In August 1939, the German armored cruiser Admiral Graf Spee set out from Germany for the South Atlantic Ocean. Several weeks after the German invasion of Poland, she began to attack Allied merchant shipping. British and French warships scoured the South Atlantic in search of the German cruiser. After sinking nine merchant vessels totaling just over 50,000 tons’ displacement, Admiral Graf Spee steamed to the waters off Argentina’s River Plate estuary. Instead of more undefended shipping, she found three British cruisers. Despite the heavier guns of the German ship, Admiral Graf Spee lost the encounter and fled for the neutral port of Montevideo, where her crew scuttled the ship. —description from the publisher