The Admiral Graf Spee

The Admiral Graf Spee was one of three pocket battleships built by Nazi Germany in the years before the outbreak of World War II. It came into Montevideo harbor in Uruguay seeking repairs in December 1939. The ship was assaulted by a trio of British cruisers and the Nazi government opted to scuttle the ship rather than allow it to be taken by Allied forces. The Graf Spee had destroyed nine British ships in the short time between the beginning of the war in September and when it met its end in December. The ship was named for Admiral von Spee, a World War I hero of the German Imperial Navy. Oddly enough, von Spee died in a battle near the Falkland Islands, not far from where the ship that was named after him was scuttled.