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Old April 6th, 2009, 01:27 PM
lwd lwd is offline
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Default Re: Was it possible for the Graf Spee to break out of Montevideo?

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Originally Posted by Flag Des Div 98 View Post
Graf Spee has the advantage of surprise and distance of her main battery's.
You breakout at Dusk.
No she doesn't have the advantage of surprise. When she leaves port the British diplomats will radio ahead to the ships waiting outside. Note that the British were able to control to some extent when the GS left due to regulations about the timing of when she could leave in regards to other ships.
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In a break out....she can split the British line by a series of shooting designed to make the British ships move.
She does not have to hit any....simply get them moving.
I don't think I understand what you are saying here. The British would be moving even without GS firing.
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as she nears....quick turns to unmask rear turret to fire....
and to fire a spread of torpedo's.
Make smoke,....quick turns...and look for the opening to dash thru.
The British ships also have torpdos and she will have been in range of their guns for a considerable period of time before she gets into torpedo range.
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once thru....she has the British ships sihloetted behind via the setting sun/night sky
and advantage for her rear turret.
How is she going to leave them behind when she's slower than the British ships? No reason they have to allow her to sihloett them.
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Graf Spee can still make a few more turns to unmask and fire torpedo's....
then run for Africa : )
And what happens when/if she gets there?
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On a final note,.....Captain Hans Langsdorf was wrong to have put into a neutral port,
He needed port repairs to make it home. This worked well for the Goeben in WWI. Why was he wrong here?
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and wrong in his decision to scuttle the proud Battle Cruiser.
GS was a long way from a BC. This class was rerated heavy cruisers from armored cruisers somewhat latter. A farily apt designation IMO.

You also said that she could get water in 72 hours. Where and would it be enough?

And you mentioned her outranging her opponents. While the 11 guns did have a range advantage p(H) at those ranges was pretty low. Furthermore GS had sustaind damage to her fire control systems and was low on ammo. Engaging in a long range battle would likely have left her out of ammo without incapacitating more than one of her foes if that.
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