The Ships of Battlegroup: Germany Scharnhorst (BC)

Displacement	31,850 tons	Belt Armor	6.7 to 13.8 inches
Overall Length	753 feet	Deck Armor	4 inches
Beam	98 feet	Main Turret Armor	14.2 inches
Speed	32 knots	Main Guns	9 × 11″

Originally planned as another “pocket battleship”, the weakness of that type of ship led to a complete enlargement and redesign intended to match the French Dunkerque battlecruiser class then being constructed. Laid down on May 16, 1935, launched on June 30, 1936 and commissioned in January 1939, she was the sister ship of the Gneisenau . The ship was named after General Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst (1755–1813). Following Prussia’s defeat by Napoleon (1769–1820) in 1806, he worked closely with General August Gneisenau (1760–1813) to reform the army until he was killed during the 1813 campaign that saw Napoleon driven out of a liberated Germany.

The ship carried a main armament of nine 11 inch main guns mounted in two centerline superfiring triple turrets forward and one aft. Falsely quoted as being a 26,000 vessel, the small tonnage and the puny eleven-inch guns were a sop to British fears. Four of the six gun turrets used were originally built for cancelled pocket battleships and were designed to be capable of being replaced by twin 15 inch turrets. Indeed, this refit was underway for Gneisenau starting in November 1942, although the rearmament was never completed.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for most of the early part of the war and became known as “The Twins”. They exchanged fire with British battlecruiser Renown on April 9, 1940 but bad weather caused the action to end with no serious damage to either side. They caught the British aircraft carrier Glorious with only two destroyers for escort off the Norwegian coast on June 8, 1940 and sank the whole lot. During the engagement, Scharnhorst managed to hit Glorious at a range of about 26,000 yards, virtually tying the feat of the British Warspite a month later in the Mediterranean. Scharnhorst, never considered a “lucky” ship, was torpedoed by destroyer Acasta during the same action, which put her in dock for five months. From January to March, 1941, the duo sortied into the British convoy areas, sinking 22 ships and running from three separate contacts with slow battleships Malaya, Ramillies and Rodney. Later, after bombings became intolerable (Scharnhorst was hit by five bombs on July 24, 1941), Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (along with heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen) participated in the celebrated “Channel Dash” (Operation “Cerberus”) in February 1942. Despite some damage from two magnetic mines, Scharnhorst steamed successfully in broad daylight through the English Channel from Brest, France to Kiel. After repairs, Scharnhorst was transferred to Norway and participated in a raid on Spitzbergen in September 1943. Ordered to attack convoy JW-55B off the North Cape of Norway on December 26, 1943, Scharnhorst was hit by 14 inch shells from the British battleship Duke of York, slowed by torpedoes and finally pounded by the Duke of York’s big guns and additional torpedoes until sunk with the loss of all but 46 of the 1,840 men aboard. Nicknamed “Salmon” by the RAF.

For other “battlecruisers” that served in World War II, see: Guam, Haruna, Hiei, Hood, Kirishima, Kongo and Repulse .

Where did we get all these fascinating historical tidbits and factoids? See the Bibliography for the culprits.