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BEST SPOT NEWS REPORTING
The Graf Spee
by James Bowen
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James Bowen, who made this remarkable report, is, I believe, the manager of the American Club in Monte¬ video, Uruguay. The naval battle, which took place a few miles east of the mouth of the La Plata River a few days before the Graf Spee scuttled herself, could be seen clearly, in many of its phases and maneuvers, by spectators on the Uruguayan shore. After being badly mauled by the Exeter , the Achilles, and the Ajax, the German pocket battleship Graf Spee retired and sought refuge in the near-by neutral waters of Montevideo Harbor. Not all the King’s men in the whole of British diplomacy could determine her exact status in a neutral port. Would she repair her damages and come out for another round? Would Uruguay intern her until the war ended? Would Germany send help? The Englishmen cruised up and down, waiting. Uruguayan authorities hospitalized the German wounded and buried the dead. One afternoon at sundown, after five days of anchorage, the Graf Spee steamed out of the harbor without warning, slowed down offshore about four miles, and there, within sight of half a million people, blew out her insides and sank in shallow water. There were no casualties connected with this theatrical finale, the Graf Spee's powder magazines having been detonated by her bridge officers from the com¬ parative safety of a remote control in their lifeboats. But that night Hans Langsdorff, her commander, committed suicide in his hotel room in a gesture that seemed more oriental than necessary.
The first explosion was neither caught nor carried by radio; but James Bowen, who was standing by ready to
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