photo #1360535

Lovely colourised view of the "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee.the photo clearly shows the forward triple 11" gun turret and the impressive conning tower. The caption on the photo also gives her correct German Navy classification. She was officially classed as a Panzerschiffe, or armoured ship.......... but somehow the pocket battleship nickname stuck and the three ships of this type the Germans built were known world-wide by the unofficial title. She earned undying fame(or notoriety) for her part in the first major action of the second world war at sea, being pursued by three smaller British cruisers and outfought in the Battle of the River Plate in 1939. She retired into Montevideo and believing there to be a much stronger British naval force awaiting her re-emergence from the dubious safety of the port, her captain chose to scuttle her with explosives rather than risk her defeat in battle.