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HMS AJAX Model Ships

This is a fantastic job done by Felix Bustelo all he added was photoetching,
time, patience and practice makes perfect to this $Gone kit# DC235
You couldn't ask for a finer looking model rust and all.
To see how Felix built this click here!

The Battle of the River Plate

"Graf Spee", commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff, was still at large in the South Atlantic. Though her haul of merchant shipping was fairly small, she remained a serious drain on Allied naval resources, and evaded detection into early December. It was largely intuition and intelligent deduction which convinced Commodore Harwood, commanding a British squadron off the South American coast, that Langsdorff might next move against the Allied Merchant shipping operating in the River Plate area. Harwood had under his command the 8" gun cruiser "HMS Exeter", and two 6" ships, "HMS Ajax" and the New Zealand "HMNZS Achilles". A contest with the 11" gunned "Graf Spee" was likely to be a closely matched affair.

Early on 13 December Harwood's hunch proved right when "Graf Spee" was sighted off the estuary of the River Plate. Langsdorff initially seemed eager to fight a decisive action, deluging the British force with accurate fire, and inflicting serious damage on "Exeter", whilst suffering no significant hits in return. After twenty minutes "Graf Spee" was still severely punishing "Exeter", and by 7:30 am had forced her to break off the action. 

Langsdorff seemed on the brink of a notable victory, and though he failed to take the opportunity to finish off "Exeter", he now turned his attention to the light cruisers, hitting "Ajax". But at 7:38 am, Langsdorff's hard-pressed opponents were surprised and relieved to see "Graf Spee" turn on to a westerly course and head for the refuge of Montevideo. Though his ship had received several hits, she was not seriously damaged, and it may be that Langsdorff suffered a momentary loss of nerve as a result of a slight head injury he had suffered during the battle.

Whatever his reasoning, her Captain's decision proved fatal for the "Graf Spee". Harwood, the damaged "Exeter" replaced by the 8" gunned "Cumberland" prowled off the mouth of the estuary, and every effort was made to convince the Germans that further reinforcements were arriving. 

Langsdorff unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Uraguayan authorities to extend the period by which under neutrality laws, he was allowed to remain in port. He had been given a free hand by the German High Command to act as he thought best, and claiming that battle damage had made "Graf Spee" unfit for the long voyage home, on 17 December, Langsdorff took "Graf Spee" out into the Plate Estuary and scuttled her, later shooting himself.