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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images -- Picture Data

Photo #: NH 51993

Admiral Graf Spee
(German Armored Ship, 1936)

Photograph looking aft from atop the ship's forward superstructure tower, showing the partially collapsed smokestack structure, aircraft catapult and after port side (Number Eight) 15cm gun in the lower part of the image. Aft of the catapult, on the centerline, are the wreckage of the after main battery rangefinder and director, a small open ship control station, the after twin 10.5 anti-aircraft gun mounting, a loading machine, and the after triple 28cm (eleven-inch) gun turret. The turret's top was blown off and the guns blown out by explosions when the ship was scuttled. Torpedo tubes mounted on the after deck are underwater.
The sketch below identifies items seen in the photograph.
Taken on board the ship's wreck in the River Plate, near Montevideo, Uruguay, where she had been scuttled in December 1939.
Page from an intelligence report prepared by USS Helena (CL-50) during her shakedown cruise to South America. The photograph was taken on 2 February 1940 by Ensign Richard D. Sampson, USN. See Photo # NH 51993-A for a cropped version of this image, showing only the photograph.


U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 109KB; 960 x 1225 pixels

 

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Image posted 20 August 2006