78 years ago, the British won a surprise victory over Nazi Germany in the first major naval battle of World War II

(AP Photo)

Twenty-four hours after explosions scuttled it on December 17, 1939, the German pocket battleship Graf Spee had settled almost to the waterline a few miles outside the neutral harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. This view shows the buckled stern which crumpled from force of the explosion and the heat.

World War II got off to a bad start for the British.

About two weeks after Poland surrendered to Germany at the end of September - succumbing to a month of the Nazi blitzkrieg - the British battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk by a U-boat, claiming more than 800 British sailors.

That was followed in short order by the first German air raid on the UK, targeting ships at the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

(AP Photo)

British sailors get autographs from Winston Churchill, who mingled with men from the cruisers Ajax and Exeter in London, February 23, 1940.

At the end of November, German mining of British waters intensified after claiming several merchant ships.

Weeks later, on December 12, the British Royal Navy suffered another setback, as the destroyer HMS Duchess collided with the battleship HMS Barham. The Duchess was cut in half and only 23 of its 160 crew members survived.

But the Royal Navy recorded a spirit-lifting victory just days later, after British ships cornered the imposing German warship Graf Spee off the coast of South America, defeating it in the first major naval battle of World War II.

The Graf Spee was much larger than any of the British ships pursuing it. Despite doing considerable damage to them, however, it was unable to fend them off.

Winston Churchill called the battle a "brilliant sea fight [that] warmed the cockles of British hearts."

Here's how the Allies won: