#hms exeter

[redarmyscreaming]

HMS Exeter firing on Japanese aircraft, Gaspar Strait, 15 Feb 1942; photograph taken from HMAS Hobart

[all-action-all-picture]

The Admiral Graf Spee. Named after Maximillian von Spee, a German Admiral who was killed in WW1 ('Graf' translates as 'Count').

The Battle of the River Plate (on 13 December 1939) was the first naval battle of WW2 with the Admiral Graf Spee facing off against three smaller Royal Navy cruisers - HMNZS Achilles (on loan to the Royal New Zealand Navy), HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter.

After the ship was damaged during the battle its captain, Hans Langsdorff, ordered it to be scuttled in the seas just off Uruguay on 17 December 1939. The surviving crew were taken as prisoners to Argentina where Langsdorff shot himself on the 20 December.

Langsdorff's ship was seaworthy when he ordered it scuttled however it would have had sufficient damage to eventually cause problems if it left neutral Uruguayan waters. HMS Exeter, in particular, was also badly damaged and the Royal Navy bluffed that back up was coming. In reality there was none nearby if the battle had been rejoined. It's an interesting story, worth a read up on.

Airfix model box art by Roy Cross.

[dieselfutures]

Return of HMS Exeter - Charles E. Cundall

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York: We have fun, don't we, Exe?

Exeter: I've never been more stressed in my entire life.

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HMS EXETER [X]

Artist:  MKiiiiii

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Admiralty Reinforces Death Watch on Nazi Battleship,” The Globe and Mail. December 15, 1939. Page 17. ---- While the 10,000-ton British cruiser Cumberland (top) has been ordered to join the Achilles, Ajax, and Exeter, which chased the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee into Montevideo harbor, in patrolling the sea exit from her refuge, it is now believed likely that the powerful battle cruiser Renown (middle) and the aircraft-carrier Ark Royal (bottom) have been ordered to speed across the South Atlantic from Cape Town in case the Nazi raider should attempt a breakaway out to sea from her lighter-gunned adversaries. The Cumberland is armed with eight 8-inch guns, has a speed of 31.5 knots and carries four planes. The 32,000-ton Renown has six 15-inch guns and has a speeding excess of 32 knots. The Ark Royal’s speed about 31 knots, and she has accommodation for sixty aircraft.

[oledavyjones]

RN sailor of the HMS Exeter with the ship’s cat. I was informed that cat’s name was Scouse

[uss-edsall]

For roughly forty-five minutes Exeter gave a gallant account of herself, showing the mettle that had won the British cruiser acclaim off Montevideo in December 1939 against the German Panzerschiffe Graf Spee. But at that time she had two other consorts, Achilles and Ajax, with which to team up against the more heavily armed but slower Kriegsmarine warship. Now the tables were turned; she was the fox, and the hounds were more numerous as well as larger and faster. It is improbable that the men on the Allied ships that midday southwest of Cape Putting had many thoughts of winning glory in those last desperate hours.

In the Highest Degree Tragic: The Sacrifice of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet in the East Indies during World War II, by Donald M. Kehn