The 'Undergunned' British Cruiser That Wrecked the Graf Spee

HMS Exeter was the "undergunned" British heavy cruiser they said had no business fighting a pocket battleship. At the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939, she took seven 11-inch shells from the Admiral Graf Spee, lost both forward turrets, and still fired the shot that doomed Germany's most feared commerce raider. Three small British cruisers cornered a ship that outgunned any one of them. Exeter absorbed the punishment while Ajax and Achilles struck from another bearing, and a single 8-inch hit wrecked the Graf Spee's fuel-processing plant, leaving her unable to run for home. Days later, in Montevideo, Captain Hans Langsdorff scuttled her rather than face a fleet that, thanks to a British bluff, he believed was waiting offshore. This is the story of how the ship dismissed on paper won the first great naval victory of the war. CHAPTERS 00:00 Dawn off the River Plate 00:00 The treaty cruiser nobody rated 00:00 The raider that vanished 00:00 Harwood's impossible plan 00:00 Seven hits and still firing 00:00 The shell that doomed her 00:00 The lie that sank the Graf Spee 00:00 Outgunned, and still standing If you're enjoying the channel, subscribing takes a second and supports the work. WATCH NEXT: How HMS Rodney avenged HMS Hood and finished the Bismarck —    • The 'Outdated' British Battleship That Ave...   British Warships. The engineering, the combat, the records that still stand. Note: dramatised imagery in this video is illustration only and is not presented as historical footage.