MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“D” day for Graf Spee range finder

The operation to recover a vital piece of the sunken World War Two German pocket battleship Graf Spee resting in shallow waters of the River Plate is scheduled to begin this Monday.

Hector Bado head of the private recovery operation said that everything is in place ready for the recovery with the needed steel cables now attached to parts of the ship but "we still are dependent of wind conditions".

The Admiral Graf Spee has rested in eight meters deep water a few miles away from the port of Montevideo, Uruguay, since she was scuttled in December 1939 following a key naval engagement at the beginning of World War Two.

The operation will go ahead with the support of the Uruguayan Navy and a 100 tons crane that should be sufficient to pull out the 27 tons, 10,5 metres long range finder, an optical all weather state of the art piece for its time, most feared by the Royal Navy.

The Admiral Graf Spee was finally scuttled by Captain Hans Langdorff who feared loosing the vessel in battle with a larger Falklands based, British flotilla that had cornered him into the River Plate.

Mr. Bado's team includes Captain Braida experienced in this type of operations in the River Plate, marine archaeologist from Oxford University Mensum Bound and Thomas Schmidt an expert in the German Navy.

Several German journalists have been spending time in Montevideo waiting for the crucial D Monday.

Mr. Schmidt in a press conference last week said that recovering the range finder is the first of several operations that should conclude with the re-floating of the pocket battleship.

The second target is recovering the vessel's main tower and further on the hull if it can be brought up.

The whole operation is estimated will take at least three years.