Auction details
8:15 AM PT - Sep 12th, 2009
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ARTIST: Unknown
WORK DATE: 20th c.
MATERIALS: Patinated Brass
SIZE: 7.5" diameter x 7" tall
A commemorative production bell marked with the name of the famous German battleship:
History of the Graf Spee:
On January 6th, 1936 the last of three unusual battleships was commissioned at the Kiel Navy Yards in Germany and took her rightful place of honor among the expanding German fleet.
The Admiral Graf Spee was built to be faster than a conventional battleship but still larger and more powerful than a cruiser. Some naval experts refer to her as a "battle cruiser", but she is more often described as a "pocket battleship". Her main armament consisted of six 11 inch guns and eight 5.5 inch guns.
The architect of the German fleet was Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, a brilliant naval planner. As the build-up to war began, Admiral Raeder planned to have ships at hand that could interrupt British and French commerce moving through the Atlantic. To do this he needed several fast and very threatening ships that could hunt for enemy merchant vessels in the open seas and sink them. The Pocket Battleships were Admiral Raeder's answer to this need.
In August of 1939 the Graf Spee left her home port at Wilhelmshaven, Germany under command of Captain Hans Langsdorff. Her orders were to head into the Atlantic, moving slowly southward, and await further instructions.
Just a few weeks later, Germany invaded Poland and the war was on. Shortly after, Langsdorff received his mission, to hunt down enemy merchant vessels in the South Atlantic and sink them. This process would create a shortage of needed items such as gasoline, rubber, metals, grain and even beef that came to Britain and France from Africa and the Americas.
On September 30, the Graf Spee met with her first encounter, the 5,000 ton British steamer, Clement. Langsdorff launched the Graf Spee’s Arado float plane which halted the Clement with cannon fire while the Graf Spee caught up. Next, Langsdorff ordered everyone on board the Clement into lifeboats and notified the Brazilian Coast Guard that the crew needed assistance. Then he sunk the Clement with gunfire and left the scene. No lives were lost.
The Graf Spee continued in this manner sinking nine enemy merchant vessels before mid-December. On December 13th she thought she had another merchant vessel on the horizon. Since the Graf Spee's Arado float plane was out of service, Langsdorff chose to speed the Graf Spee toward his new target.
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