north-east to spread Graf Spees fire. Graf Spee opened fire on Exeter at with her six guns at 06:18. Exeter opened fire at 06:20, Achilles at 06:21, Exeters aft guns at 06:22 and Ajax at 06:23. Lieutenant-Commander Richard Jennings, Exeters gunnery officer remembers: As I was crossing the compass platform [to his Action Station in the Director Control Tower], the captain hailed me, not with the usual rigmarole of "Enemy in sight, bearing, etc", but with "There's the fucking Scheer! Open fire at her!" Throughout the battle the crew of the Exeter thought they were fighting the [sister ship] Scheer. But the name of the enemy ship was of course the Graf Spee. From her opening salvo, Graf Spee'''s gunfire proved fairly accurate, her third salvo straddling Exeter. At 06:23, a shell burst just short of Exeter, abreast the ship. Splinters from this shell killed the torpedo tubes' crews, damaged the ship's communications, riddled the ship's funnels and searchlights and wrecked the ship's Walrus aircraft, just as it was about to be launched for gunnery spotting. Three minutes later, Exeter suffered a direct hit on her "B" turret, putting it and its two guns out of action. Shrapnel swept the bridge, killing or wounding all bridge personnel except the captain and two others. Captain Bell's communications were wrecked. Communications from the aft conning position were also destroyed; the ship had to be steered via a chain of messengers for the rest of the battle. Meanwhile, Ajax and Achilles closed to and started making in front of Graf Spee, causing her to split her main armament at 06:30 and otherwise use her guns against them. Shortly after, Exeter fired two torpedoes from her starboard tubes but both missed. At 06:37, Ajax launched her Fairey Seafox spotter floatplane from her catapult. At 06:38, Exeter turned so that she could fire her port torpedoes and received two more direct hits from shells. One hit "A" turret and put it out of action, the other entered the hull and started fires. At this point, Exeter was severely damaged, having only "Y" turret still in action under "local" control, with Jennings on the roof shouting instructions to those inside. She also had a 7° list, was being flooded and being steered with the use of her small boat's compass. However, Exeter dealt the decisive blow; one of her 8-inch shells had penetrated two decks before