Comments by "Ben Wilson" (@benwilson6145) on "Battle of the River Plate 1939: Minute-by-Minute DOCUMENTARY" video.

  1. HMS Ajax sailed from Malta in early 1946 escorting the liner Highland Monarch to Montevideo to pick up over 600 Germans that had been interned from the Graph Spee and the Tacoma. They went to Freetown, Lisbon and finally to Hamburg.
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  2.  @dovetonsturdee7033  I admire your dedication and patience.
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  3. The oil on the Graff Spee was not heavy oil. There is no way for a ship to convert it to diesel. you need an Oil Refinery to do that. The fuel was taken it from the Altmark which had fully loaded in Texas, Texas Crude was light. The main part of the refining was to remove the lighter/gas from the Texas Crude.
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  4.  @theoriginaldylangreene  Have you been there? No, There is no "Dockyard" at Port Stanley. They even had to send the Small Coastal Vessel to Puentas Areas for drydock, a vessel about 500t. They could not dock HMS Exeter. There is no trained labour, I do not know whats at Mare harbour now.
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  5. So tough to defeat an unarmed merchant ship, real hero stuff. Meets smaller warships defeated, great career.
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  6. She was scuttled!
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  7.  @theoriginaldylangreene  There was no dockyard in Port Stanley, only a sheltered anchorage. Unless the Royal Navy moved a repair ship there it would be self repair.
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  8.  @theoriginaldylangreene  MY GOODNESS!!!!! You had a seacock replaced an 32 foot long plastic yacht. What AMAZING technical abilities!!!! They must be able to rebuild battleships and Aircraft carriers totally suitable for rebuilding HMS Exeter. And Yes I have been there on a non plastic yacht.
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  9. Many of the Graff Spee crew escaped from Argentina to Peru where they went by Japanese Liners to Japan, then by Trans Siberian rail home In 1946 the British send the RMS Highland Monarch to Uruguay escorted by HMS Ajax to return the remaining crew to Germany.
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  10.  @johnnyofthesticks7260  I would expect return was voluntary and many had chose to stay rather than return to a destroyed Germany
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  11. We will never know the reasons, two that might have influenced him are: Montevideo is close to the mouth of the estuary and can be quickly left, while going up river would take several hours. Would best be accompanied by tugs, escape would take many hours with the British being warned. The channel may have been blocked by the accidental grounding of a British ship? The other is that Langsdorf may not have risked having his ship "donated" to the Argentinians, like the Goeben and Breslau.
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  12. Its all baically irelevant, the Graf Spee was now never going to Germany and she could not fight as she had very little shells, Langsdorff, knew this and as a honourable man knew the extra loss of life would not have changed anything.
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  13. The Altmark did not carry diesel, it had a full cargo of Texas Crude loaded at Port Arthur.
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  14.  @WOTArtyNoobs  Not sure what your answer means? The Graf Spee was a motorship and used diesel fuel, it used most of what it had in the 3 and a half months at sea, it refueled from the Altmark twice. Not sure what boilers you mean?
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  15.  @WOTArtyNoobs The Altmark loaded a full cargo of Texas crude. If the Graf Spee did not use this oil , Texas crude is light, then where did the Graph Spee get its diesel from? There is no way that the Graph Spee carried enough diesel for three and a half months operation. Was the Altmark just have a jolly sail around the South Atlantic?
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  16.  @WOTArtyNoobs  Can you tell me of any other "Merchant Vessel/Tanker" with the capacity to carry 400 prisoners? Altmark was a Kriegsmarine vessel. A standard tanker may have held 20 men in the forecastle.
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  17.  @davidrenton  The British did not lose any warships.
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  18.  @davidrenton  Agreed
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  19. Maybe Langsdorf cared?
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  20. They also carried out a complete survey of the damage on the Graph Spee to determine what damage had been done.
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  21.  @uteriel282  Pretty sure Bismark was already launched and Tirpitz were already being built .
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  22. Which is why they won?!!!!!!
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  23. They were three in the Class, the British bombed and sank the Sheer, the Deutschland was sunk in US Atomic tests
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  24. Not Merchants! Merchant Navy Sailors!
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  25. And please understand that HMS Achilles was manned by New Zealanders. One ship ended on the sea bed and three remained afloat.
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  26.  @todd.sherley  It was a Royal Navy ship
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