Exposition commémorative de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale de l'université de Toronto

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H.M.S. AJAX

The first major sea battle of the second World
War, began at 0617 hours, December 13, 1939,
when the German pocket battleship, Admiral
Graf Spee, opened fire on three Royal Navy
cruisers prowling the main sea lanes off the River
Plate in the South Atlantic.

Although outgunned by the Graf Spee, Com-
modore Harwood, on board the H.M.S Ajax, a
light cruiser, returned the fire. Both sides received
heavy shelling and by 0740 hours with all guns
out of action, the heavy cruiser, H.M.S. Exeter
was forced to return to the Falkland Islands.

H.M.S. Ajax, with two turrets out of action,
along with the light cruiser H.M.S Achilles,
broke off, while the Graf Spee headed for the
neutral harbour of Montevideo, Uruaguay, under
its own smoke screen, to lick its wounds.

Unable to receive proper repair in Montevideo,
and learning that H.M.S. Cumberland, a heavy
cruiser, had joined Harwood’s tiny flotilla by
December 16, 1939, Captain Langsdorf of Graf
Spee, made the decision to scuttle Graf Spee at
the mouth of Montevideo Harbour, rather than
deliver it into British hands.

H.M.S. Ajax
(Leander Class) Data
Length 522 ft.
Displacement 6,985 tons

Main Armament
8- 6 inch guns
8- 4 inch AA guns
8- 2 pdr. pompoms
8- 21 inch torpedo tubes

The abandoned shell filling plant of Ajax, Ontario
was used to absorb the large Post War II influx of
veteran U. of T. Engineering students.

The town was named after H.M.S. Ajax.

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AJAX CREST

This crest of HMS Ajax whose memorable part
in the battle of the River Plate on the 13th December, 1939
is especially honoured by the 5000 engineering
students who were enrolled at Ajax Ontario
1946-49, was presented by the Admiralty to
the University of Toronto on Remembrance Day,
11th November, 1948.

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ROCK OF AJAX

This stone commemorates the special efforts made by
the University of Toronto to accommodate the veterans
returning from World War II.

Fifty-five hundred first and second year Engineering students
attended classes at the University’s first satellite campus in a
converted shell-filling plant at Ajax, Ontario 1946-1949.




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ROCK OF AJAX