Photographic History of the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee

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Historia en imágenes del acorazado alemán Admiral Graf Spee

Author: Diego M.Lascano

Ediciones Pictoria ISBN 9974-7837-1-2

This book contain probably 400 to 500 pictures about the DKM Admiral Graf Spee, this the best photographic book about the pocket battleship. It is in incredible source of documentation for all the modelers willing to recreate the Admiral Graf Spee as she looked in 1939. It is in Spanish, as it has been published in Montevideo Uruguay. The copy I am reviewing is the third edition from 2006. A excellent reference for any study of the battle of the River Plate as many of the pictures and objects are coming from the German Sailors interned in South America or from the Uruguayan Press. One of the document is the “Trefferbild”, the graphic reporting the impacts from the Artillery Officer F.W. Rosenack. It shows 3 direct impacts from the HMS Exeter 8” and 18 impacts from the Ajax and Achilles 6” guns (page 102). Another little known fact is the 4 Chinese cleaners who were employed aboard the DKM Admiral Graf Spee, page 160 there are pictures of they repatriation to Germany.

The dawn of World War 2 at Sea

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In the fall of 1939 the second world war has already begun, however after the campaign of Poland (September) the axis and the allies were idle in what has been called the “phoney war”.

Most of the operations were naval, with Germany aggressively attacking the allies shipping lines. The German were having 3 different strategy:

Surface raiders, the “Panzerschiff” of pocket battleship, there were heavy cruisers fitted with diesel engines. At the outbreak of the war 3 were operational: the Deutschland, the Graf Spee and the Admiral Scheer.

Corsairs, armed cargo “Hilfskreuzer”(HK), the auxiliary cruisers, commerce raiders 12 of them were patrolling far seas.

The submarine fleet (U-Boot), which will be the most successful attempt to disrupt the British line of communication.

The DKM Graf Spee was already at sea when WWII broke out, the cruiser was operating with the help of the tanker Altmark raiding the South Atlantic and even South Indian Ocean. The allies did know one or multiple pocket battleships were operating in the South Atlantic and they created several group to chase them down. However their intelligence was limited. They did not know which PanzerShifts were at sea and how many they were.