W.E.B. Griffin does a nice historical fiction series on the Argentina angle of WWII, including the Graf Spee and the attempted repairs and the O.S.S. interfering. I'm not sure how precisely accurate it is, but it is definitely based on broad historical story.
W.E.B Griffin wouldn't be American can any chance?
It was actually the British Secret Service who managed to convince the Graf Spays Captain that the Royal Navy had a number of battleships waiting for him should he leave. In reality, the battleships were still enroute and a number of days away and the Graf Spay would have only faced a number of smaller ships had she left after 72 hours..
Pete,
A good friend of mine had an aunt who worked at the Brit Embassy at the time.
She was part of the plot.
She went out every day and took pics and notes about the repairs.
Then the info was "sent" to the "battle group.
I have 2 of the pics one of the day before and one of the day she was scuttled
both show radar
The guy's last name was Pepper
Snake
