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The Illustrated London News December 30, 1939 THE END OF THE "ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE": THE BLAZING WRECK OF THE RAIDER SCUTTLED BY HITLER'S ORDERS. Drawn by C. E. Turner After a Photograph Transmitted by Radio AN ARTIST'S VIVID IMPRESSION OF THE AWESOME SCENE OFF MONTEVIDEO ON THE EVENING OF DECEMBER 17, WHEN GERMANY'S NEWEST 10,000-TON POCKET-BATTLESHIP "ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE," WHOSE CONSTRUCTION COST £3,750,000, WAS SCUTTLED IN THE ESTUARY OF THE RIVER PLATE ON HITLER'S DIRECT ORDER ; HER CREW HAVING BEEN TRANSFERRED PREVIOUSLY TO THE GERMAN CARGO-SHIP "TACOMA." " As between internment and scuttling we have three reasons to be glad that Herr Hitler chose the latter," wrote Sir William Beveridge in a letter to The Times on December 21. " First, his choice shows him in a temper. . . . Second, subconscious expectation of final defeat. . . . Third, his action is an unintentional contribution to what should be the first of our peace aims— the permanent disarmament of Germany." Following her flight from three British cruisers—one severely damaged—of inferior tonnage and gun-power, into the protection of neutral waters, and her ejection by the Uruguayan Government at Montevideo on December 17 at the expiry of the 72 hours allowed to render her seaworthy, the " Graf Spee " was scuttled by her crew five miles off the Uruguayan coast at 7.55 p.m. (local time). Before she sank there was a terrific explosion on board, which was heard by the thousands who had crowded the water-front on Montevideo harbour for hours before the doomed vessel cast her moorings and sailed to self-destruction. No doubt of her captain's intentions was left in the minds of any of the watchers who saw the ship slide into the sunset between the twin moles of the outer harbour; for behind her trailed the warship's half-dozen motor-boats, while a couple of cables astern followed the German cargo-steamer " Tacoma," with decks white with the uniforms of seven hundred of the “Admiral Graf Spee's " crew of nine hundred transferred to the vessel before the pocket-battleship weighed anchor, the remainder being taken on board before the time-fuse which was to destroy her was set off. Captain Langsdorff, according to one report, stood in a launch at the salute as his ship blew up and settled in the shallow waters of the estuary, near the Recalada pontoon which marks the entrance of the channel to Buenos Aires. Our picture shows the awesome scene after the first explosion, which broke the back of the battleship and started a further series of explosions as ammunition stores were ignited— looking at the port quarter of the ship and showing how the initial explosion, which occurred in the magazine beneath the aft turret, completely shattered the hull. The aft mast and signalling yards are shown canted over with the massive funnel. The fore-deck, however, escaped the full force of the explosion and was comparatively undamaged.