Apologies to Collegaues11 Sep 2018 23:33
I am very for my broken message. I experienced a failure on my keyboard and had to wait for my son to fix it.
I simply wanted to say Captain Bell was Captain on HMS Exeter during the Battle of the River Plate, several of his officers were killed when shells from the Graf Spee blew away most of the bridge of Exeter Commodore Yarwood, in command of the South Atlantic Squadron, ordered Exeter to withdraw from the battle after receiving a great deal of damage. The ship was repaired later and served in the fight against Japan in the Pacific, where it was sunk. Captain who been in command at the river plate was still captain when it sank, and was captured by the enemy. He was badly treated and wrote about his terrible experiences. A Lt. Commander, a replacement officer on Exeter wrote about the captain, his ship and crew, and their experiences. Quite harrowing. - Yours, Max.