Following a raider-warning radio message from the merchantman Doric Star, which was sunk by Admiral Graf Spee off South Africa, Harwood suspected that the raider would try to strike next at the merchant shipping off the River Plate estuary between Uruguay and Argentina. He ordered his squadron to steam toward the position 32° south, 47° west. Harwood chose that position, according to his despatch, because it was the most congested part of the shipping routes in the South Atlantic and therefore the point at which a raider could do the most damage to enemy shipping. A Norwegian freighter saw Admiral Graf Spee practising the use of her searchlights and radioed that her course was toward South America, the three available cruisers of Force G rendezvoused off the estuary on 12 December and conducted manoeuvres.
Following a raider-warning radio message from the merchantman Doric Star which was sunk by Admiral Graf Spee off South Africa, Harwood suspected that the raider would try to strike next at the merchant shipping off the River Plate estuary between Uruguay and Argentina He ordered his squadron to steam toward the position 32° south, 47° west. Harwood chose that position, according to his despatch because it was the most congested part of the shipping routes in the South Atlantic and therefore the point at which a raider could do the most damage to enemy shipping. A, Norwegia.n freighter saw Admiral Graf Spee practising the use of her searchlights and radioed that her course was toward, South America, the three available cruisers of Force G rendezvoused off the estuary on 12 December and conducted manoeuvres.