Admiral Graf Spee fits the heavy-cruiser category despite her unusually large guns, which makes the popular pocket-battleship label misleading. Her diesel machinery could not sustain the kind of high-speed escape expected of a battleship. Exeter and the Leanders demonstrate how distributed cruiser squadrons could police trade routes, hunt raiders, and threaten enemy merchant shipping across distant stations. The River Plate action resembles the cruiser sea-denial campaign the Royal Navy had anticipated before the war.
Chapter · 17:32-23:59
River Plate validates cruiser sea-denial doctrine
The Battle of the River Plate shows modern cruisers locating and defeating a surface raider much as British doctrine anticipated.