Make sure you have read Devil in the Details before reading this post, which goes through the major altered naval battles of the Post-Shift, Pre-Departure Timeline. Ahead of the planned invasion of Poland, the High Command of the Kriegsmarine Oberkommando der Marine dispatched the panzerschiffe technically large heavy cruisers but dubbed pocket battleships by the press , Admiral Graf Spee, and Moltke to the South Atlantic.
As soon as hostilities commence, they attack British and French shipping as individual but mutually supporting raiders. The captain of Graf Spee , Hans Langsdorf, immediately realizes that his ship is in danger of being run down in an extended chase. He does not have the speed to flee; the British cruisers can skirt around him and fell his command with a thousand cuts. The two ships could kill or cripple the British cruisers without incurring much damage and then escape before heavier Allied units could arrive.
Langsdorf signals Konteradmiral Oskar Kummetz on Moltke, asking for aid. We shall smash them once joined. Moltke and Graf Spee steam toward each other at 30 and 28 knots, respectively, closing the distance in about two hours.
The table turns on Harwood in a matter of minutes. His speed advantage is cut in half instantly, and his plan to split the fire of Graf Spee by splitting Exeter off from Ajax and Achilles is made worthless. Harwood gambles with the last move leftβhe plays the same trick that the Germans had played on him and hopes that there would be someone waiting for him over the horizon.
He tacks northwest at his best speed. At this point, Exeter is in a bad way, having received multiple hits from the inch shellfire. She is beginning to list as her final operational turret disappears beneath a jet of flameβbut she keeps up her top speed as Harwood, aboard Ajax , and Achilles haul around and begin to lay smoke to cover the beleaguered diminutive heavy cruiser.
