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The Reference Desk => History and Tall Tales => Topic started by: besilarius on December 05, 2019, 09:14:57 AM

Title: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: besilarius on December 05, 2019, 09:14:57 AM: SMS Scharnhorst sunk at the Falklands.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7758953/Wreckage-German-WWI-battlecruiser-discovered-Falkland-Islands.html
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: mirth on December 05, 2019, 09:26:52 AM: Excellent! :bigthumb:
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Sir Slash on December 05, 2019, 09:59:26 AM: One of the great Sea Stories I read as a kid. Not only did von Spee die in that battle but 2 of his sons died also.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: bob48 on December 05, 2019, 10:36:44 AM: Amazing story :bigthumb:
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Staggerwing on December 05, 2019, 06:55:19 PM: When I saw the thread title I was thinking it was the other Scharnhorst.

Fun fact: Von Spee wasn't even a native German! He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Sir Slash on December 05, 2019, 07:33:52 PM: He would've been ASHAMED that the ship bearing his name refused to fight her way out of Montevideo harbor.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Staggerwing on December 05, 2019, 07:51:46 PM: Quote from: Sir Slash on December 05, 2019, 07:33:52 PM
He would've been ASHAMED that the ship bearing his name refused to fight her way out of Montevideo harbor.

Graff Spee's captain, Hans Langsdorff, had been given false info that there was an overwhelming Allied force waiting outside the harbor. He decided he wasn't going to send his crew to their deaths just for Nazi propaganda fodder and ordered the ship scuttled. He then committed suicide after making sure that the records showed he and only he was responsible for what happened.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Sir Slash on December 05, 2019, 11:43:53 PM: One of von Spee's consorts, the light cruiser Nurnberg I believe was in the same spot in Honolulu. Neutral port and with the Japanese Battlecruiser Idzomo I believe supposedly waiting outside. Her Captain thought it dishonorable to stay in port and sailed out to meet his enemy and certain doom. Of course there was no Japanese BC outside waiting for them and they sailed south to meet-up with von Spee's squadron where he commended the Captain for his action.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: besilarius on December 06, 2019, 07:56:28 AM: The only german ship that survived the Falklands was the little scout cruiser, Dresden.
Rather surprisingly, one of her officers was Wilhelm Canaris, who commanded the german intelligence service, Abwehr, in World War II.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: bob48 on December 06, 2019, 08:56:49 AM: Really? That is interesting.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: bayonetbrant on December 06, 2019, 09:08:55 AM: Quote from: Sir Slash on December 05, 2019, 11:43:53 PM
One of von Spee's consorts

a little action a sea? :hehe:
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Sir Slash on December 06, 2019, 01:58:13 PM: Everybody needs some. It WAS a long way home. :P
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: besilarius on December 06, 2019, 02:15:48 PM: Thinking of Admiral Canaris. Has anyone heard why his widow got a pension from the CIA after the war?
Believe it was set up by Alan Dulles, who ran the OSS in Switzerland.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Sir Slash on December 06, 2019, 03:05:32 PM: He has been linked to a bunch of anti-Hitler groups but I don't know of anything definitive.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: mirth on December 06, 2019, 03:07:14 PM: It's pretty widely accepted that he met with MI-6 and OSS officers and was passing information. I think he even met with Bill Donovan.
Title: Re: Scharnhorst wreck found
Post by: Sir Slash on December 06, 2019, 10:35:27 PM: I've read Hitler considered him useless but oddly never thought of him as being disloyal.