Comments by "Jim Taylor" (@jimtaylor294) on "The Battle of the Barents Sea | WW2 Documentary" video.

09:21 What's notable though is that the trio of RN Cruisers at the Battle of River Plate did Mission Kill the Graf Spee. The damage incurred made returning to Germany essentially impossible without repairs in a friendly port... of which there were none. The volume of damage was in part because the class of ship had very thin armour relative to its size and armament, and a FC Director system that could only target one opponent at a time, making a multi vector fight with three smaller ships surprisingly deadly. Graf Spee's C/O also was under the impression - while in port - that a force headed by HMS Renown - a ship that outclassed his cruiser in every way, even when she was undamaged - was heading to Uraguay as well. Knowing that following his orders from Berlin would only result in: A. Running out of fuel mid ocean, being caught and sunk. B. His ship being trapped in a Battle of the Falkland Islands 'esque action where surrvival was impossible ...he took the third option; defy the letter of his orders to save his crew from a pointless slaughter, but ensure his ship also didn't fall into allied hands. (which it probably would have, had he stayed in the nuetral port past the deadline, and been inturred for the rest of the war)
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Doubtful, as Graf Spee was mission killed by theoretically smaller fry. The reason: her armour was too thin to protect mission critical equipment from the three sided hail of 6" & 8" gunfire. (Lutsow also had Graf Spee's weakness toward being unable to engage multiple targets at once with her FC Director) The British only needed to significantly damage the Germans... and they'd have already won. (as it was, the Admiral Hipper never saw action again, nor was fully repaired)
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@jamesbeeching4341 Granted they were in a less precarious position than Graf Spee, though one shouldn't forget that in WWI the Cruiser Blucher was overhauled and slaughtered - relatively close to home - by the RN. As it was the Germans had by this point in WWII lost a lot of ships in the Norway operation (that were never really made good), they'd lost the Bismarck, and both Scharnhorsts had been mostly kept in repair by an encounter with Renown, mechanical troubles and sustained RAF raids; the Germans had good reason to be cautious, as if they lost anything more, their ability to even protect the coastline and baltic would have been at risk.
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Precisely. The RN also still had most of their Battlecruisers operational post-Jutland, while Germany had lost one of its most modern, another was resting on the harbour floor after just barely making it back, and the rest were all damaged and thus mission killed as well. Germany had provoked the battle by attacking coastal towns with their Battlecruiser fleet... and they'd all been rendered inoperable by Jutland. They only managed to commission one new Battlecruiser during the war, while the UK introduced [depending what one counts] five. Advantage: Britain :D It's a pity though, that details like this are rarely mentioned; especially as there's a lot of interesting historical lessons to be gained from such aspects.
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They also wasted an entire Hipper class Cruiser, the Seydlitz (IIRC), by trying to turn the nearly complete ship into an escort carrier. The plan didn't work, and they ended up with a useless hulk for their trouble. Giving another [albeit less near completion] of the class to the USSR in 1940 was also a bit mad, especially in hindsight. German shipbuilding in the period certainly is an odd topic, to put it mildly.
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Should note too that while 11" guns did the Exeter no good, said ship still inflicted severe damage on the Graf Spee, who's armour was too thin to withstand sustained fire of 8" or above. The Hippers had a similar weakness, as Blucher (1930's ship) was sunk by comically outdated shore defences in Norway. (the fort's guns used predated WWII, and the torpedoes dated from the Victorian period) The Germans knew they'd almost always be outnumbered, and while they might sink a warship or two, they were more likely to lose something more valuable getting there, that unlike the UK they couldn't replace.
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A man of culture, I see ^_^ . Good thing no Torpedo Boats were present this time. (though Germany did tend to call their smaller destroyers so... because of course they did -_- )
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Technically Germany needed A Surface Fleet of some sort, as otherwise they couldn't contest control of the Baltic Sea; a rather important arena for the Germans. That; and as it was, being able to present a Fleet in Being - even if relatively small - tied down a lot of their opponents resources. That said: Germany's inefficiency in designing, building & making use of the ships they did have... proved a major boon for their enemies.
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Aye. Their nearest thing thereto, was too fragile for operations in the North Sea nor Atlantic, and comically vunerable to... basically anything XD.
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It's a rare mishap, but usually the result of someone misunderstanding the situation / misidentifying the ship.
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Except: the Germans (from an interwar perspective) needed A Fleet in Being of some kind, to contest dominance of the Baltic, and at least pose a deterrance to the French & UK, their most likely opponents at sea in a then future war. It also goes without saying, that to keep your opponent busy in all three states of naval warfare (below, on & above the waves) requires having some of all three too, even if some are only enough to keep an opponent's assets tied down looking out for them. That; and prior to the Atom Bomb; a Standing Navy was the symbol of National power, prestige and ability to project force as needed. Germany certainly failed to leadn many lessons from WWI; but having A surface fleet wasn't in of itself one of them.
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