The Battle of the River Plate 13 - 18 December 1939

Admiral Graf Spee, Spithead 1937, with HMS Hood and HMS Resolution

On 13 December 1939 HMS Exeter, accompanied by the Leander class cruisers HMS Achilles and HMS Ajax sighted and attacked the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic. The German ship could have left the scene at speed, but her commander, Captain Langsdorff, made his fateful decision to stay and fight.

The British force was commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood, RN. At 06.20 Langsdorff opened fire and over the next thirty minutes the Exeter was hit three times. Her bridge was destroyed along with her forward gun turrets. The Ajax and Achilles manoeuvred nearer to the Admiral Graf Spee, which drew her fire away from the Exeter. By 07.25 the Ajax’s after turrets had been put out of action and both sides withdrew. The Admiral Graf Spee had been hit more than 70 times by the British, with 36 German servicemen killed and 60 wounded. Langsdorff, who himself had received two wounds during the engagement, withdrew to Montevideo, where he thought that he would be able to make repairs.

Once they had reached port the wounded were taken to hospital and the Allied prisoners on board were released. British naval intelligence then launched a propaganda campaign that convinced Langsdorff that a small armada was gathering to attack his ship the moment it left port. In fact, the nearest heavy ships were the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and battlecruiser HMS Renown over 2,500 nautical miles away. International law regarding neutrality only allowed Langsdorff 72 hours in port before his ship would be interned, which was nowhere near the two weeks that he felt he needed to complete his repairs. Believing his fate to be hopeless, and after discussions with Berlin, Langsdorff decided to scuttle his ship.

On 17 December, Langsdorff had all vital equipment on the ship destroyed and all ammunition distributed about the vessel in preparation for the scuttling. The following day, 18 December, Langsdorff set sail with only 40 men on board, and with a crowd of 20,000 watching from the port side, the charges were set at 20.55 and the ship was sunk. Two days later Langsdorff put on his full dress uniform, laid down on the Admiral Graf Spee’s battle ensign and shot himself.

HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales - Sunk 10 December 1941

The battlecruiser HMS Repulse at the back with the battleship HMS Prince of Wales in front, under attack from Japanese forces off the coast of Malaya on 10 December 1941. HMS Electra or Express is manoeuvring in the foreground.

These were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea.

A significant factor in the sinking of Prince of Wales came as a result of damage that she received from the first wave of torpedo bomber attacks. The ships surface scanning radar was inoperable and deprived Force Z of its early-warning system, which contributed to the impact of the surprise air strike. Both ships sank as a result of repeated torpedo attacks, Repulse finally lost its battle on the fourth wave.

Seven months earlier Prince of Wales had attacked the Bismarck and Princ Eugen in the Denmark Strait as the German ships attempted to break out into the Atlantic Ocean. It was during this engagement that HMS Hood was sunk, from which there were only three survivors from a complement of 1,418.

The loss of the Prince of Wales and Repulse on 10 December 1941 cost the lives of 840 British servicemen, some of whom were laid to rest at the Kranji military cemetery at Singapore.This photograph was taken in 2010 during a visit to Singapore and shows the graves of some of those that lost their lives that day.

Outstanding history of Japanese Air Force to the end of World War II

Click here to read the full review: Barnes & Noble Review - 5 Star

"For its material ranging from panoramic perspectives of WWII in Asia and the Pacific to listings of specifications of air plane parts, the history is a distinctive and engaging work filling a gap in any military history library."

"Edwards' work goes well beyond the dramatic images of the Japanese World War II air power unleashed at Pearl Harbor, the infamous Zeros, and desperate bravery of the kamikazes which have become an indelible part of popular history. Although the "rise and fall" phrase of the title denotes the bulk of the content, the book is a history of Japanese air interests and air power from their origins and early developments preceding World War II."

"Edwards weaves together a variety of material for this engrossing history not only recounting the development of Japanese air power--a topic which has not received much attention despite the perennial keen interest in World War II--but also deepening understanding of the nature of the warfare and surrounding political, technical, etc., matters bearing on it. The reader encounters deliberations of Japanese wartime leaders, Japan's strategy for taking militaristic rule over large areas of Asia and the Pacific, the role of its air power in this, technical specifications of war planes, the turns of specific battles, and Japan's changing dependence on its air power in relation to its fortunes in World War II, among much else."

The Pearl Harbor Survivors Assocation will disband on 31 December

The New York Times reports that today the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association will gather in Honolulu for the last time to commemorate the attack by the Japanese that drew the United States into World War II .

"The 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack will be the last one marked by the survivors’ association. With a concession to the reality of time — of age, of deteriorating health and death — the association will disband on Dec. 31"

“We had no choice,” said William H. Eckel, 89, who was once the director of the Fourth Division of the survivors’ association, interviewed by telephone from Texas. “Wives and family members have been trying to keep it operating, but they just can’t do it. People are winding up in nursing homes and intensive care places.

Read the full story on The New York Times website by following the link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/us/fewer-veterans-to-remember-pearl-harbor-day.html?_r=1

70th Anniversary of Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor

7 December 2011

Castle Films' newsreel footage on the aftermath of Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, 'a day of infamy'. President Roosevelt declared war on the country the following day. Interestingly this clip also contains images of the capsized ocean liner SS Normandie in New York.