee". Then a series of explosions sounded behind them, and the "Graf Spee" sank to the bottom of the sea.
Those German officers and soldiers who escaped were eventually arrested by Uruguay for "violating neutrality" and were later handed over to Argentina.
Two days after the sinking of the "Graf Spee", Captain Langsdorff took a shower and changed clothes in his temporary residence, wrapped himself in the military flag of the "Graf Spee", took out his pistol and drank a bullet to commit suicide! A suicide note was placed next to his body. As a soldier and captain, Langsdorff did his duty! But as a "follower" of the Nazis, he was also cannon fodder for the Third Reich.
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