Force K and the Graf Spee search

The carrier dispositions change again as the surface-raider threat spreads across the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Furious covers a Canadian troop convoy, Ark Royal joins Renown and four destroyers in Force K, Hermes operates from Dakar, and Glorious covers the Aden area and then the Indian Ocean. Ark Royal's Swordfish and Skuas search for German commerce raiders, but an aircraft misidentifies the supply ship Altmark and loses the opportunity to stop her. A later sighting goes better when British destroyers take another German merchant ship as a prize. Continued merchant losses confirm that a raider remains active even though the carrier searches do not find it. That pressure helps explain why Ajax, Achilles, and Exeter concentrate near the River Plate, where they encounter Graf Spee.