At 05:30 on the morning of 13 December 1939, lookouts spotted a pair of masts off the ship's starboard bow. Langsdorff assumed this to be the escort for a convoy mentioned in the documents recovered from
Tairoa. At 05:52, however, the ship was identified as
HMS Exeter; she was accompanied by a pair of smaller warships, initially thought to be destroyers but quickly identified as
Leander-class cruisers. Langsdorff decided not to flee from the British ships, and ordered his ship to battle stations and to close at maximum speed. At 06:08, the British spotted
Admiral Graf Spee; Harwood divided his ships to split the gunfire of
Admiral Graf Spee's 28 cm guns. The German ship opened fire with her main battery at
Exeter and her secondary guns at the flagship
Ajax at 06:17. At 06:20,
Exeter returned fire, followed by
Ajax at 06:21 and
Achilles at 06:24. In the span of thirty minutes,
Admiral Graf Spee had hit
Exeter three times, disabling her two forward turrets, destroying her bridge and her aircraft catapult, and starting major fires.
Ajax and
Achilles moved closer to
Admiral Graf Spee to relieve the pressure on
Exeter.
Langsdorff thought the two light cruisers were making a torpedo attack, and turned away under a smokescreen. The respite allowed
Exeter to withdraw from the action; by now, only one of her gun turrets was still in action, and she had suffered 61 dead and 23 wounded crew members. At around 07:00,
Exeter returned to the engagement, firing from her stern turret.
Admiral Graf Spee fired on her again, scored more hits, and forced
Exeter to withdraw again, this time with a list to port. At 07:25,
Admiral Graf Spee scored a hit on
Ajax that disabled her aft turrets. Both sides broke off the action,
Admiral Graf Spee retreating into the River Plate estuary, while Harwood's battered cruisers remained outside to observe any possible breakout attempts. In the course of the engagement,
Admiral Graf Spee had been hit approximately 70 times; 36 men were killed and 60 more were wounded, including Langsdorff, who had been wounded twice by splinters while standing on the open bridge.
Admiral Graf Spee's damage that prevented its sea worthiness were damage to its oil purification plant, holes in its bow, and damage to its desalination plant. Additionally most of its ammunition was spent fighting the 3 cruisers.
Paradox should give credit where it is due with the unique Panzerschiff Class for Germany. Faster than large battleships, bigger main guns than cruisers, but lighter armor and less ammo than cruisers. As Langsdorff found out, anything but hitting and running for Panzerschiffs likely means losing a capital ship.
