German battlecruiser Scharnhorst

The "Scharnhorst" was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or more correctly a battlecruiser, of the Kriegsmarine. The warship was named after the Lieutenant General of the Prussian Army and military reformer Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst (1755–1813), one of the heroes of the Wars of Liberation. 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.

Operations

German Battlecruiser Scharnhorst at Wilhelmshaven on 6 January 1938 a day before she was commissioned (top); Day of commissioning (bottom).

German support units (here U-boats and naval aviation units, including a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 “Condor”) rush north in December 1943 to assist the battleship “Scharnhorst,” which was on enemy patrol and under attack.

Vice Admiral (ret.) Friedrich Hüffmeier (left), a former captain of the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, presents a picture to active Rear Admiral Sir Morgan Charles Morgan-Giles (1914–2013), a former captain of the cruiser HMS Belfast (1961–62), which was involved in the sinking of the Scharnhorst during World War II, at a ceremony on the River Thames, 21 October 1971.

• Beginning of the War
  • From 21 to 27 November 1939, after France and Britain had declared war against the German Reich, Gneisenau and Scharnhorst undertook their first combat patrol (Feindfahrt) in the North Sea. The ships set out to lure British warships from the Atlantic into the North Sea, which in turn would relieve the pressure on the ironclads operating against merchant ships in the Atlantic. Northwest of the Faroe Islands, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi on 23 November. 21 survivors were rescued by the Gneisenau, and six more by the Scharnhorst, before the cruiser Newcastle, which had intercepted the Rawalpindi's distress calls, was discovered. To avoid a possible engagement with a group of heavy British battleships of the British Home Fleet, Admiral Marschall aborted the operation and ordered the battleships to return to their base.
• Operation "Nordmark"
  • "Nordmark" was the code name for the advance of the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, and two destroyers into the sea area between Shetland and Norway from 18 to 20 February 1940. Operation Nordmark, led by Fleet Commander Admiral Marschall from northern Norway in the initial battle for the "Ore Road," was ultimately unsuccessful and aimed at convoy traffic in the area between Great Britain and Scandinavia. Only the U-boats deployed during the advance managed to sink twelve merchant ships with a combined gross tonnage of 38,000 and the Royal Navy destroyer Daring.
• Operation "Weserübung"
  • At dawn on 9 April 1940, the German destroyers, under the command of Commodore Friedrich Bonte, entered Narvik and successfully landed their troops. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau assumed long-range cover at sea and encountered the British battlecruiser Renown. The Gneisenau received a direct hit in the foretops, disabling the forward artillery command post. The German ships broke off the battle and returned to Wilhelmshaven.
• Operation "Juno"
  • On 4 June 1940, the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, as well as the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the destroyers Hans Lody, Hermann Schoemann, Erich Steinbrinck and Karl Galster, sailed from Kiel as part of Operation Juno. The aim was to relieve the pressure on the German troops in Narvik. To this end, the force commanded by Admiral Wilhelm Marschall was to cut off British supplies and intercept the British retreat, which was already beginning. On 7 June, the German Naval Command learned that a British convoy carrying 10,000 men had left the Narvik area as part of the evacuation to England. Marschall decided to intercept this force, consisting of seven transport ships. On the afternoon of the following day, the German ships were roughly off Harstad when the aircraft carrier Glorious, with its two escorting destroyers Ardent and Acasta, was unexpectedly sighted. Because the aircraft carrier also had aircraft evacuated from Norwegian land bases on board, and these hindered the launch of its own carrier aircraft, no torpedo aircraft could be launched against the German battle group at short notice. At around 4:30 a.m. German time, the Scharnhorst opened fire and shortly afterwards was able to score the first hit on the Glorious. With the third salvo, a hit was achieved from a range of 24 km, which is considered the greatest hit range on a moving ship in the entire Second World War. After several hits, the forward hangar went up in flames, whereupon the British ship was abandoned by the crew. The two accompanying destroyers were also sunk, but the Acasta, which was already sinking, was able to fire a fan of torpedoes, one of which hit the Scharnhorst below the aft triple turret, claiming 48 lives. The hole caused by the torpedo hit was twelve meters long and four meters high. Due to the damage, Admiral Marschall aborted the operation, allowing the still undetected British troop convoy, just 100 nautical miles to the north, to escape. The German ships arrived in Trondheim the next day, where the necessary repairs were carried out in the nearby Lofjord with the assistance of the repair ship Huascaran and the salvage ship Parat.
• Operation "Berlin"
  • Together with her sister ship Gneisenau, the Scharnhorst set sail from Kiel on 22 January 1941, for Operation Berlin. The group was commanded by the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Günther Lütjens. A breakthrough through the passages near the Faroe Islands failed, and the German ships withdrew to the east. After taking on oil a few days later, an attempt was made to enter the Atlantic through the Denmark Strait. This time it was successful, and the group began cruising on Allied convoy routes. Over the next few weeks, the Scharnhorst sank eight ships with a combined tonnage of approximately 50,000 GRT. Convoys protected by British battleships, such as the sighted HX 106, were avoided as per orders. On 22 March 1941, both ships entered Brest (France).
• Operation "Cerberus" (Luftwaffe liaison officer on board the Scharnhorst: Max Ibel)
  • From 11 to 13 February 1942, the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen under Hellmuth Brinkmann crossed the English Channel. During this operation, the Scharnhorst struck naval mines twice. The first detonated off the mouth of the Scheldt, causing a temporary total engine failure and leaving the Scharnhorst powerless for some time. However, this was not observed by the British, so no attack took place. Another mine detonation occurred off Terschelling without causing further damage. The Scharnhorst went into shipyard in Wilhelmshaven and was out of action for the next eight months. In March 1943, Scharnhorst and Tirpitz transferred to Narvik (Operation "Paderborn"). On 4 April 1943, an explosion occurred below deck in one of the Scharnhorst's storerooms in Section III. 17 sailors were killed, but the cause was never determined. Sabotage was suspected during the detonation while in Gotenhafen.
• Operation "Sicily"
  • On 6 September 1943, a German battle group consisting of the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst and nine destroyers prepared to attack enemy strongholds on Spitsbergen in the Altafjord at the North Cape in Norway. Two days later, at approximately 7:00 a.m., the battle group reached Grönfjord and Advent Bay. A battalion of the 349th Grenadier Regiment landed on Spitsbergen to blow up radio and weather stations and the local coal mine. The heavy naval guns of the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst shelled the mining settlements in Barentsburg and Longyearbyen. The operation was completed without major losses, and the Allied strongholds were completely destroyed.
• Operation "Eastern Front"

Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943)

The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle that occurred on 26 December 1943, as part of the Arctic campaign. The German battleship Scharnhorst, on an operation to attack Arctic convoys of war materiel from the western Allies to the Soviet Union, was brought to battle and sunk by the Royal Navy. The battle was the last between British and German big-gun capital ships. The outcome increased the British advantage in major surface units. It was also the penultimate engagement between battleships in history, the last being the October 1944 Battle of Surigao Strait.

On 25 December 1943, Scharnhorst (under Captain at Sea Fritz Hintze) with the Narvik-class destroyers Z29, Z30, Z33, Z34 and Z38 left Norway's Altafjord under the overall command of Rear Admiral Erich Bey. Scharnhorst set course for the convoy's reported position as a south-westerly gale developed. Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser received confirmation from the Admiralty in the early hours of 26 December that Scharnhorst was at sea and searching for convoy JW 55B. The stormy weather had resulted in the grounding of all Luftwaffe reconnaissance planes. With no ability to search for the British ships from the air and heavy seas hampering the movement of his ships, Rear Admiral Bey was unable to locate the convoy. Despite a German U-boat spotting the convoy and reporting its position, Bey was still not able to make contact with the British ships. Thinking he had overshot the enemy, he detached his destroyers and sent them southward to increase the search area, and the destroyers subsequently lost contact with their flagship. Scharnhorst fought alone an incredible fight against following ships of the British and Norwegian Navy:

• HMS Duke of York, battleship
• HMS Norfolk, cruiser
• HMS Belfast, cruiser
• HMS Sheffield, cruiser
• HMS Jamaica, cruiser
• HMS Savage, destroyer
• HMS Scorpion destroyer
• HMS Saumarez, destroyer
• HMS Opportune, destroyer
• HMS Virago, destroyer
• HMS Musketeer, destroyer
• HMS Matchless, destroyer
• HNoMS Stord, destroyer

In total, over 30 torpedoes and a deluge of shells hit the mighty battleship and finally made her capsize and sink at 19h45, her propellers still turning. The German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk while bravely, unescorted and completely alone fighting against far superior British forces in the Battle of Cape North on 26 December 1943. She ranks among the greatest maritime disasters of all times: of her total complement of 1,968 (including Bey and Hintze, but also Dietrich Wieting, son of Vice Admiral Franz Wieting), only 36 were saved from the frigid arctic waters (the battleship lies keel up at a depth of 290 meters). Her fate is very similar to Bismarck's destruction in superior enemy force. In the evening of 26 December 1943, when the battle was finally over, Admiral Fraser briefed his officers on board of the Duke of York; the Royal Navy protocol shows his memorable words:

"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".

Commandants

• 7.1.1939 to 24.9.1939 Kapitän zur See Otto Ciliax
• 24.9.1939 to 2.4.1942 Kapitän zur See Kurt Caesar Hoffmann
• 2.4.1942 to 14.10.1943 Kapitän zur See Friedrich Hüffmeier
  • some post-war sources state 2 May, but he was commanded to the ship on 29/30 March and seems to have taken over command on 2 April 1942.
• 14.10.1943 to 26.12.1943 Kapitän zur See Fritz Julius Hintze

Further reading

• Robert Barr Smith: The Sinking of Scharnhorst, 2014

External links

• Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst