Graf Spee driven off!

During February of 1942 the British faced increasing air and submarine attacks from axis forces off the south western approaches of the British Isles. In response the admiralty ordered that shipping approaching the UK was escorted at all times. By this time the allies had still not employed full convoy operations on their atlantic operations, because up until now, although the u-boat threat had always been there, the axis had never truly committed to "total" war. Now with the US involved, the gloves came off.

On 23rd February the German navy and air force combined their efforts in combing the western approaches. In a daring move the Admiral Graf Spee, who had narrowly avoided destruction in 1939, now put to sea to search for convoys, while in the skies near Brittany Stuka dive bombers were scrambled as a pair of merchantmen, escorted by a British cruiser and trio of destroyers. The Graf Spee homed in on her targets, but the Luftwaffe got their first. They bombed both merchant vessels but were harrassed by the British escorts and failed to concentrate their attacks. Bombs hit both merchant vessels, but the Germans lost a number of aircraft. By the time the pocket battleship arrived the Stukas were out of ammunition and heading home.In an effort to protect her charges the light cruiser Persephone charged the Graf Spee while the destroyers were defending the merchantmen from air attack. She suffered minor damage and scored a couple of minor hits on the far larger German vessel, before turning away behind a smoke screen. The Graf Spee was now in range of the merchant vessels, but with the aircraft heading back to base, the British turned their torpedo armed destroyers towards the german surface raider, approaching the Graf Spee at speed from behind the Persephone's smoke screen. Unwilling to risk his ship, captain Langsdorff turned for Brest as soon as he saw the destroyers approaching, and the British never completed their attack run. The British press made much of the German pocket battleship being "scared off" by three destroyers, but their victory was more a propaganda coup than anything material.