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Career	Kriegsmarine Jack
Ordered:	25 January 1934
Laid down:	15 June 1935
Launched:	3 October 1936
Commissioned:	7 January 1939
Fate:	Sunk in the Battle of North Cape on 26 December 1943
General characteristics
Displacement:	31,552 tonnes (standard) 38,900 tonnes (full load)
Length:	235.4 m (772.3 ft) overall 229.8 m (753.9 ft) waterline
Beam:	30 m (98.4 ft)
Draft:	9.93 m (32.5 ft) at 37,500 long tons (38,100 tonnes)
Armament:	9 × 283 mm (11.1 inch) 12 × 150 mm (5.9 inch) 14 × 105 mm (4.1 inch) 16 × 37 mm 10 × 20 mm (later 38) 6 × 533 mm (21 inch) torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	3 Arado Ar196A-3, 1 catapult
Propulsion:	3 Brown-Boveri geared turbines; 3 three-bladed propellers, 4.8 m (15.75 ft) diameter; 161,164 shp (120.18 MW) = 33 kt
Range:	10,100 nm at 19 kt (18,700 km at 35 km/h)
Complement:	1,968 (60 officers, 1909 enlisted)

'''Scharnhorst''' was a famous World War II 31,500 tonne ''Gneisenau'' class battlecruiser^[1] of the German Kriegsmarine, named after the Prussian general and army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst and to commemorate the World War I armoured cruiser SMS ''Scharnhorst'' that was sunk in the Battle at the Falkland Islands in December 1914. The ''Scharnhorst'' usually sailed into battle accompanied by her sistership, the equally famous ''Gneisenau''.

Contents

The sisters - ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau''

The war begins

Sisters creating havoc

The 'Channel Dash'

The sinking of ''Scharnhorst''

Commanding Officers

References

Bibliography

External links

The sisters - ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau''

The ship was built at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, launched on 3 October 1936, and commissioned on 7 January 1939. The first commander was Otto Ciliax (until 23 September 1939). After initial service, she was modified in mid-1939, with a new mainmast located further aft and her straight bow replaced by an "Atlantic bow" to improve her seaworthiness. However, her relatively low freeboard ensured that she was always "wet" when at heavy seas. The gunnery report after the engagement with HMS ''Renown'' reports serious flooding in the "A" turret that severely reduced its effectiveness. Her armour was equal to that of a battleship and if it hadn't been for her relatively small-calibre guns she would have been classified as a battleship by the British. The German navy always classified ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' as ''Schlachtschiffe'' (battleships). These two ships, considered handsome and fast (with a top speed of 31.5 knots), were invariably mentioned at the same time, often fondly being referred to as "the ugly sisters" because they prowled together and wrought havoc on British shipping.
''Scharnhorst's nine 28 cm (11 inch; in fact 283 mm - 11.1 inch), main guns, though possessing long range and quite good armor-penetration power because of their high muzzle velocity, were no match for the larger caliber guns of most of the battleships of her day, particularly with the flooding and technical problems that were experienced. The choice of armament was a result of their hasty commissioning.

If a later proposal to upgrade the main armament to six 15 inch (380 mm) guns in three twin turrets had been implemented, ''Scharnhorst'' would have been a very formidable opponent, faster than any British capital ship and nearly as well armored. But due to priorities and constraints imposed by World War II and later the war situation, she retained her 11 inch guns throughout her career. Both ''Scharnhorst'' and her sister were designed for an extended range to allow for commerce raiding.

The war begins

''Scharnhorst's first wartime operation was a sweep into the Iceland-Faroes passage in late November 1939 with ''Gneisenau'' in which she sank the British Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS ''Rawalpindi''. In the spring of 1940, ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' covered the invasion of Norway. They engaged the British battlecruiser ''Renown'' on 9 April 1940, with no conclusive results.
They sank the British aircraft carrier HMS ''Glorious'' and her escorting destroyers ''Acasta'' and ''Ardent'' on 8 June at around 64 degrees N off Norway. In this action, ''Scharnhorst'' was hit by one of four torpedoes launched by ''Acasta''. Fifty sailors were killed. She was further damaged by a bomb a few days later and was under repair for most of the rest of 1940. In late December 1940, ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' attempted to pass through the British blockade into the north Atlantic shipping lanes, but turned back when ''Gneisenau'' was damaged by heavy seas.

Sisters creating havoc

Main articles: Operation Berlin

From 22 January until 22 March 1941, ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' operated in the Atlantic under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens. On 3 February they broke through the Denmark Strait and the next day reached southern Greenland. Convoy HX-106 was attacked on 8 February, but the attack was broken off when the Royal Navy battleship HMS ''Ramillies'' was sighted. Twelve days later, on 22 February, four Allied merchant ships were sighted and sunk east of Newfoundland. By operating in a region of the Atlantic where British air cover was weak to non-existent, the German ships managed to elude the Royal Navy and between the 7th and 9th of March they attacked convoy SL-67, only breaking off the attack when the battleship HMS ''Malaya'' was sighted. An unescorted convoy of tankers was attacked south-east of Newfoundland on 15 March, and the next day another mixed convoy was detected and attacked with the sinking of 13 ships, 4 by the ''Scharnhorst''. This was the last engagement before the battlecruisers entered the French port of Brest on 22 March. The ''Scharnhorst'' sank 8 ships with total tonage of 49,300 out of the squadron's total of 22 ships with a combined tonage of 115,600^[2].

The 'Channel Dash'

Main articles: Operation Cerberus

Whilst in Brest, the German ships were the targets of repeated, but poorly organised and somewhat rushed air attacks. In July 1941 the ''Scharnhorst'' sailed to the port of La Rochelle to the south of Brest. Having been alerted to the sailing via aerial reconnaissance and the French Resistance, the Allies were concerned that the ''Scharnhorst'' was about to commence raiding. They therefore mounted a raid of 15 Handley Page Halifax bombers from RAF Stanton Harcourt. The resulting bomb damage was serious enough to cause a large amount of water to be taken on-board. This forced the ''Scharnhorst'' to return once more to Brest for repairs. The resulting damage from this and other raids, together with the troubles with the defective boiler superheater tubes, kept ''Scharnhorst'' non-operational into late 1941, when it was decided to send the two battlecruisers and the heavy cruiser ''Prinz Eugen'' back to Germany. Since it was too risky to attempt this via the North Atlantic, on 11 February–13 February 1942, the three big ships, escorted by dozens of minesweepers and other small craft, made a daring dash — the "Channel Dash" — through the English Channel, called Operation Cerberus, to reach Germany. Caught off guard and under heavy German radar jamming, the British were unable to stop the ships with air and surface attacks, though both ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' were damaged by mines, ''Scharnhorst'' hitting two mines, off Flushing and Ameland, ''Gneisenau'' one mine off Terschelling.
Repair work and grounding kept ''Scharnhorst'' out of action until March 1943, when she went to northern Norway to join the battleship ''Tirpitz'' and other German ships threatening the Arctic convoys' route to the Soviet Union. Training exercises over the next several months climaxed in a bombardment of Spitzbergen on 8 September 1943, together with the ''Tirpitz''.

The sinking of ''Scharnhorst''

Main articles: Battle of North Cape

On Christmas day 1943, ''Scharnhorst'' and several destroyers, under the command of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Erich Bey, put to sea with the purpose of attacking the Russia-bound Arctic convoys JW 55B and RA 55A north of Norway. Unfortunately for the Germans, their orders had been decoded by the British codebreakers and the Admiralty were able to direct their forces to intercept. The next day, in heavy weather and unable to locate the convoy, Bey detached the destroyers and sent them south, leaving ''Scharnhorst'' alone. Less than two hours later, the ship encountered the convoy's escort force of the cruisers HMS ''Belfast'', ''Norfolk'', and ''Sheffield''. ''Belfast'' had picked up ''Scharnhorst'' at 08:40 and 35,000 yards using her Type 273 radar and by 09:41, ''Sheffield'' had made visual contact. Under cover of snow, the British cruisers opened fire. ''Belfast'' attempted to illuminate ''Scharnhorst'' with starshell, but was unsuccessful. ''Norfolk'', however, opened fire using her radar to spot the fall of shot and scored two hits. One of these demolished ''Scharnhorst's main radar aerial, disabling the set and leaving her unable to return accurate fire in low visibility. ''Norfolk'' suffered minor damage.
In order to try to get around the cruisers to the convoy, Bey ordered ''Scharnhorst'' to take a southeast course away from the cruisers. In the late afternoon, the convoy's covering force, including the British battleship HMS ''Duke of York'', made contact and opened fire. Despite suffering the loss of its hangar and a turret, ''Scharnhorst'' temporarily increased its distance from its pursuers. The ''Duke of York'' caught up again and fired again - the second salvo wrecked the "A" turret, detonating the charges in "A" magazine which led to the same in "B" magazine. Partial flooding of the magazines quenched the explosions. No Royal Navy ship received any serious damage, though the flagship was frequently straddled, and one of her masts was smashed by an 11 inch shell. At 18:00 ''Scharnhorst's'' main battery went silent; at 18:20 another round from ''Duke of York'' destroyed a boiler room, reducing ''Scharnhorst's'' speed to about 22 knots and leaving her open to attacks from the destroyers. But battered and crippled as she was, her secondary armament was still firing wildly as the cruiser ''HMS Jamaica'' and the destroyers ''Musketeer'', ''Matchless'', ''Opportune'', and ''Virago'' closed and launched torpedoes. ''Duke of York'' fired her 77th salvo at 19:28 at ''Scharnhorst''. Fifty-two torpedoes had been fired, but the last three by ''Jamaica'' at 19:37 from under two miles range was the final crippling blow. ''Scharnhorst'' sank at 19:45 hours on 26 December 1943 with her propellers still turning. Of a total complement of 1,968 men, only 36 survivors - none an officer - were rescued from the frigid seas; 30 by ''HMS Scorpion'' and 6 by ''Matchless''.
HNoMS ''Stord'' (Royal Norwegian Navy) and HMS ''Scorpion'' fired their torpedoes from an easterly direction. ''Stord'' fired her eight torpedoes as she was about 1,500 yards from ''Scharnhorst'', while also firing with her guns and scoring hits.
After the battle, Admiral Fraser sent the following message to the Admiralty: "... Please convey to the C-in-C Norwegian Navy. ''Stord'' played a very daring role in the fight and I am very proud of her...". In an interview in ''The Evening News'' on 5 February 1944 the commanding officer of HMS ''Duke of York'' said: "... the Norwegian destroyer ''Stord'' carried out the most daring attack of the whole action...".
Later that evening, Admiral Bruce Fraser briefed his officers on board ''Duke of York'': "Gentlemen, the battle against ''Scharnhorst'' has ended in victory for us. I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as ''Scharnhorst'' was commanded today".
Ironically, the namesake for ''Scharnhorst'', Gerhard von Scharnhorst had served as a young lieutenant under the namesake for ''Duke of York'', Duke of York in the Netherlands in 1793.
On 3 October 2000, the submerged wreck of ''Scharnhorst'' was located at about , approximately 70 nautical miles (130 km) north-northeast of North Cape at a depth of nearly 300 m and photographed by the Royal Norwegian Navy.

Commanding Officers

★ KzS Otto Ciliax - 7 January 1939 - 23 September 1939

★ KzS Kurt Caesar Hoffmann - 23 September 1939 - 31 March 1942

★ KzS / KAdm Friedrich Huffmeier - 31 March 1942 - 13 October 1943
(Promoted to KADM 1 October 1943.)

★ KzS Fritz Hintze - 13 October 1943 - 26 December 1943 (KIA)

References

1. The battlecruiser classification came from the Royal Navy, the German Kriegsmarine classification was ''Schlachtschiff''( battleship).
2. Scharnhorst General Information from www.scharnhorst-class.dk


★ Historical Center, Department of the U.S. Navy public domain publication.

Bibliography

★ Breyer, Siegfried, ''Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970''. (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as ''Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970'', J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970). Contains various line drawings of the ship as designed and as built.

★ Busch, Fritz-Otto, ''The Sinking of the'' Scharnhorst. (Robert Hale, London, 1956) ISBN 0-86007-130-8. The story of the Battle of North Cape and the final battle as told by a ''Scharnhorst'' survivor.

★ Claasen, A. R. A., ''Hitler's Northern War: The Luftwaffe's Ill-Fated Campaign, 1940-1945''. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001. pp 228-234. ISBN 0-7006-1050-2

★ Garzke, Willliam H., Jr. and Robert O. Dulin, Jr., ''Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II''. (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1985). Includes the design and operational histories, information on the guns, and other design and statistical information about the ship.
without ''markup''

External links

★ Royal Navy: The Second World War 1939-1945

★ ''Scharnhorst'' Chronology and External Diagrams at KBismarck.com

★ Operation "Berlin"

★ Maritimequest Scharnhorst Photo Gallery

★ Video

★ Collection of private photos