Word: langsdorff
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Dates: during 1939-1939
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...Ajax and Achilles turned out to be meat by no means. With spectacular coordination they kept each other smoked while driving in for bite after bite. They hurt the Spee, and badly. Some of her guns were silenced-one 5.9 turret tilted. Captain Langsdorff ordered his vessel to the nearest haven, Montevideo...
...Captain Langsdorff called up the 62 captives, and as he set them free (under parole not to give away naval secrets), said to them: "The cruisers made a gallant fight. When people fight like that, personal enmity is lost...
What would she do? To try to run that Allied gantlet would be suicide. Spee had had time to make herself seaworthy, but not battleworthy. A rumor got around that Captain Langsdorff would slip her across the Plata's mouth to Buenos Aires, there perhaps to intern...
Outside in the river Spee anchored. Over the sides into barges and launches scrambled the crew. Captain Langsdorff stepped into a launch which, as it drew away from Spee, dragged a long, thin cable...
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...