The Honor of Spies

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By August 1943, the United States of America had been in the Second World War for twenty months.

England had been at war for four years, since 1 September 1939, when--a week after German leader Adolf Hitler signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union--Germany launched its Blitzkrieg ("Lightning War") against Poland.

England and France declared war.

By 6 October 1939, Poland had fallen and was divided between the Soviet Union and Germany. "The Phony War" followed, with the belligerents taking little--virtually no--action against each other.

One significant exception to this occurred two months later, when, on 13 December 1939, Royal Navy cruisers engaged the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the Atlantic coast of South America and forced the damaged ship to seek refuge in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Diplomatic pressure (largely from the United States, although this was denied at the time) on Uruguay forced that small country to insist on following international law, which required belligerent vessels to leave sanctuary ports within seventy-two hours. On 17 December, Captain Hans Langsdorff, to save further loss of life in a battle he knew he could not win, scuttled the Graf Spee just outside the mouth of the Montevideo harbor. He then went to Argentina, buried his dead, made arrangements for the internment of his crew--and then shot himself in the temple, arranging that event so his body would fall on the German navy battle flag.

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