RF wrote:Another point here is that in 1939 Langsdorf in the panzerschiffe Graf Spee did at one point consider an attack on the Falkland Islands (I hope the Spanish and Argentine members are not offended by my using that name rather than the Malvinas)
If you write in English use the name Falklands, and if you write in Spanish use Malvinas. Is that easy.
What was the point in bombing Stanley? It was not a big port, may that there were no ships there and I don´t think Langsdorff would just shell the houses.
I believe the objective of Spee's planned attack on Port Stanely, and possibly Langsdorff's was to destroy the telegraphic centre for the transoceanic cable, thereby disrupting communication. It was a rather more important target in Spee's day than in Langsdorff's, considering that radio communication was almost as good by 1939. In addition, Port Stanely was an important coaling station and Spee might well have wanted to both avail himself of its coal reserves and to destroy the facilities before he left.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood and Earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned these defended;
And saved the sum of things for pay.
According to Bennett´s Coronel and the Falklands, Spee´s intentions were "...destroy the wireless station and coal stocks, and capture the Governor in retaliation for the British imprisonment of the Governor of Samoa".
marcelo_malara wrote:What was the point in bombing Stanley? It was not a big port, may that there were no ships there and I don´t think Langsdorff would just shell the houses.
Cruiser Cumberland was there for 8 December 1939.
Attack probably intended as a prestige matter more than anything - something for Dr. Geobbels and Lord Haw Haw to shout about, on the 25th anniversary of the original battle.
For the Kriegsmarine such a strike would be part of the ''cruiser war'' concept, forcing dispersal of Allied resources/ships to defend remote areas leaving merchant shipping more open to attack. Same reason hilfskreuzer Komet bombarded Nauru to destroy the phosphate plant - only in that case the Germans didn't realise the plant was owned by the (at that time neutral) Japanese!
miro777 wrote:Hey....
are u sure about that?
I read a first preson report by Cap. Eyssen about the journey of Komet.
and he did NOT state anything about the failure of the operation in terms of that plant being Japanese...
adios
miro
Eyssen was not aware that the phosphate plant was owned by Japanese private companies, particulary as there were no Japanese on the island, and indeed it is highly unlikely that the labourers and others on the island would have known it either.
The German embassy in Tokyo was made aware of the fact some weeks later, per a report to Berlin by ambassador General Ott. It does appear that the naval attache, Admiral Wenneker wasn't told - it isn't referred to in any of his reports. Neither was Eyssen on Komet told later. It was kept very quiet presumably not to upset German/Japanese relations.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
miro777 wrote:hey...
if that is really true...
then hahaha that is funny....
hmm shooting at their own allies....
tstststs
adios
miro
Even funnier is an episode recorded by Martin Brice in his book ''Axis blockade runners.''
March 1942: German blockade runner from Japan to Germany via Cape Horn was approaching mid-Pacific when it was attacked, unsucessfully, by Jap carrier planes....
The British ''desert rats'' had the best trick - two desert patrols, one German, one Italian - shoot at both simultaneously, then quitely withdraw as the return fire is exchanged between the two Axis patrols, leaving the Germans and Italians shooting at each other.....
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
in front of the LaPlata.
Why he did not manage it as Sturdee in the same area little bit southwards?
So he could have avoid all damages mainly the kitchen :-)
WWI Battle of Falklands
When Gneisenau reckognized battlecruisers in the harbour, an admiral as Graf Spee should know that they are sailing 4-5 knots more quick than his own ships.
He should know that the battlecruisers could fight out of his own range.
The only chance to damage british ships was to keep them in range.
So the possibilty to reach this target were the Falklands itself.
Nelson or Hood in the position of Spee would have sailed immediatly into the harbour of Port Stanley.
The chance would have been given, that not all british weapons were ready for action, -to launch the torpedos of the german light cruisers, -to use the artillery of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, to enter british ships, ramming british ships, -in case of sinking the sailors could swim to the shoreline.
And the british fleet in the harbour would not have been a difficult target.
The other possibilty would have been to circle around the Falklands, but i think more worse than the first one, what the spanish-american war showed in 1897.
But all is better than to be slaughtered at the open sea.
So Spee was maybe a good organizer, but as an admiral less talented.
Wrong, to name a ship to his honours.
