File:The "HMS Achilles" in Auckland, circa 1940 & the "Admiral Graf Spee", circa 1939 (15979056615).jpg
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December 13 2014 marks the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the River Plate, the first naval battle of the Second World War. The role that HMS Achilles and her majority New Zealand crew played in the battle helped lead to the eventual creation of the Royal New Zealand Navy in October 1941. Achilles was a Leander class cruiser originally built for the Royal Navy in 1933. She served in the Royal Navy's New Zealand Division from March 1937 until the creation of the Royal New Zealand Navy, into which she was transferred and renamed as HMNZS Achilles. Approximately 60% of her crew was from New Zealand. On the outbreak of the Second World War, Achilles started patrolling the west coast of South America looking for German merchant ships. In the early morning of 13 December 1939 a force consisting of HMS Achilles, Ajax and Exeter detected smoke on the horizon, which was confirmed at 06:16 to be a pocket battleship, thought to be Admiral Scheer but which turned out to be the Admiral Graf Spee. A fierce battle followed firstly at a range of about 20 km. Exeter took the initial brunt of Graf Spee’s attack and was badly damaged, but this enabled Achilles and Ajax to inflict critical damage on the Graf Spee. Achilles took some damage, four crew were killed, and her captain was injured. On Graf Spee 36 of the crew were killed. The range reduced to about four miles (7 km) at around 07:15, and at around 07:45 the critically damaged Admiral Graf Spee broke off the engagement to head for the neutral harbour of Montevideo which she entered at 22:00 that night, having been pursued by Achilles and Ajax all day. She was forced by international law to leave with 72 hours. Faced with what he believed to be overwhelming odds, the captain of the Admiral Graf Spee, Hans Langsdorff, scuttled his ship rather than risk the lives of his crew. Following the battle, Achilles returned to Auckland, New Zealand on 23 February 1940 to a hero’s welcome, where she was refitted until June. When decommissioned in 1978 one of her turrets was removed and given as a gift to the New Zealand government, and is now on display at the Devonport RNZN Base in Auckland. Archives New Zealand Reference: N13/4 (R21176587) For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/ArchivesNZ Material from Archives New Zealand |
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| Source | The "HMS Achilles" in Auckland, circa 1940 & the "Admiral Graf Spee", circa 1939 |
| Author | Archives New Zealand from New Zealand |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Archives New Zealand at https://flickr.com/photos/35759981@N08/15979056615. It was reviewed on 8 September 2016 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. |
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| current | 21:19, 8 September 2016 | | 5,300 × 1,377 (3.93 MB) | Vanished Account Byeznhpyxeuztibuo (talk | contribs) | Transferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons |
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