Admiral Graf Spee was deployed to the South Atlantic in the weeks before the outbreak of World War II, to be positioned in merchant sea lanes once war was declared. The ship conducted five non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1938 and participated in the Coronation Review of King George VI in May 1937. Their top speed of 28 knots (52 km/h 32 mph) left only the few battlecruisers in the Anglo-French navies fast enough and powerful enough to sink them. Armed with six 28 cm (11 in) guns in two triple gun turrets, Admiral Graf Spee and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. The ship was nominally under the 10,000 long tons (10,000 t) limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of 16,020 long tons (16,280 t), she significantly exceeded it. She was laid down at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936. The vessel was named after World War I Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron who fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action. 16,020 long tons (16,280 t) ( full load)ġ6,300 nautical miles (30,200 km 18,800 mi) at 18.69 knots (34.61 km/h 21.51 mph)Īdmiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland-class " Panzerschiff" (armored ship), nicknamed a "pocket battleship" by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II.
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