German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee
An item referred to the magazine Marine Rundschau dated June 1938 reporting that the British Royal Navy was not prepared against the large number of heavy armed merchant raiders am future enemy could sent towards sea.(1) The available destroyers and gunboat-escort vessels were no match for the raiders and there were for cruisers to be built especially for escort tasks.
Note
1. For instance Germany with her so-called pocket battleships later called heavy cruisers of the Deutschland-class. The Admiral Graf Spee destroyed 9 merchant ships and was hunted by the French and British navies with battleships, a battle cruiser, aircraft carriers and a large number of cruisers. She was involved in the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December 1939 fighting with 3 cruisers which damaged her but which were on their turn damaged. The Germans scuttled their ship believing that the British were underway with heavy naval forces. Her main armament consisted of 2x3-28cm/11” guns. Her heaviest opponent in the Battle was the British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter with a main armament of just 3x2-20,3cm/8” guns! The other HMNSZ Achilles (4x2-15,2cm/16” guns) and HMS Ajax (4x2-15,2cm/16” guns) were Leander-class light cruisers.
