Posted on 09/25/2007 7:06:58 PM PDT by Stoat
This scale model of World War II German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is 9m (30ft) long and weighs 320kg (700lb).
It took creator William Terra six years to build and cost £5,000. Made from wood strips and fibreglass, the Spee can reach speeds of 15mph, thanks to its 11.2Kw engine.
It also plays music by German composer Richard Wagner through an in-built stereo, said former fire officer Mr Terra, 65, from Maine, US.
LOL
Actually I was thinking it could probably sink half the French fleet.
Sure this guy's name isn't Otto?
hehe! Unfortunately, none of the included photos of Mr. Terra are good enough for me to get a sense of whether there is a family resemblance or not :-)
heh heh heh
That’s a great book.
El Pingo going out to the list right away.
awwww....thank you so much for your very kind words....I'm delighted that you're liking it, and I hope that everyone else will also :-)
And thank you for pinging your list as well :-)
MANY moons ago I saw this film on late-night television.
As best I can recall, it was a pretty good flick, with Peter Finch
playing Capt. Langsdorff.
Too bad it’s only available in Region 2 format DVD (at least at amazon)
The Battle of the River Plate
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048990/
Holy Cow!
I'm sorry to disappoint :-)
It does indeed seem strange that he didn't destroy such a valuable and secret piece of equipment....perhaps there was no time to do it?
Perhaps he thought that the scuttling of the vessel would destroy it as well?
Lots of pictures of the real version here:
http://www.deutschland-class.dk/admiral_graf_spee/gallery/gallgrafspeemontevideo.html
I would imagine that Mr. Terra is the most popular man in the county on hot summer days when he is out puttering around in his battleship; both among kids as well as many adults.
LMAO!
I'm guessing that Mr. Terra's neighbors are particularly nice to him when he is out cruising in his battleship, as they have no desire to appear in his gunsights :-)
((((snicker))))
Thank you for the link. Too bad, though, that the one photo of the model doesn't provide much detail. It's rather strange, considering that the model is described as being 'the centerpiece' of the museum.
Seriously, though. The Admiral Graf Spee was not a battleship. It was a large cruiser given 11-inch guns. Basically, it was an redo of a concept used in pre-dreadnought armored cruisers.
The "pocket battleships" were useless accept as commerce raider. Facing real british cruisers, the Graf Spee was forced to retreat after a hard battle and the captain then had the ship scuttled.
WOW! Thank you so much for the links. Much better photos, and a much better perspective of scale as well....immense!
Very impressive.
I know that the Admirals and the strategists who know far more about war than I do feel that the days of the great battleship are over, but I can’t help missing the graceful lines, the massive firepower, and the decisive results they can have in certain kinds of warfare.
Even in
Interesting that they would equip the ISS Yamato as it was on her suicide run, rather than at her prime. Originally, she had 12 (4x3) 6.1” guns and 12 (6x2) 5” dual purpose guns. However in 1945, she had been upgraded for air defense with 2 tripple 6” mounts removed to make room for an additional 3 5” dual turrets. (Of course against 386 aircraft, she was doomed.)
That’s very interestng, thank you very much. I regret that I’m no authority on this sort of thing, and I apologize for using incorrect terminology.
I’ve seen bigger ones.
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