Divers recover large piece of Graf Spee (+ lots of unique Graff Spee photos)

BBC On-Line ^ | Thursday, 26 February, 2004 | staff writer

[yankeedame]

Last Updated: Thursday, 26 February, 2004, 14:02 GMT

Divers recover piece of Graf Spee

Poor weather conditions have hampered the recovery project

A team of divers has recovered a key piece of the German World War II battleship Graf Spee from the mouth of the River Plate in Uruguay. Salvage experts managed to re-float the ship's range-finding equipment, which weighs 27 metric tons.

It is the first significant part of the ship to be recovered in the operation after several failed attempts.

The ship was sunk more than 60 years ago by its captain to keep it from falling into enemy hands.

"I am looking at the range finder and it is just fabulous," -- Alfredo Etchegaray

The salvage team have positioned a floating crane 7 km (4 miles) out to sea from Montevideo.

The first attempt to raise the equipment - known as a telemeter - failed earlier in the day when the supporting cables snapped and the piece crashed back into the water.

The Admiral Graf Spee's rangefinder is raised from the seabed. Picture: http://www.theage.com.au

But the team managed to overcome tricky currents and winds to raise it.

"I am looking at the range finder and it is just fabulous," project spokesman Alfredo Etchegaray told Reuters news agency.

Epic battle

The Graf Spee was once a symbol of German naval might. In the early days of World War II it roamed the South Atlantic, sinking as many as nine allied merchant ships.

But during the Battle of the River Plate it received several direct hits and took refuge in Montevideo harbour.

Uruguay, under diplomatic pressure from Britain, ordered the Graf Spee out to sea. And there she was scuttled by her captain, Hans Langsdorff.

Captain Langsdorff committed suicide in a Buenos Aires naval camp three days later.

The ship now lies in waters no deeper than 11 metres.

The project is being financed by private investors from the US and Europe, and has the backing of the Uruguayan Government.

Once restored, the vessel is eventually expected to become a tourist attraction in Montevideo.

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Miscellaneous Google photos/images re: Graf Spee

<"Carrying the death from the Graf Spee" http://www.armed-guard.com/memory52.jpg

Hans Langsdorff, Commander of the Graf Spree (http://ww2photo.mimerswell.com/person/d/navy/01073.jpg)

Vizeadmiral Maximilian Graf von Spee (http://www.westfront.de/img0050.1_1.jpg)

Die "Admiral Graf Spee" unter der Levensauer Hochbrücke zu Kiel(http://www.duxu.de/marine/Schiffe/graf_spee.jpg)

(http://www.military.cz/ww2_ships/Germany/CA/Admiralspee/admiralspee07_s.jpg)

(http://www.panzertruppen.org/heer/protagonistas/langsdorff1.jpg)

(Re: both photos)"Urna construida por los tripulantes del Admiral Graf Spee entregada a la familia del capitan Langsdorff"

[Fred Hayek]

Not that big. They were 11" calibre, in two triple turrets. The Graf Spee was in the Deutschland class of "pocket battleships" which were comparable at the time to heavy cruisers in size, though most heavy cruisers had 8" guns in the main battery. These ships were built with an illusion of following the Versailles treaty, consturction, starting just before the Nazi regime , though they did exceed the displacement limit of 10000 tons. It functioned mostly as a heavily armed, lightly armored merchant raider with a decent amount of speed.

[CompassRose]

Pursuit Of The Graf Spee is well done, but you need to ignore that Graf Spee is played by USS Salem, and still carrying Salem's hull number- but the events are closely followed-

[CompassRose]

Actually, when Exeter left, Cumberland had just about arrived, but it was academic since the British embassey was involved in a campaign of transmitting spurious messages to warships off Montevideo which were not there.
The net result was that Graf Spee's Co, Langsdorf did not have an accurate idea of what ships were operating against him.

[fso301]

I think some of the 88mm guns were removed years ago and are on display in a nearby public park.

[cmsgop]

Cool! They Found The Arc !!!!!

[U S Army EOD]

But they could shoot a long ways. I think their range was in excess of the 15inch guns on the Bismark. But I have been wrong before.

[U S Army EOD]

I think the Montana class was to have 18" guns or larger. She and her sisters were designed to counter the Japanese super battleships.

[Rustys]

The Proposed Montana class would have had 12 16"/50 cal guns in 4 triple turrets, basically the same armament as the Iowa's with one more turret added. The secondary battery was the same as the Iowa's at 20 5"(I believe they were 54 cal) guns in twin mounts.The 16"/50 cal was an excellent gun, and with it's well designed 2,700 ap round was actually considered the equal of the Yamato's 18.1", 3,lbs shell. The U.S. gun also had a much faster rate of fire.
Because of there increased Armour protection and the extra turret, they would have been too wide for the Panama canal and had a displacement slightly greater than the Yamato class.( The U.S. tended to understate the tonnage of it's BB's. The Iowa's were listed at 45,000 tons. they usually operated at a displacement 10-15,000 tons or more above that.)

[U S Army EOD]

Thanks for the info. If the 16" guns had basically the same range and much higher rate of fire than the Japanese 18", then in a pitched battle between two ships such as these, the American ship could put out much more fire power in regards to "weight" down range.

[DarthVader]

She carried six 11" (280 mm) guns which fired a 550 lb shell.

[BlueLancer]

Here's a website, just for grins-and-giggles, that comments on "hypothetical" warships that could have been designed and built by the various navies during the pre-war and World War II time-frames. The site .. FURASHITA'S FLEET .. starts with Japanese vessels. At the bottom of the page are listings for American, Germany, British, French, Italian, Royal Netherland, and various minor country vessels. Very VERY interesting.

Also, within the overall website, there's a page comparing various battleships .. Yamato, Iowa, Bismarck, King George V, Richelieu, Vittorio Veneto, and South Dakota. That's at Battleship Comparison.

The overall website is Nihon Kaigun

[rabidralph]

Graf Spee. Two distinct words. I'll have to remember that.

[Rustys]

The Yamato Class did have a longer range than even the 16"/50 cal on the Iowa's, ( earlier classes has 16"/45 cal guns). This was of not of much practical value as were are talking about 0ver 20 miles for both guns. The weight of shot for any extended time period was greater for the Iowa's due to there more rapid rate of fire, ( at least 25% greater and with better accuracy.)The basic armour arrangement for the Iowa's and to a slightly lessor extent the South Dakota's was superior. However the Yamato's was much thicker.The Japanese tended to follow British design practice, up until the early 20's when relations soured. America had the luxury of doing quite a bit of testing on old, captured or canceled hulls to test Armour and shell effectiveness. Too bad we didn't do the same with torpedoes. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, had Adm. Halsey fallowed the plan and left the fast BB's to guard the landing, the greatest battleship duel of all time would have ensued.
Instead the Yamato sank an escort carrier, then ran away.
By the way if you are a diver, you can see some of the Yamato's 18.1" shells. They are in the hold of her supply ship on the bottom of Truk lagoon.

[ErnBatavia]

Uruguay, under diplomatic pressure from Britain, ordered the Graf Spee out to sea. And there she was scuttled by her captain, Hans Langsdorff. Captain Langsdorff committed suicide in a Buenos Aires naval camp three days later.

I think it was an intelligence ruse that got Hans to scuttle her. He got convinced that he was surrounded, which he wasn't.

[Rustys]

Yes thanks, I have looked at that site a couple of times and it is very interesting, if a bit hard to digest.

[PzLdr]

11” X 3 per turret x two turrets [same main guns as SCHARNHORST, GNIESENAU [three turrets], and the other two PANZERSCHIFFE [ADMIRAL SCHEER, and DEUTSCHLAND, later LUETZOW.

[brothers4thID]

Wow this thread is a blast from the past. :)

[Hot Tabasco]

Graf Spee

Silly me, I thought this was an article on giraffe urine written in Eubonics......