Word: spee
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...join the U. S. with the 20 other American Republics in protesting to France, Germany and Great Britain against violations of the 300-mile safety zone, established by the Declaration of Panama last October. Because a naval battle was fought off the coast of Uruguay, because the Admiral Graf Spee took refuge in Montevideo and was scuttled on the River Plate, because a German merchant ship was sunk within the zone, the American republics warned the belligerents that they were going to consult "in order to strengthen the system of protection...
When the Nazi Admiral Graf Spee limped into Montevideo harbor last week to bury its dead, patch up, await orders, NBC-RCA's representative there, Bill Clark, signed up his friend Jimmy Bowen to keep watch on her. Jimmy, who had once broadcast a Montevideo opera opening for NBC, found himself with a microphone, headphones, and the job of periodically reporting the comings & goings of the Spec's officers, the feverish activities of her men, the vague rumors that drifted down to the docks...
Sunday afternoon, at 3:45 p.m. E.S.T., Jimmy came on the air to report that the Graf Spee was weighing anchor. At 5:15, he was on again, to report that the Spee had steamed out into the Plata Estuary. Before leaving, she had transferred many of her men to the Nazi cargo steamer, Tacoma. "The commander," Jimmy hazarded, "may try to scuttle the ship about five miles out." He was covering, he said, from a dock, in the midst of a crowd. "They are doing a lot of talking," he shouted. NBC cut him off the network...
Network programs going over 175 stations were cut off; programs on the NBC international short-wave stations (WNBI and WRCA) were silenced. Then Jimmy's voice, without a splutter or a wasted word, told the world: "We have just seen the Graf Spee explode five miles off the coast: the ship has been scuttled...
...have just received information here which is not official, and will possibly need a long time to be confirmed . . . that the explosion of the Graf Spee was done at the dictation of Mr. Hitler. Absolutely...