- BUENOS AIRES -- More
than 64 years after the Graf Spee's captain scuttled his pocket battleship
off Uruguay to stop it falling into British hands, divers have raised part
of the vessel.
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- After weeks of failed attempts a 27-ton section of the
command tower, including the first embryonic radar antenna installed on
a warship, was brought to the surface of the River Plate estuary using
a floating crane.
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- Germany's Graf Spee, equipped with 11-inch guns and a
prototype diesel engine, was one of the most advanced vessels of its time.
It was smaller and faster than a traditional battleship and caused serious
unease in the Royal Navy.
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- It sank nine commercial vessels in the Atlantic in late
1939 before engaging with British and New Zealand warships in the battle
of the River Plate that December, one of the first naval clashes of the
Second World War.
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- Outnumbered and badly damaged, the Graf Spee managed
to make port in Montevideo but neutral Uruguay gave in to British pressure
and sent it back out. With the British ships Exeter and Ajax and New Zealand's
Achilles waiting for him, Capt Hans Langsdorff knew he had no chance so
he blew up his ship in 36ft of water.
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- Now the Graf Spee is being raised in sections over the
next three years and will be rebuilt as a land museum.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/27/
wgraf27.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/27/ixnewstop.html
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- More information...
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- Langsdorff Of The Graf Spee
- http://www.grafspee.com/
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- The Battle Of The River Plate
- http://www.ocean98.org/spee.htm
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