Airfix 1/600 Scale Admiral Graf Spee Model Kit
Admiral Graf Spee was an armored ship, nicknamed a “pocket battleship” by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron who fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action, in World War I. With heavier armour than her sister ships she was the first German ship to be fitted with a form of radar and had a displacement of only 10,000 ton. Admiral Graf Spee was deployed to the South Atlantic in the weeks before the outbreak of World War II, to be positioned in merchant sea lanes once war was declared. Between September and December 1939, the warship sank nine vessels totaling 50,089 tons, before being confronted by three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December. Admiral Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage on the British ships, but she too was damaged, and was forced to put into port at Montevideo. Convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship, Hans Langsdorff, the commander of the ship, ordered the vessel to be scuttled. The ship was partially broken up in situ, though part of the ship remains visible above the surface of the water. These Airfix model ship kits will require paints and glue to complete. Scale 1:600 Skill 3 Number of Parts 124 Dimensions (mm) L310 x W36 Age Suitability 8+
