Honour At Sea

Note: This is a true story. There is an actual quote in here, it is indicated by italics.
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On a cool January morning in 1936, we looked on as the champagne bottle crashed against the bow of Panzerschiffe Admiral Graf Spee while the crowd roared. As we boarded her for the first time, the stifling aroma of fresh paint filled our nostrils while we gazed in awe at her 11-inch guns, the towering turrets, and the small spy plane.

Later we boarded her once more to accompany her on her maiden voyage from Wilhelmshaven. As I settled into my cot, the lad next to me foretold, "I feel that this ship will make history one day." We later found out how right he was.

After several weeks of drills and exercises, we finally were ready to head to open sea, and we had the honour of serving as the fleet flagship.

Our first engagement was with the British merchant vessel Ashlea. Before heading on after we had sunk her, our captain, Hans Langsdorff, making certain that not one life would be lost, kindly took the enemy survivors onto our own vessel.

For the next several weeks we continued our mission of sinking British merchantmen. Vessel after vessel yielded to us - Newton Beach, Huntsman, Trevanion, Africa Shell, Doric Star, one right after another. During the entire course of our raid, Captain Langsdorff risked his own well being to assure that not one casualty had occurred.

However, our success could not last forever. As we headed towards the River Plate, the mouth of which was the largest estuary in the world, we met the British cruisers Ajax, Achilles and Exeter. They soon started firing at us, and the Battle of the River Plate commenced.

Two of the enemy vessels attacked one side of Graf Spee while the other pounded us from the other side, causing us to split our firing power. We managed to put the Exeter out of action, and we seriously damaged the Ajax. The Achilles escaped with little damage.

Captain Langsdorff assessed the damage. It was clear that Graf Spee would have to break off the fight if she wished to remain seaworthy enough to get to port. So we did the inevitable: we backed away.

At the funeral for the fallen sailors of the battle, every German gave a Nazi salute, save for one. Langsdorff gave a sole Navy salute. He obviously was no Nazi.

We learned upon our arrival in port that we would be granted a 72-hour maximum period of time to make the ship seaworthy. We did all we could in that time frame, however under international law, a German ship could not leave port after an enemy vessel until 24 hours after its departure. Sir Eugene Millington Drake of the British navy figured out that by sending a British ship out every 24 hours, they would be able to keep us in port as long as necessary, buying them time to send reinforcements. Also, the British planted a false newspaper article stating that there were more ships lying in wait for us than there really were.

When Langsdorff saw the article and considered the dilapidated state his ship was in, he had to make a choice. Using the Enigma machine, a coding mechanism for sending messages, he wired to High Command his situation. They replied that he had three choices: 1. Fight the ships lying in wait for him, 2. hand over the Graf Spee to the opposing forces, or 3. scuttle the ship.

It was all up to Langsdorff. He could choose any one of those three options. He figured that it was pointless to waste his men's lives in a battle where the odds were so against him; on the other hand, he was not about to just hand over the ship.

The morning of the 17th of December 1939, with a skeleton crew, Graf Spee sailed out of port as thousands watched from the shore, expecting to see a great sea battle. Langsdorff took a stick of dynamite and tied it to a clock. Then he nobly headed towards the bridge. Just before the two hands touched, we managed to save him and get him into a life raft right before the great explosion sunk the ship.

That night, Langsdorff sat in his hotel room penning a suicide note. "A captain with a sense of honour does not separate his fate from that of his ship," he wrote. Then, loading his revolver, he lay down on the battle flag of Graf Spee and shot himself in the head.

Thousands attended his funeral. One night as I brought a small candle to the grave, I saw a pale form standing beside it. Before I could address it, it faded into the mist.

The wreck is still visible today. She lies in her watery grave, honorable and noble as before after more than 60 years.


Dedicated to Captain Hans Langsdorff, 1894-1939
Bibliography


1.wwww.feldgrau.com/grafspee.html

2.www.grafspee.com

3."Lost Ships- Graf Spee" TLC documentary