Campaign
1 primary work
Book 171
In the early months of World War II, four battleships, four battlecruisers, six aircraft carriers and 20 cruisers of the British and French navies were assigned to hunt it, the Graf Spee, the German Navy's weapon of choice. British Commodore Harwood spotted the Graf Spee at dawn on 13 December 1939, and the battle that followed has become the subject of significant debate. This book explores the tactics of the battle and the role of surface raiders, and it covers the personality of Captain Langsdorff and the influence of Hitler on the battle. The Allies' victory was a terrible blow to German propaganda, and this key opening naval battle changed the course of naval strategy for the rest of World War II.