The Battle of the River Plate
For anyone interested:
The 1952 movie "Battle of the River Plate" - the story of the December 1939 battle between the Graf Spee and the British cruisers HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles, is on You Tube uncut.
The movie actually stars HMS Achilles herself, by 1952 a ship of the Indian Navy, with HMS Jamaica as HMS Exeter, and USS Salem as the Graf Spee. A very accurate rendition of a big gun battle at sea, and historically accurate as a movie. Peter Finch in his first role as Captain of Graf Spee, Patrick MacNee as a British sailor.
Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell and Emmeric Pressburger at the top of their form.
Simon Whitleys dad served on the H.M.S. Exeter at that battle
I love that movie but isn't there a large U.S. style number on the Graf Spee ,also I seem to remember there is a scene where you can see a couple of American cars on the deck - still a good movie though.
N.
That is explained in the movie as the Graf Spee disguising herself as an American cruiser, as Langsdorff and his Exec refer to a copy of Jane's for the edification of Captain Dove of the Africa Shell. This also gets around the fact the US Navy wouldn't let the USS Salem's crew be photographed wearing German coal scuttle helmets.
and Captain Langsdorff has an English accent
...Despite Peter Finch being Australian!
they should have hired kurt jurgens
The Achilles was actually HMNZS Achilles, not HMS Achilles, Tom. She was a vessel of the Royal New Zealand Navy, and one of her main turrets is preserved here in Auckland, it was bought from India when she was decommissioned for scrapping and returned to NZ.
This is what comes of writing late at night. 🙂