HMS Exeter, whose 8" shells brought the Graf Spee to her knees and led to her scuttling.
HMS Exeter, whose 8" shells brought the Graf Spee to her knees and led to her scuttling.
IIRC, the HMS Exeter and her consorts got the hell shot of them by the Graf Spee. The Exeter was lucky not to have been sunk... until the Battle of the Java Sea.
The Graf Spee was scuttled because she was low on an ammo and the Germans had been convinced that the British cruisers had been heavily reinforced.
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At 07:30 Exeter’s remaining turret was put out of action by loss of electrical power caused by flooding. Severely damaged, unable to fire and keep up with the action, Exeter broke off at about 07:40 and steamed slowly towards the Falklands.
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At the same time, efforts were made by the British to feed false intelligence to the Germans that an overwhelming British force was being assembled, including the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and the battlecruiser HMS Renown, when in fact only the heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland was nearby. Cumberland, one of the earlier County class, was only a little more powerful than Exeter, with two more 8-inch (203 mm) guns; she was no match alone for Admiral Graf Spee, whose 11-inch guns had longer range and fired much heavier shells. Cumberland arrived at 22:00 on 14 December after steaming at full speed for 36 hours from the Falkland Islands. Overwhelming British forces (HMS Renown, Ark Royal, Shropshire, Dorsetshire and Neptune) were en route, but would not assemble until December 19. For the time being, the total force comprised the undamaged Cumberland and damaged Ajax and Achilles.
The Germans, however, were entirely deceived, and expected to face a far superior force on leaving the River Plate. The Graf Spee had also used two-thirds of her 11” ammunition and only had enough left for approximately a further 20 minutes of firing, which was hardly enough to fight her way out of Montevideo, let alone get back to Germany.