Word: three
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Spee's brig from nine such helpless victims. This life of raiding was good. Risks, yes, but mostly just an easy kill every three or four days. Two Limeys in one day off Africa a week ago; now a Frenchman off Uruguay...
...Three cruisers to fight. She should be able to wallop them. The two light cruisers carried 6-inchers-too light to pierce the Spee'?, heavy armor, but plenty big enough to do damage far forward and aft, where the skin was thin, and in parts of the superstructure. And they could do six and one-half knots better than the Spee, maybe eight and one-half with all the truck-&-barnacles the German had picked up in the southern seas. The heavy cruiser was something to think about-8-inchers (they could crack most of the Spee...
...pounds of explosive-packed armor-piercer could blow a hole big as a suite at the Hotel Adlon in any of these ships. Then she had the eight 5-9-inchers as well. Roughly, the Spee had a 3-to-1 advantage in armament and fire-power over all three cruisers put together...
Just as the rim of the sun dipped into the sea, Captain Langsdorff, surrounded by his officers, saluting, pressed a button on the end of the cable. A dull explosion. In three minutes Spee was on the bottom, her superstructure still showing ablaze. Darkness settled around the hissing remains...
Down went three of the British bombers (according to the British) and five Messerschmitts, before the British ran for home in the growing darkness. Said the British formation leader: "The German planes burned for some time after hitting the water. . . . They looked like enormous beacons. . . . They not only lit up the water but illuminated the sky, which added to the impressiveness of the fight." According to Berlin, 20 British bombers were engaged, ten of them shot down; the German loss was one plane...