“The Battle for Christmas Day” Part Two – ATL Sink the Admiral Graf Spee – 24th/25th
Using dead reckoning and some guess work the 2nd Levasseur PL.10 reached the area of the expected rendezvous with the Aircraft they were supposed to relieve only to find more empty ocean - the crew wasted another 15 minutes running a search pattern before sending a report back to Force L that both the scout plane and the enemy heavy Cruiser where gone.
The French Admiral immediately ordered all available scout planes to blanket the area and the
Bearn launched all 5 available PL.10s as well as 4 of the Dewoitine 371 fighter planes - all 3 Cruisers as well as the
Dunkerque launched 5 more float planes between them
The Air group commander held his 8 serviceable PL7s and their crews back intending to use them as the core of a strike on the Enemy raider once she was found.
It is here that the French Commanders very nearly lost their quarry
The assumption was that the
Panzerschiff had headed south or South West towards the Coast of Brazil.
Accordingly the aircraft fanned out flying to the furthest point that they calculated the Graf spee could have sailed - from the 2 o'clock position tot he 9 o'clock from here last recorded location and then flying a patrol pattern back towards her last reported position.
Only the Officer commanding the small group of Amphibian Aircraft on board the Battle Cruiser Dunkerque disagreed and subsequently abandoned his assigned arc and turned his Loire 130 to the east instead.
So it was something of a surprise when the Senior officers of Force L were given a sighting report some 55 miles east of the Graf Spee's last known location.
It became quickly apparent that with the Graf Spee's estimated speed of 24 knots the Dunkerque and 2 Cruisers would not catch the enemy ship before nightfall - being almost 100 miles north West of her and the only chance Force L had now of catching her before she disappeared into the night was vested in 8 obsolete torpedo planes currently being staged on the Béarn's flight deck.
With less than 2 hours left before sun down the French Carrier put on as much power as she could and turned into the wind.
1 by 1 her somewhat meagre strike group of 8 PL7s, 2 PL10s and 4 of the Dewoitine 373 fighter planes launched in to the Afternoon sky and headed South East.
Back on board the Graf Spee Captain Langsdorff and his crew were feeling increasingly more confident as the ship fled further to the East and the Sun dropped ever closer to the Western Horizon
They were completely unaware that a single Loire 130 was shadowing them - keeping below the horizon some 15 miles astern and only 'popping up' every 3 or 4 minutes to confirm the Cruisers location.
As the sun dipped ever further towards the sea the crew of the shadowing aircraft started to increasingly worry that the strike was late, or it had missed the rendezvous completely.
Less than 40 minutes of day light remained
TBC