SCUTTLED & BLOWN UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1939, Page 8

SCUTTLED & BLOWN UP

END OF THE ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE Sunk'Five Miles off Uruguayan Coast INTENTION EARLIER DECLARED BY CAPTAIN , IN EVENT OF FAILURE “TO RUN BLOCKADE” (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 17. The Montevideo correspondent of the Associated Press of America says the Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled and exploded, sinking at 7.55 p.m. Earlier it was reported by the Montevideo semi-official newspaper “El Pueblo,’’ that Captain Langsdorff said: If I cannot run the blockade, I will sink the ship at 8 p.m. The National Broadcasting Company announced that the Graf Spee was scuttled five miles off the coast. A Montevideo? message states that the Graf Spee paused outside the harbour limits and lay three miles off shore, inside tlie regular Buenos Aires shipping lanes. Pilots watching thought she was. awaiting the Tacoma io refuel. No indication was given from her position whether she was going io sea or to Buenos Aires. The Montevideo correspondent of the United Press says an explosion occurred in the munition stores of the Graf Spee and the ship immediately caught fire. The National Broadcasting Company says an unconfirmed report states that many on board were killed. The Montevideo correspondent of the “New York Times” says a member of the German Legation confirmed that it was planned to sink the Graf Spee at 8 p.m.