The Arado Ar-196 floatplane was one of the best aircraft of WW2 that served as the "Eyes of the Kriegsmarine" but like so many other promising aircraft was under-produced and under-utilized. Most historians pass over the facts that this aircraft could have saved both the Admiral Graf Spee and Bismarck. My parody deals with Graf Spee which was one of the first German warships to receive the new floatplane in 1939. Having set out in Aug 1939, the Graf Spee carrried the first model on a catapult- an Arado Ar-196A-1 armed with 2x 20mm MG FF cannon in the wings plus a rear gunner MG-17. It had provision to also carry 2x 250 kg bombs. On Dec 13, 1939 Graf Spee encountered 3 less powerful cruisers of the RN. Captain Langsdorff SHOULD have launched the Ar-196 to act as fire support for her 280mm guns while steaming away from harm but chose not to and went to engage head-on. The first British salvo hit the Spee's catapult and destroyed the Ar-196. After a brief encounter with some damage the Graf Spee put into Montevideo's neutral port and hoped to make repairs. But the Uruguyans did not want to support the Germans and she was ordered out of their waters. Fearing a large group of superior forces waiting, the Graf Spee was scuttled and Captain Langsdorff shot himself. With Bismarck, had the two Ar-196A-4s been launched earlier, they could have drove away or shot-down the Catalina that spotted the ship which called for the Swordfish attack that crippled her rudder and rendered her paralyzed. Ar-196s went on to kill aircraft in coastal areas and also captured Brit submarine HMS Seal early in the war on the surface. It was the last operational floatplane in the ETO. 541 produced.