Langsdorff at Montevideo — 17 December

After the battle of 13 December 1939 the Graf Spee enters the port of Montevideo (neutral Uruguay) for urgent repairs: her fuel-purification system is destroyed (without it the ship cannot cross the North Atlantic), 36 dead crew to bury, wounded to hospitalise, supplies to take on. Under the Hague Convention of 1907 a belligerent ship may remain twenty-four hours in a neutral port, extendable for strictly necessary repairs.

Kapitän Langsdorff, 45, must juggle British pressure and German orders. The British ambassador Eugen Millington-Drake skilfully spreads the rumour that massive Royal Navy reinforcements are converging on the River Plate, when in fact only Ajax and Achilles are waiting offshore. President Alfredo Baldomir of Uruguay grants 72 hours for repairs — the deadline expiring at 20:00 on 17 December 1939.

Berlin sends contradictory instructions. Hitler demands a fight outside the harbour rather than surrender or internment, which would be politically humiliating. But the German legation in Montevideo (chargé d'affaires Otto Langmann) acknowledges that no German support force can reach the River Plate inside twenty-one days. Sailing out means facing the British cruisers (and the reinforcements thought to be imminent) in open water.

Langsdorff must decide before the Uruguayan deadline runs out.