Scharnhorst

About

Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included her sister ship Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15 June 1935 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1936. Completed in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation in November 1939, Scharnhorst sank the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway, from April to June 1940. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. In that engagement...

Main article: Scharnhorst -class battleship

Scharnhorst displaced 32,100 long tons (32,600 t ) at standard displacement and 38,100 long tons (38,700 t) at full load. She was 234.9 m (770 ft 8 in) long overall and had a beam of 30 m (98 ft 5 in) and a maximum draft of 9.9 m (32 ft 6 in). She was powered by three Brown, Boveri & Cie geared steam turbines, which developed a total of 159,551 shp ; 118,977 kW and yielded a maximum speed of 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) on speed trials. Her standard crew numbered 56 officers and 1,613 enlisted men, augmented during the war to 60 officers and 1,780 men. While serving as a squadron flagship, Scharnhorst carried an additional 10 officers and 61 enlisted men.

She was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11.1 in) L/54.5 guns arranged in three triple gun turrets : two turrets were placed forward in a superfiring arrangement (Anton and Bruno), and one aft (Caesar). The design also enabled the ship to be up-gunned with six 15-inch guns, which never took place. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) L/55 guns, eight of which were placed in two-gun turrets and the remaining four were carried in individual turrets. Her heavy anti-aircraft armament consisted of fourteen 10.5 cm L/65. These guns were directed by four SL-6 stabilized anti-aircraft director posts. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of sixteen 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30 L/83, and initially ten 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The number of 2 cm guns was eventually increased to thirty-eight. Two triple 53.3 cm (21 in) above-water torpedo tubes, taken from the light cruiser Nürnberg, were installed in 1941.

Scharnhorst had an armor belt that was 320 mm (12.6 in) thick in the central portion, where it protected the ship's ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. The ship had an armored deck that was 20 to 40 mm (0.79 to 1.57 in) thick on the flat portion, increasing to 105 mm (4.1 in) on downward-sloping sides that connected to the bottom of the belt. Her main battery turrets had 360 mm (14 in) of armor on their faces and 200 mm (7.9 in) on their sides. The conning tower was protected with 350 mm on the sides.

At her commissioning, Scharnhorst was commanded by Kapitän zur See ( KzS ) Otto Ciliax. His tenure as the ship's commander was brief; in September 1939, an illness forced him to go on sick leave, and he was replaced by KzS Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann. Hoffmann served as the ship's captain until 1942. On 1 April 1942, Hoffmann, who had been promoted to Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) and awarded the Knight's Cross, transferred command of the ship to KzS Friedrich Hüffmeier. In October 1943, shortly before Scharnhorst ' s last mission, Hüffmeier was replaced by KzS Fritz Hintze, who was killed during the ship's final battle.

Scharnhorst was ordered as Ersatz Elsass as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought Elsass, under the contract name "D." The Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 16 July 1935. The ship was launched on 3 October 1936, witnessed by Adolf Hitler, Minister of War Generalfeldmarschall Werner von Blomberg, and the widow of Kapitän zur See Schultz, the commander of the armored cruiser Scharnhorst, which had been sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands during World War I. Fitting-out work followed her launch, and was completed by January 1939. Scharnhorst was commissioned into the fleet on 9 January for sea trials, which revealed a dangerous tendency to ship considerable amounts of water in heavy seas. This caused flooding in the bow and damaged electrical systems in the forward (Anton) gun turret. As a result, she went back to the dockyard for extensive modification of the bow. The original straight stem was replaced with a raised "Atlantic bow." A raked funnel cap was also installed during the reconstruction, along with an enlarged aircraft hangar; the main mast was also moved further aft. The modifications were completed by November 1939, by which time the ship was finally fully operational.

Scharnhorst ' s first operation began on 21 November 1939; the ship, and her sister Gneisenau, was to attack the Northern Patrol between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The intent of the operation was to draw out British units and ease the pressure on the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, which was being pursued in the South Atlantic. A patrol line of four U-boats was stationed in the North Sea to intercept any sortie from the Home Fleet. The two battleships left Wilhelmshaven in company of the light cruisers Köln and Leipzig, and three destroyers, which parted company in the morning of 22 November for operations in the Skagerrak. The next day, the German battleships intercepted the British armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi. At 16:07, lookouts aboard Scharnhorst spotted the vessel, and less than an hour later Scharnhorst had closed the range. At 17:03, Scharnhorst opened fire, and three minutes later a salvo of her 28 cm guns hit Rawalpindi ' s bridge, killing the captain Edward Kennedy, and the majority of the officers. During the brief engagement, Rawalpindi managed to score a hit on Scharnhorst, which caused minor splinter damage.

By 17:16, Rawalpindi was burning badly and in the process of sinking. Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, aboard Gneisenau, ordered Scharnhorst to pick up survivors. These rescue operations were interrupted by the appearance of the cruiser Newcastle. Based on the reports of Rawalpindi and Newcastle, the British deployed the Home Fleet with the battleships Nelson and Rodney from the Clyde towards Norway in case the Germans intended to return to Germany, and the battlecruisers Hood and the French Dunkerque left from Devonport towards Iceland to prevent a breakout towards the Atlantic. Aware of these deployments through the B-Dienst, Marschall retreated northwards and waited for bad weather in order to break through a British cruiser and destroyer patrol line between Shetland and Norway. The Germans reached Wilhelmshaven on 27 November, and on the trip both battleships incurred significant damage from heavy seas and winds. Scharnhorst was repaired in Wilhelmshaven, and while in dock, her boilers were overhauled.

Following the completion of repairs, Scharnhorst went into the Baltic Sea for gunnery training. Heavy ice in the Baltic kept the ship there until February 1940 when she could return to Wilhelmshaven, arriving on 5 February. Between 18 February and 20 February, she participated in Operation Nordmark, a brief sortie into the North Sea as far as the Shetland Islands.

She was then assigned to the forces participating in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were the covering force for the assaults on Narvik and Trondheim ; the two ships left Wilhelmshaven on the morning of 7 April under the command of Vice Admiral Günther Lütjens. They were joined by the invasion force for Trondheim, consisting of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and four destroyers, and by the invasion force for Narvik, consisting of ten destroyers. Between 14:25 and 14:48 on 7 April, the ships were unsuccessfully attacked west of the Skagerrak by twelve bombers. By evening the weather had deteriorated and several destroyers could not keep up the high (27 knots, 50 km/h, 31 mph) speed and remained behind the main force. Heavy winds caused significant structural damage that evening, and flooding contaminated a portion of Scharnhorst ' s fuel stores. On 8 April at 09:15 one of the trailing destroyers, Bernd von Arnim, signalled a fight with a British destroyer and at 09:22 Lütjens ordered Admiral Hipper to investigate. The German cruiser found the British destroyer HMS Glowworm and hit her with accurate artillery fire. Before Glowworm sank, she attempted to ram and damage Admiral Hipper and sent out a warning message to the British fleet. Shortly after the fight with Glowworm, Admiral Hipper and her four destroyers set course for Trondheim, and at 22:00 the ten destroyers left for Narvik, whilst Scharnhorst and Gneisenau took a position south of the Lofoten in the Vestfjorden to cover both landings.

Early on 9 April, the two ships encountered the British battlecruiser HMS Renown. Gneisenau ' s Seetakt radar picked up a radar contact at 04:30, which prompted the crews of both vessels to go to combat stations. Half an hour later, Scharnhorst ' s navigator spotted gun flashes from Renown firing at Gneisenau ; the Germans returned fire three minutes later. Gneisenau was hit twice in the opening portion of the engagement, and one shell disabled her rear gun turret. Scharnhorst ' s radar malfunctioned, which prevented her from being able to effectively engage Renown during the battle. At 05:18, the British battlecruiser shifted fire to Scharnhorst, which maneuvered to avoid the falling shells. By 07:15, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had used their superior speed to escape from the pursuing Renown. Heavy seas and the high speed with which the pair of battleships escaped caused them to ship large amounts of water forward. Scharnhorst ' s forward (Anton) turret was put out of action by severe flooding. Mechanical problems with her starboard turbines developed after running at full speed, which forced the ships to reduce speed to 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph).

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had reached a point north-west of Lofoten, Norway, by 12:00 on 9 April. The two ships then turned west for 24 hours while temporary repairs were effected. After a day of steaming west, the ships turned south. Since broadcasting radio messages would betray the position of the ships to the British, an Arado 196 float plane was launched by Scharnhorst on 10 April at 12:00 with the instruction to fly in the direction of Norway and to signal there the intentions of Lütjens to break through to Germany in the night of 11 April. The plane was launched at extreme range and could barely reach the outer islands on the Norwegian coast where it managed to send its message. The float plane was towed to Trondheim where it could also convey Lütjens's order to Admiral Hipper to join the German battleships in the return journey to Germany. Admiral Hipper joined in the morning of 12 April but her four destroyers had to stay back at Trondheim because of lack of fuel. A Royal Air Force (RAF) patrol aircraft spotted the three ships that day, and 82 RAF Bomber Command and nine RAF Coastal Command aircraft were ordered to attack the ships. The German warships were protected by poor visibility, however, and none of the bombers found the ships whilst losing nine of their number to German fighters. The three ships safely reached Wilhelmshaven at 22:00. Scharnhorst was repaired at the Deutsche Werke in Kiel. During the repair process, the aircraft catapult that had been installed on the rear (Caesar) gun turret was removed.

Main article: Operation Juno The two ships left Wilhelmshaven on 4 June to return to Norway. They were joined by Admiral Hipper and four destroyers. The purpose of the sortie was to interrupt Allied efforts to resupply the Norwegians and to relieve the pressure on German troops fighting in Norway. On 7 June, the squadron rendezvoused with the tanker Dithmarschen to refuel Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers. The next day, the British trawler HMT Juniper was discovered and sunk, along with the 5,666 GRT oil tanker Oil Pioneer. The Germans then launched their Ar 196 float planes to search for more Allied vessels. Admiral Hipper and the destroyers were sent to destroy Orama, a 19,840 GRT passenger ship, while Atlantis, a hospital ship, was allowed to proceed unmolested. Admiral Marschall detached Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers to refuel in Trondheim, while he would steam to the Harstad area.

At 17:45, the German battleships spotted the British aircraft carrier Glorious and two escorting destroyers, Ardent and Acasta, at a range of some 40,000 m (44,000 yd; 25 mi). At 18:32 Scharnhorst (as the closer ship) opened fire with her main armament on Glorious, at a range of 26,000 m (28,000 yd; 16 mi). Six minutes after opening fire, Scharnhorst scored a hit at a range of 25,600 m (28,000 yd; 15.9 mi). The shell struck the carrier's upper hangar and started a large fire. Less than ten minutes later, a shell from Gneisenau struck the bridge and killed Glorious ' s captain. The two destroyers attempted to cover Glorious with smoke screens, but the German battleships could track the carrier with their radar. By 18:26 the range had fallen to 24,100 m (26,400 yd; 15.0 mi), and Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were firing full salvos at the carrier. After approximately an hour of shooting, the German battleships sent Glorious to the bottom. They also sank the two destroyers. As Acasta sank, one of the four torpedoes she had fired hit Scharnhorst at 19:39. Acasta also hit Scharnhorst ' s forward superfiring turret with her 4.7-inch QF guns, which did negligible damage. The torpedo hit caused serious damage; it tore a hole 14 by 6 m (15.3 by 6.6 yd) and allowed 2,500 t (2,500 long tons; 2,800 short tons) of water into the ship. The rear (Caesar) turret was disabled and 48 men were killed. The flooding caused a 5 degree list, increased the stern draft by almost a meter, and forced Scharnhorst to reduce speed to 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). The ship's machinery was also significantly damaged by the flooding, and the starboard propeller shaft was destroyed.

The damage was severe enough to force Scharnhorst to put into Trondheim for temporary repairs. She reached port on the afternoon of 9 June, where the repair ship Huaskaran was waiting. The following day a reconnaissance plane from RAF Coastal Command spotted the ship, and a raid by twelve Hudson bombers took place on 11 June. The Hudsons dropped thirty-six 227 lb (103 kg) armor-piercing bombs, which all missed. The Royal Navy joined in the attacks on the ship by sending the battleship Rodney and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. On 13 June, Ark Royal launched fifteen Skua dive bombers ; German fighters intercepted the attackers and shot eight of them down. The other seven made it past the air defenses and attacked Scharnhorst, but only scored one hit, and the bomb failed to detonate. Preliminary repairs were completed by 20 June, which permitted the ship to return to Germany. While Scharnhorst was en route under heavy escort on 21 June, the British launched two air attacks, six Swordfish torpedo bombers in the first and nine Beaufort bombers in the second. Both were driven off by anti-aircraft fire and fighters. The Germans intercepted British radio traffic that indicated the Royal Navy was at sea, which prompted Scharnhorst to make for Stavanger. British warships were within 35 nmi (65 km; 40 mi) of Scharnhorst ' s position when she turned to Stavanger. The next day, Scharnhorst left Stavanger for Kiel, where repairs were carried out, lasting some six months.

- Main article: Operation Berlin (Atlantic) Following the completion of repairs, Scharnhorst underwent trials in the Baltic before returning to Kiel in December 1940. There she joined Gneisenau, in preparation for Operation Berlin, a planned raid into the Atlantic Ocean designed to wreak havoc on the Allied shipping lanes. The ships left Kiel on 28 December, but off Norway a severe storm caused damage to Gneisenau, Scharnhorst was undamaged. The two ships were forced to return: Scharnhorst went to Gotenhafen while Gneisenau went to Kiel for repairs. Repairs were quickly completed, and on 22 January 1941, the two ships, under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens on Gneisenau, left port for the North Atlantic. They were detected in the Skagerrak and the British Home Fleet deployed to block a breakout into the Atlantic. In the passage between Iceland and the Faroes, the Germans' radar detected the patrolling British cruiser Naiad at long range, which allowed Lütjens to retreat unseen, with the aid of a squall. After refueling from Adria in the Arctic Ocean on 30 January, the battleships entered the Atlantic undetected through the Denmark Strait during the night of 3/4 February.

On 6 February, the two ships refueled from the tanker Schlettstadt south of Cape Farewell. Shortly after 08:30 on 8 February, lookouts spotted convoy HX 106, escorted by the battleship Ramillies. Lütjens' orders prohibited him from engaging Allied capital ships, and so the attack was called off. Scharnhorst ' s commander, KzS Hoffmann, however, closed to 23,000 m (25,000 yd) in an attempt to lure Ramillies away from the convoy so that Gneisenau could attack the convoy. Lütjens ordered Hoffmann to rejoin the flagship immediately. After being detected, the battleships steamed off to the north for a few days to refuel and then returned to the same shipping lanes but closer to Newfoundland to search for more shipping. On 22 February, Gneisenau ran into three independently sailing merchant ships from a recently dispersed convoy. The battleships abandoned their search for convoys and started to hunt independent ships; Gneisenau sank four vessels totalling 19,634 GRT and Scharnhorst sank the 6,150 GRT tanker Lustrous.

Since some of the victims were able to alert the British, Lütjens then decided to move away from the North-Atlantic convoy lanes and move to the West African convoy lanes. Karl Dönitz, the commander of the U-boats, sent the three U-boats U-105, U-106 and U-124 to West African waters for possible combined operations with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. On 6 March the battleships met U-124 northwest of Cape Verde in order to discuss cooperation. The next morning the two ships encountered convoy SL 67, escorted by the battleship Malaya. Lütjens again forbade an attack, but he shadowed the convoy and directed the U-boats to attack the convoy and sink Malaya. U-105 and U-124 attacked during the night of 8/9 March and sank five ships for a total of 28,488 GRT but could not find Malaya. The next morning Gneisenau approached the convoy but again Lütjens turned away when Malaya closed to 24,000 m (26,000 yd), well within the range of the Germans' guns. He instead turned toward the mid-Atlantic, where Scharnhorst sank the 7,921 GRT Greek cargo ship Marathon. The two ships then refueled from the tankers Uckermark and Ermland on 12 March.

On 15 and 16 March, the two battleships, with the two tankers in company, encountered ships from a dispersed convoy in the mid-Atlantic. Scharnhorst sank six ships totaling 35,080 GRT, whilst Gneisenau sank seven ships totaling 26,693 GRT and captured another three ships totaling 20,139 GRT as prizes. Alerted by distress signals of the victims, the British battleship Rodney left convoy HX 114 and in the evening was able to surprise Gneisenau. The German battleship used her high speed to escape in the darkness, but this intervention convinced Lütjens that the chances of further success were small. He therefore decided to head for Brest in occupied France, which the ships reached on 22 March. Throughout the operation, Scharnhorst had difficulties with the superheater tubes in her boilers. Replacement of the defective tubes was carried out by French naval dockyard workers – to a higher standard, according to Scharnhorst 's captain, than could be achieved at the time in the naval yards in Germany. Repair work lasted until July, which caused the ship to be unavailable during Operation Rheinübung, the sortie by the new battleship Bismarck in May 1941.