The Price of Disobedience: The Battle of the River Plate Reconsidered

by Eric J. Grove

Renowned naval scholar Eric Grove reassesses the first British naval encounter of World War II--the Battle of the River Plate. In late 1939, a force from the Royal Navy engaged the German battleship Graf Spee , which had been raiding commercial shipping in the southwest Atlantic. Though the Graf Spee was outnumbered, it inflicted serious damage to the British ships before taking refuge in the harbor at Montivideo, Uruguay. Four days later her commander, assuming a much superior force waited for him, scuttled his ship and then committed suicide. This controversial story of risk and naval strategy has been told before, but Grove has unearthed previously unpublished sources to provide a definitive account of the battle and throw new light on the motivation of the Graf Spee 's captain. A thought-provoking book, it will attract naval historians and others with an interest in World War II.

182 pages, Hardcover

First published October 23, 2000

About the author

Eric John Grove (1948-2021) was a British naval historian and defence analyst.

Reviews

[Alex]

Excellent, with new information about the battle of the river plate, it's made clear why Langsdorff made the decisions he did which led to the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Von Spee.

[Dave]

If you only read one book on the Battle of the River Plate this year, make it this one!