SPEE STILL IN HARBOR AT DAYBREAK ALTHOUGH READY FOR DASH TO SEA (12/17/39)

Microfiche-New York Times archives, McHenry Library, U.C. Santa Cruz | 12/17/39 | John W. White, Raymond Daniell, Hanson W. Baldwin, Cyrus Sulzberger

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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NEWS OF THE WEEK IN REVIEW

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[MinuteGal]

"I'm surprised the Germans would scuttle the ship in such shallow water."

My opinion is that they WANTED to scuttle in shallow water so that it would be a navigational hazard to Allied ships streaming to the area from many points in the Atlantic hoping to engage the Graf Spee as she tried to slip out of Montevideo at night (which never happened).

Today is an anniversary of sorts. On today's date, December 17, 1939, the famous German battleship was scuttled....taking place around 8:00 at night. Her skipper, Capt. Hans Langsdorff, shot himself to death three days later in Buenos Aires.

German sailors in the approximately 900-man Graf's Spee complement had removed or destroyed anything and everything that could be of value to their enemies. Later salvage operations found the brass eagle and swastika that adorned the bow......plus in 2004 the ship's range finder was discovered. They are now in museums hither and yon.

Leni

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Excellent article that reviews Rumania’s strategic dilemma.

Did you note the author's name? Cyrus Sulzberger is somehow related to the family that owns the Times, although I couldn't quite pin down exactly where he fits in.

[CougarGA7]

I kind of get that impression too. It seems that the American media anyway found this story of particular interest. By the way here's a picture of the Graf Spee as...to quote Tijeras_Slim..."Langsdorff creates a large artificial reef off the coast of Montevideo".

[CougarGA7]

I thought I read something on that but it was in 1936 not 1939. I have a pretty busy week this week, but if you remind me next week when I will have more time I will try to find that for you. I may also come in handy for the HIST642 class I’m taking so I don’t mind looking.

[GeronL]

I thought it was sometime this month on these threads. Interesting.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I found a Sulzberger obituary that has more information. I guess he wasn’t an immediate family member of the owners.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/21/obituaries/c-l-sulzberger-columnist-dies-at-80.html?pagewanted=all

Excerpt:

Joining The Times in 1939 as a young foreign correspondent at the outbreak of World War II, he traveled 100,000 miles through 30 countries in his first three years on the job, sending reports from the Balkans, North Africa, Italy, the Soviet Union, the Middle East and capitals and front lines across a war-torn Europe. Arrest and Expulsion

He wrote so many provocative articles about Balkan and Axis politics that he was successively banned from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy. “A creeping tarantula, going from country to country, spreading poison,” the Italian propagandist Virginio Gayda wrote of him. In 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo in Slovakia and accused of being a British spy; he was later released without a trial.