Few British warships could match the German commerce raider Graf Spee.

The formidable battleship packed one hell of a punch and could roam the oceans at a top speed of 25 knots.

The 10,000-ton vessel had been launched in 1936 and was the pride of Hitler's navy.

When the Second World War erupted three years later, she embarked on a search-anddestroy mission, scanning the Atlantic for vulnerable Allied merchant ships.

Radio officer Bernard Clive McCorry, of 39 Upper High Street, Worthing, knew little of the Graf Spree when he joined the steamship Huntsman at Freetown in Sierra Leone.

The Huntsman sailed on October 10, 1939, and was intercepted just a few days later by the Graf Spee.

McCorry must have feared the worst as the heavily armed cruiser loomed into view. But instead of immediately sending the the steamship to the bottom with a salvo of shells, Commander Hans Langsdorff sent over a boarding party.

The war was still in its infancy and Langsdorff was an old-fashioned, chivalrous officer.

A German sailor thrust a revolver into McCorry's side but he defused the tension by chatting about his memories of Hamburg. McCorry and his shipmates were transferred to a tanker accompanying the Graf Spee, which then blew the Huntsman out of the water.

The prisoners spent six weeks in the hold of the enemy supply vessel. They were allowed one and a quarter hours on deck each day and received half a basin of brackish water a day for washing.

They were fed herring, German sausage, bread, butter and jam, and broke up the monotony by playing cards and chatting.

On November 28, McCorry was transferred back on to the Graf Spee, where 61 prisoners were confined to a small messroom.

They passed the time listening to music blasting from a powerful loudspeaker or, in the evening, from the ship's band.

McCorry was put in solitary confinement for 24 hours when he was caught smoking but then, on December 13, three allied cruisers, the Exeter, Ajax and Achilles, appeared on the horizon.

The Exeter was seriously damaged in the opening minutes of the exchange and most of the officers on the bridge were killed.

But the Graf Spee was also taking hits and the stricken warship turned towards Montevideo, harassed by the Ajax and Achilles.

McCorry was lucky to escape death when shrapnel from a British shell penetrated the mess room but he and his fellow prisoners showed remarkable coolness under "friendly fire".

He later recalled: "I shaved, because I had been told that the best thing was to try to avoid sitting still and doing nothing at a time like this.

"We began to get used to the recoil (of the guns) after a time and at about nine o'clock we got fed up with it and went to bed.

"At midnight a German officer came in and said 'Gentlemen, for you the war is over. We are now entering Montevideo harbour.'

I thought I was dreaming."

The prisoners had to wait for another 48 hours before discovering their fate.

McCorry said: "In the end they gave us 20 minutes to get ready to go. We were all ready in ten."

Chile was a neutral country and it gave Langsdorff four days to repair his ship, which had suffered 15 hits, with 37 crewmen killed and 50 injured.

Meanwhile, the reinforced British squadron was waiting for the final showdown in international waters.

Hitler demanded the Graf Spee sail out to meet them but Langsdorff knew it was a suicide mission and rather than sacrifice his crew, he ordered the evacuation and scuppering of the ship, infuriating the Fuhrer.

It was 8.54pm on December 17 when the pride of the German fleet went to the bottom. A few days later, Langsdorff shot himself.

McCorry was repatriated, returning home in early January, much to the delight of his 83-yearold mother, and his sister, who for a time thought he was dead.

He wed Miss Eileen Glover, of 10 Mersham Gardens, Goring, in March 1940 but the marriage was apparently shortlived. McCorry was killed a short while later and his name can today be seen on the memorial in Chapel Road.

However, there are still people in the town who say McCorry survived the war and that the memorial inscription is a mistake.