BRITISH CRUISERS ENGAGE GERMAN POCKET BATTLESHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 7

BRITISH CRUISERS ENGAGE GERMAN POCKET BATTLESHIP

ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE DAMAGED AND HUNTED INTO MONTEVIDEO ✓ Likely to be Interned for Duration of ’War ACHILLES TAKES FULL PART IN CHASE (By Telegraph.—Press Association. —Copyright.) LONDON, December 14. The British cruisers Exeter, with an armament of six eight-inch guns, and Ajax and Achilles, each with eight six-inch guns, under the command of Commodore H. H. Harwood, made contact with the German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee, armed with six 11inch and eight 5.9-inch gams, at 6 a.m. yesterday in the South Atlantic. A heavy running fight occurred between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., at which Lime the Exetei, receiving damage and reducing speed, was forced to drop out of the action. Tne Ajax and the Achilles continued the chase of the Admiral Graf Spee, which was repeatedly hit. After further fighting, the Admiral Graf Spee entered Montevideo harbour near midnight and was followed in by the British ships. The battleship ‘is understood to be very badly damaged about the superstructure.

It was at first announced by the British Admiralty that the German warship engaged was the Admiral Scheer, but after the Uruguayan authorities had boarded the vessel at Montevideo the secretary of the President of I’niguay announced that she was the Admiral Scheer’s sister-ship. Admiral Graf Spee. After the Admiral Graf Spee anchored at Montevideo, the German Minister arrived at the Port Prefect’s Office shortly after midnight to intern the ship for the duration of the war, says the correspondent of the Associated Press of America. An earlier dispatch from the United Press of America correspondent at Montevideo said it was not known whether the ship would leave port when the customary 24 hours’ limit had expired or. whether it would be be interned. The wounded, which the “New York Times” correspondent places at 60, with 30 dead. were, disembarked and taken to a military hospital. The battleship steamed along the coast after the battle ended, playing her searchlights on the beaches, as she was unfamiliar with the harbour entrance. The correspondent adds that the three British cruisers almost immediately followed her into the harbour. The Montevideo correspondent, of the Associated Press of America says the Punta del Este lightship radioed details of the naval engagement, and South American listeners heard a a running story broadcast like a round-by-roiind description of a prize-fight. It is not known when the ships made contact. Rumours that the Admiral Scheer and the Achilles were in an engagement persisted throughout the afternoon. The lightship reported a German pocket-battleship at 4 p.m. with “a battleship, believed to be the Barham, following.” ITow the Barham came to be mentioned was not explained at first, but later it was authoritatively pointed out that there is a similarity between the Barham’s profile and that of the Achilles. At 6 p.m. a Uruguayan port official sighted two British warships 20 miles astern of the German ship. At 8 p.m. Punta del Este reported that the ships had disappeared but heard 20 detonations over a period of 10 minutes. At 8.15 p.m. the ships were nine miles off Punta Ballenas arid proceeding in a southwesterly direction. Further gunfire was heard by listeners and it was believed that the battleship was attempting to escape to a neutral Uruguayan port. The Montevideo correspondent, of the United Press of America says an attack by the German ship on the Ajax is reported to have opened the fight. The Achilles was nearby defending'the Belgian liner Piriapolis. Twelve shots were heard by the Punta del Este lightship. When the firing eeased a pall of smoke blotted out the Admiral Graf Spee and the Ajax was seen steaming westward toward the Rio de la Plata. The Uruguayan cruiser, Uruguay, on neutrality patrol, was eight miles away. The Buenos Aires correspondent of the Associated Press of America says there pis further gunfire after the ships disappeared, gradually working up to a crescendo at 8.15 p.m.. Montevideo time. The Montevideo representative of the United Press says the pocket-battleship anchored in the Montevideo outer harbour shortly before midnight. There were rumours during Hie engagement that llm Achilles had been sunk’ but this was not confirmed and the spokesman at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires announced that it could be said they were definitely untrue.