After the battle, the ship was moored in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The country was neutral in the conflict, but Britain had a notable political influence on it. The Graf Spee would have needed two weeks to be repaired, but it was only allowed to stay in Montevideo for 72 hours.
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Captain Hans Langsdorff had considered the life of his crew more important than a mission that would have been a suicide and had no effect in the course of the war.