Hunting a Pocket Battleship
2,094,413
Published 2024-02-23
On December 13th, 1939, the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee arrived at the estuary of the River Plate with the aim of hunting down British merchant ships. However, these plans were doomed to fail as the ship became the target of a British squadron under the command of Commodore Henry Harwood. The lone German ship was better armed and armored than any of the British cruisers, but the squadron had the advantage of numbers: 3 vs 1. Knowing that they would be badly damaged, the British forces, still commenced their attack. Who would win and why did the Germans end up scuttling the Graf Spee?
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00:00 British cargo liner is off South Africa
00:26 The Doric Star is stalked by a heavy cruiser
01:39 Captain William Stubbs and his crew surrender
03:14 British Commodore Henry Harwood orders to start the hunt
04:54 The British squadron detects Graf Spee
06:10 Battle of the River Plate begins
08:10 Captain Bell’s ship is on the brink of destruction
09:55 World of Warships
10:52 Graf Spee keeps pushing on
12:30 Richard Jennings tries to save Exeter!
15:13 Captain Bell decides to ram Graf Spee
16:44 Graf Spee enters the port of Montevideo
17:41 Captain Langsdorff decides to scuttle the heavy cruiser
18:22 The British forces win the battle!
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All Comments (21)
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Download World of Warships today wo.ws/49FEVlP and join the naval battle! Register now using code YARNHUB and receive a huge starter pack including 500 Doubloons, 1,000,000 Credits, 7 days Premium Account time, and a free ship!
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THANK YOU SO MUCH YARNHUB I AM SO HAPPY THIS IS FINALLY HERE, My great grandfather served on HMNZS Achilles and was one of the sailors aboard who was wounded in the Battle of the River plate. This is very special to me so thank you Yarnhub team.
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If I have a nickel every time a "Graf Spee" went down near South America after being chased by several Royal Navy ships from a commerce raiding operation, I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice
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I love the part where at the end of the video the Luger pistol was actually a naval model and not the normal, shows how much attention to detail they put in there. 18:02
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Hello Yarnhub. I am a retired Royal Canadian navy Petty Officer. I had the chance to visit Montevideo in 1995 and 1997 during OP Unitas. I knew the story of the GRAF SPEE and got to see the plaque atop the mast. What a sight !!!
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Fun Fact: Commodore Harwood in the 1930's had taught at the Naval College in Britain and his specialty was on the best ways to take on a Pocket Battleship like the Graf Spee. So he was the perfect person to take on the German ship.
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The animations of the shell flying and coming so close to each other is on whole another level!
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the Achilles ended up playing herself in the movie "battle of river plate" in the 50s
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They even named a street in Ajax in honor of Langsdorf, but renamed it only few years ago. What a shame, he gaves his live and spared the ones of his and the enemy ships. A true hero
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Seriously with this level of animation, you guys should be making movies.
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That " There's the fvcking Scheer" along with that accent got me crackling
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Langsdorff was a true gentleman. He rescued, treated according to int'l rules, and transferred every enemy merchantman was responsible for.
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Excellent quality video Langsdorff fought a clean war according to thr rules of the sea and tried to cause as little death amongst his captured ships as he could. He was under order to avoid battle with hostile warships and only entered battle with Harwood because he misidentified the enemy as a light cruiser and two destroyers rather than a small heavy cruiser and two light cruisers.
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This video it felt like i was watching an epic boss fight, but now for real the seriousness in the face/voice of the sailers and capitans rly maked me feeled like the battle was happening live action right in the front of my very eyes, but is sad that in the end the capitan had to abandon Graf Spee and that in the end he went down with his shit a few day later. I am not jokeing the Yarnhub videos are becomening more and more like movie clips, great job to the YarnHub team.
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“Mad lad fireing a massive Canon”
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The animation quality at this point is nearly rivaling some big Hollywood blockbusters. Give it another year and we will not be able to tell if it is animation or you decided to hire real actors. And your decisions to dub the German speakers with real German makes it only all the more immersed realistic. Great work Yarnhub. I salute you to your amazing work and all the dedication you all put into these amazing videos.
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Supposedly a primary reason Langsdorff accepted battle with Harwoods' force was that he mis-identified the light cruisers as destroyers and when he realized his mistake it was too late to disengage.
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You make the greatest real life stories. I’m watching them everyday. And you must never change the narrator. His voice is perfect at telling the story.
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The German commentary really makes this video alive
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This is one of my favorite WW2 Naval stories/battles. I first learned of the ‘Battle of the River plate’ in the early 80’s when I was 10 years old. The story of this battle, and the subsequent going’s-on in Uruguay, have been the subject of study for me, in the decades since. I feel like you really did this story true justice! Thank you for bringing it to life for all of us! I always saw Captain Langsdorff as a bit of a tragic figure, caught between his duty, and his honor.
