The Battle of the River Plate was fought in the South Atlantic on 13
December 1939 as the first naval battle of the Second World War. The
Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee , commanded by Captain Hans
Langsdorff, engaged a Royal Navy squadron, commanded by Commodore Henry
Harwood, comprising the light cruisers HMS Ajax , HMS Achilles (on loan to
the New Zealand Division) and the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter.
Graf Spee had sailed into the South Atlantic in August 1939, before the war
began, and had begun commerce raiding after receiving the appropriate
authorisation on 26 September 1939.