Friday, July 3, 2009

Diesel Battleship

Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland class pocket battleship. Launched in 1934, she was named after the World War I Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee who died, along with two of his sons, in the first Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914.
Together with her sisterships it represented a unique capital ship concept - very compact, heavily armed, diesel-propelled. Her range was quite remarkable - 19,000 nautical miles at 10 knots.
Damaged by the British cruiser artillery in the famous Battle of the River Plate, Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled near Montevideo, Uruguay, 17 December 1939.

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