Force H and Force K close the door after Graf Spee passes

From 20 November to 2 December, Forces H and K swept through Graf Spee's former cruising and waiting areas near the South Atlantic-Indian Ocean boundary. British planners timed the interception from the raider's earlier cautious pace and carried the fuel needed to hold the search area for several days. Langsdorff instead accelerated back into the Atlantic before the trap closed. The heavy groups were therefore shutting the door after the raider had passed and then turned north just as Graf Spee moved toward South America. Their displacement explains why substantial British forces remained too far away to influence the Battle of the River Plate and shows how an enemy's change of tempo can defeat a logically designed search.