Written and narrated by David Howarth

On 13 December 1939 four ships - the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and three British cruisers, the Exeter, Ajax and Achilles - fought the Battle of the River Plate 250 miles off the coast of South America. For the British it was a spectacular and heart-warming victory. For the Germans the battle was the first link in a chain of events which led a few days later to the blowing up of the Graf Spee just outside Montevideo harbour and the tragic, though honourable, suicide of her captain, Hans Langsdorff.

Just before Christmas last year survivors of the action, from Germany, Britain and New Zealand (Achilles was a ship of the New Zealand navy) went to South America to commemorate together an episode remarkable for the Second World War in that both sides look back on it without the slightest ill-feeling.

This special documentary tells the story of the battle and its after-math, and shows how men who 40 years ago were trying to blow each other to pieces now meet in mutual friendship and respect.