"She won’t want to get between Ajax and Achilles... or us."
"Helm – Full stream ahead. Engine room – Give me everything she has. Got to shorten this range."
"Gunnery Officer – Engage the Scheer, as soon as you are able. Fire at will!"
"Signalman – Signal Ajax and Achilles – I am pressing my attack. Can you slow her down or turn her?"
"The Scheer is firing on Ajax... She has her range... Geez... Ajax has taken one in her midships, Sir!"
The Graf Spee turned again in an attempt to thwart her pursuers. Would she turn to face them or flee? (We had decided not to have a floating map, meaning that if any ship moved off the edge they would be considered as have fled the battle.)
The Ajax found herself out of arc, but in turn out of arc too, to the Graf Spee. Her main guns unsurprisingly only caused superficial damage, while the Graf Spee returned fire with her secondaries and while good rolling (getting a total of three), was not enough to cause further damage on the Ajax.
In an effort to spread the damage around the Royal Navy taskforce, The Graf Spee now switched her main guns to the Achilles, that had not taken an active role but was also closing in. The batteries opened fire, and a hit landed on the New Zealand ship.
Each of the Commonwealth ships had now taken damage, while the Graf Spee had managed to avoid being hit. While technically a heavy cruiser because of the calibre of her guns, the Exeter was a scaled-down version of the County class, designed within the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and wasn't as robust as the two Leander class ships accompanying her.
Where would the Graf Spee turn to next?
Next post, turn 4.
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