Which German pocket battleship was scuttled off Montevideo in December 1939?

The German pocket battleship scuttled off Montevideo in December 1939 was Admiral Graf Spee. It had been sent into the South Atlantic before World War II began to attack Allied merchant shipping. Between September and December 1939, it sank nine vessels before meeting the British cruisers HMS Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December.

Although Graf Spee damaged the British ships, it also suffered damage and entered neutral Montevideo for repairs. Under neutrality rules, Uruguay allowed only a limited stay, while British diplomats used misinformation to make German commander Hans Langsdorff believe a much larger British force was waiting outside.

Langsdorff took the ship into the outer roadstead on 17 December and ordered its crew to scuttle it rather than risk capture. Explosives destroyed vital equipment, and the burning wreck remained visible in the shallow water. Langsdorff later committed suicide in Buenos Aires. Graf Spee is sometimes confused with Germany's larger battleships Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Scharnhorst, but it belonged to the distinct Deutschland-class pocket battleships.