Battle Of The River Plate: British Film On Youtube

[sergio]

Pinochet, by the way, was a great Anglophile. That probably had a lot to do with his support for Britain during the Falklands War.

 

[germano]

Was the Chilean navy not founded by a Welshman called Cochrane?

This was a barroom chat several years ago in Valparaiso...........

If you are interested in that kind of thing there is a very nice museum in Valparaiso about the whole history of the navy including all about Admiral Cochrane and his role in Chile: http://www.museonaval.cl/

You also have a nice view of the ocean, port and Valparaiso from up there.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

More that Pinochet, Thatcher and Reagan had a shared strong faith in a certain school of economics.

 

[sergio]

Langsdorf is portrayed very sympathetically in the film - he is seen as highly competent, fair, honorable and a gentleman. The British prisoners have great respect for him. He may not have had any idea how horrific Hitler's plans were.

 

[sergio]

More that Pinochet, Thatcher and Reagan had a shared strong faith in a certain school of economics.

Yes, they did -- more or less free market capitalism. In Reagan's case I believe that government actually grew despite the rhetoric. To give the devil his due, Pinochet had a clear economic plan that has worked pretty well. Chile is an internationally respected trading parter, very transparent (at least in the Latin American context). I am not justifying any of Pinochet's human rights abuses however from the economic perspective he has to be given some credit for Chile's economic stability. My impression is that most Chileans know this though they would not want to say so openly in light of Pinochet's bad name with respect to human rights.

 

[sergio]

Hitler lived in Argentina until 1962?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXtFeV2DrMs

 

[HenryNisental]

To Veteran: who says Argentina is a country of blacks and browns? If you affirm this you either never visited the country or you are blind. Argentina is the second whitest country in South America, after little Uruguay. Blacks are almost nonexisting, except for inmigrants from the caribbean or Africa.

 

[germano]

To Veteran: who says Argentina is a country of blacks and browns? If you affirm this you either never visited the country or you are blind. Argentina is the second whitest country in South America, after little Uruguay. Blacks are almost nonexisting, except for inmigrants from the caribbean or Africa.

I think he was referring to the other side of the border.

 

[Matiasba]

To Veteran: who says Argentina is a country of blacks and browns? If you affirm this you either never visited the country or you are blind. Argentina is the second whitest country in South America, after little Uruguay. Blacks are almost nonexisting, except for inmigrants from the caribbean or Africa.

This is a surprise to me. My whole family is Uruguayan, I go there a lot, so I know the country pretty well. Uruguay has, proportionally, more black population than Argentina. You have a lot more black culture, like carnival, the llamadas, a history of drums, slavery, etc coming from neighbour Brazil. Argentina killed its black population in the war against Paraguay, still remain some, but Uruguay has more.

 

[cuore]

so back on the topic, I absolutely reccomend "Tras la estela del Graf Spee" by Enrique Dick (editorial Edivern) . His dad was one of the German prisoners sent to Villa General Belgrano and it's a great first hand testimony. For the ship lovers it has some precise explanations on the technical details and for the history lovers... well, what can I say, amazing. Plus his dad's story before and after the war is just unbelievable.
Another interesting fact is that the author went on a diving expedition round the remains of the ship. There's a chapter about it in the 2009 edition