Shrapnel from the 'Graff Spee ' - 360 Rotation view.
A small piece of an
11inch shell fired from the German commerce raiding pocket battle ship Graff Spee, which hit
the 6inch gunned British light cruiser HMS Ajax, during the Battle of the River Plate
in 1939.
It was presented to my mother Audrey, when my father to be Royal Marine
Frank Harris returned to the UK, after his ship HMS Ajax finished its South
Atlantic tour of duty. This object is a small splinter - known as shrapnel -
from the complete eleven inch Graff Spee shell, after it had exploded upon
hitting one of the rear turrets on the Ajax. It is incredibly heavy for its size and after more
than 70 years, this metal still has no rust.
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Battle of the River Plate
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