Daily Mail: Uruguay is set to sell bronze eagle recovered from wreck of the Graf Spee to raise money for its armed forces
* The German pocket battleship Graf Spee was scuttled off Montevideo in 1939
* The vessel had been damaged by three Royal Navy vessels during a sea battle
* The German ship limped into Montevideo for repairs after being hit 20 times
* A Uruguayan businessman funded the retrieval of the Nazi memorabillia
Uruguay is set to sell a bronze eagle grasping a Nazi swastika recovered from the pocket battleship Graf Spee which was scuttled off Montevideo in December 1939 to help fund its military.
The German ship, which was one of the most advanced in the world, had been attacking merchant shipping in the south Atlantic with relative impunity following the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939.
However, the vessel, which was ambushed by the Royal Navy, suffered major damage in the Battle of River Plate and was forced to seek refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo for repairs to make her sea worthy.
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WNU editor: I am curious on who will buy it.
3 comments:
One of my favorite authors, Web Griffin, wrote a prologue to his book, The Honor of Spies that mentions the Graf Spee.
"By August 1943, the United States of America had been in the Second World War for twenty months.
England had been at war for four years, since 1 September 1939, when—a week after German leader Adolf Hitler signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union—Germany launched its Blitzkrieg (“Lightning War”) against Poland.
England and France declared war.
By 6 October 1939, Poland had fallen, and was divided between the Soviet Union and Germany. “The Phony War” followed, with the belligerents taking little—virtually no—action against each other.
One significant exception to this occurred two months later, when, on 13 December 1939, Royal Navy cruisers engaged the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the Atlantic coast of South America, and forced the damaged ship to seek refuge in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Diplomatic pressure (largely from the United States, although this was denied at the time) on Uruguay forced that small country to insist on following international law, which required belligerent vessels to leave sanctuary ports within seventy-two hours. Captain Hans Langsdorff, to save further loss of life in a battle he knew he could not win, on 17 December scuttled the Graf Spee just outside the mouth of the Montevideo harbor. He then went to Argentina, buried his dead, made arrangements for the internment of his crew—and then shot himself in the temple, arranging that event so his body would fall on the German Navy battle flag.
The Phony War turned real on the night of 9/10 May 1940, when the Germans occupied Luxembourg and launched another Blitzkrieg, this time into the Netherlands and Belgium. The Dutch surrendered 15 May.
On 5 June 1940, the Germans solved the problem of the “impregnable” French Maginot Line of fortresses by going around them. Paris fell on 14 June. Not all French were desolated; substantial numbers of them embraced the motto, “Better Hitler than Blum.” André Léon Blum, a Socialist, already had twice served as France’s prime minister.
The French capitulated on 25 June 1940.
The only good news for the English during this period was their brilliant evacuation of 300,000 British soldiers and some 38,000 French from Dunkirk...."
"The confrontation was the first major naval battle of the war. It involved the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter and light cruisers HMS Ajax and Achilles."
/Ship naming back then just kicks the crap out of ship naming now.
USNS,
HARVEY MILK,
R
If they get top dollar maybe they'll be able to buy 4 maybe 5 tire lug nuts of a F-35.
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