Kriegsmarine Canadian town honours Graf Spee captain

[peter monahan]

I heard a short piece on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News on Friday: the Ontario town of Ajax, a large munitions manufacturer in WWII and named after H.M.S. Ajax, is re-naming one of it's streets in honour of Hans Langsdorf, captain of the German ship Graf Spee.

The ceremony was to be October 6 and the captain's daughter was to be present. A British member of the Royal Canadian legion, interviewed about it, said he opposed the idea and would not attend the reception to be held at the Legion after the naming. The mayor of Ajax said that the captian had always been careful to ensure the safety of Merchant Navy crews of the ships his cruiser attacked.

No other info. was given on the radio and my morning paper is inexplicably missing, but I thought this might be of interest to the members.

Peter Monahan

[buellmeister]

Interesting to note that there was chivalry amongst enemies...

Edited October 7, 2007 by buellmeister

[Paul R]

Interesting...

[Ed_Haynes]

Yes, interesting. And bizarre.

[Gordon Williamson]

The "slant" you get seems to depend on which report you read.

This one states quite clearly that the Battle of the River Plate Veterans Association "wholeheartedly approved" naming the street after Capt. Langsdorff.

http://www.northumberlandnews.com/northumb...x/article/86797

I read another report which referred to Langsdorff as a "Nazi" commander, but what can you expect with Journo's whose education sems to have come from a combination of Hollywood and Commando comics rather than history books.

If the town which is named for one of the ships that fought in the battle is happy and the River Plate Veterans Association are happy, who cares what some Germano-phobe with a grudge thinks.

[nesredep]

Hello!

Interesting.

Nesredep

[Guest Darrell]

Hood, Alberta.

Guess we'll have to pick a street and rename it Lindemann Avenue

Wierd.