Occasionally I pop onto the EBay website and see what is about and a couple of days ago I came across this by putting in the search - Battle of the River Plate
WHY ? Well one of my relatives Albert Bowers was on HMNZS Achilles during to battle when eventually the German 'raider' Graf Spee was defeated. The document was an official record of the accounts of the battle, so I though bid on it. Well I won it and it is a fascinating read, when they talk about engaging the enemy at * 11 miles * and actually hitting each other with deady accuracy.
So what is the point of of this Blog - Well I started doing some more research on the internet and found that since my initial research a few years ago, a lot of people have posted article on the NET. So much so I have been able to find a more detailed record of the history of Achilles and even the crew names in 1939. And yes Albert was mentioned - Bowers - Albert - C/MX47257 -Sick Berth P.O. It was also interesting to find out that 60% of the ships company was made up from the British Navy, the rest being native New Zealanders..... Hence why Albert was on board...
What started out as an EBay purchased developed into a lengthy Facebook chat with relatives around the world and also finding new reference web sites that I can now share via this blog.
I will keep researching as it is the 75th Anniversary this year
History of HMNZS Archilles
Photograph courtesy of naval history.net
HMS Archilles by Walter Henry Kivell
HMS AJAX Association - Crew Names found on this site
The 1943 Explosion at Portsmouth
