This is a fascinating book about the first major sea battle of the Second World War involving the German Navy and the British Navy.

The Panzerschiff ("pocket battleship") Admiral Graf Spee was a lightly armored German vessel--larger than a cruiser, but smaller than a battleship--built under the weight constraints of the Versailles Treaty following the First World War. She was of 12,100 tons displacement,powered by 8 Mann Diesel Engines of 54,000 shaft horsepower, and boasted six 11 inch rifles(cannon), eight 5.9 inch, six 4.1 inch, eight 37 millimeter and eight 21 inch torpedo tubes. In addition she carried two Arado scouting seaplanes.

Graf Spee was built as a commerce raider, and had orders not to engage enemy battle vessels, even if they were inferior. Her captain, Hans Langsdorff, was an old navy man who believed deeply in the code of honor exemplified by the man whose name the ship bore.

As a commerce raider, Graf Spee was very successful, and in only a few short months was responsible for sinking over 50,000 tons of allied shipping; however, Langsdorff had an appreciation for the value of human life and always allowed the crews of the vessels he sank to escape before he sank their ship. Indeed, he took them captive on Graf Spee, and trans-shipped them to his supply vessel for transportation home.

But Langsdorff and the Graf Spee's luck was about to run out off the east coast of South America. On December 13, 1939, Graf Spee ran into a flotilla of British heavy warships,who were hunting her: the cruisers Exeter, Achilles and Ajax.In the ensuing fight, with her heavier guns, Graf Spee nearly destroyed Exeter, who was forced to retreat to the Falkland Island; however, she was badly mauled because orf her light armor plating and forced to retreat to a harbor for repairs that could not be made at sea. So, Langsdorff took her up the Plate River to Montevideo, Uruguay, a neutral port, where he hoped to make repairs.

The Uruguayan government, however, was friendly with the British and gave Langsdorff an ultimatum: leave Montevideo within 24 hours or have the vessel interned.

So Langsdorff, faced with a superior force augmented by the arrival of another heavy cruiser, the Cumberland, and limited sea room to fight his way out due to his deep draft and the shallow waters, chose to scuttle. He trans-shipped his crew to the German freighter S.S. Tacoma, and scuttled Graf Spee in international waters. He then shot himself, after he saw his crew safely to Argentina, which was more friendly to Germany than was Uruguay.

My interest in this book is enhanced by the fact that I was a crew member on the 8,000 ton freighter S.S. Tacoma, in 1945, after it had been captured and leased to the U.S. War Shipping Administration. I was a fireman aboard her, at the tender age of 16.

This is a compelling book, and one which gives another view of the German Navy than we were given during that period. At least some of their men were, as the title says, Men of Honor.

Exceptionally well-written (and just as exemplary, by the way, as author Brown does with Britain's analogue "C") and informative. Superb on WWII OSS operations in Europe. Author Brown explains much of what didn't already know, and fills-in wonderfully where we do.

Not short on pages, it captivates for just about every one of them.

What was the understanding then? That Hoover feared no one? You may disclose otherwise.

Good man, that Donovan. Good too, Brown, for work well done.

This author lost 3 of his own children and speaks with the experience of one who really knows.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Great book about the leading.