The Most Famous German Pocket Battleship: Admiral Graf Spee

The "Pocket Battleships" were a class of three German heavy cruisers adapted to push the tonnage limits imposed by the Versailles Treaty and mount 11" naval guns with sufficient range to outgun anything they could not outrun. The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, ship number three of that class and the largest of the pocket battleships, was sent into the Atlantic upon the outbreak of World War Two to conduct raids on merchant shipping in the Southern Atlantic. Viewed as a major threat by the Royal Navy, Admiral Graf Spee, captained by Hans Langsdorf (Anglicized spelling, in German spelled Langsdorff) tied up 25 capital ships and cruisers while sinking nine merchant ships displacing over 50,000 tons in aggregate.