Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. The British fleet had a significant advantage, however: they were able to decrypt German naval codes, and so they were aware of Bey's intentions. [43] The engine room crews managed to restart the first turbine at 15:49, nearly twenty minutes after the mine explosion. Burnett chose to keep his distance and shadow Scharnhorst with radar while Fraser made his way to the scene in Duke of York. [35][22][36], Two of the 454 kg bombs hit amidships between the 15 cm and 10.5 cm gun turrets; both failed to explode and penetrated the ship completely. [68] A Polish salvage firm raised the wreck on 12 September 1951 and subsequently broke the ship up for scrap metal. They were mounted in six Dop. [21][22]:103 Six minutes after opening fire, Scharnhorst scored a hit at a range of 25,600 m (28,000 yd). [41] On 8 February, they spotted a convoy, HX 106, but it was escorted by the battleship HMS Ramillies, armed with eight 38 cm (15 in) guns. The ships had a designed speed of 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph), though on trials both vessels beat their designed speeds—Scharnhorst hit 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) and Gneisenau made 31.3 kn (58.0 km/h; 36.0 mph). These guns fired 45.3 kg (99.87 lb) shells at a rate of 6–8 per minute. The turrets allowed depression of the guns to −8° and elevation to 40° for "A" and "C" turrets, while "B" turret was capable of depressing to −9°. [12], Scharnhorst's first operation began on 21 November 1939;[13] the ship, in company with her sister Gneisenau, the light cruiser Köln, and nine destroyers, was to patrol the area between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. ... and aft armoured bulkheads (between the frames 10.5 and 185.7), was made of 80 to 95 mm thick hard Wotan steel. After her commissioning, Gneisenau spent the first year of her career conducting trials and training cruises in the Baltic Sea. Aft of the rear gun turret the belt decreased to 200 mm (7.9 in), and eventually tapered down to nothing at the stern. The Scharnhorst class were the first capital ships, alternatively referred to as battlecruisers or battleships, built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine after World War I.The class comprised two vessels: the lead ship Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. During the maneuvers, she collided with the German submarine U-523, which caused damage that necessitated dry-docking for repairs. The two ships participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. Total power output was 4,120 kW at 220 volts. The two ships encountered another convoy, escorted by the battleship Malaya, on 8 March. Jul 22, 2015 - This Pin was discovered by Harold. [2], Cite error: tags exist for a group named "lower-alpha", but no corresponding tag was found, or a closing is missing. Another 300 t (300 long tons; 330 short tons) tons of water flooded ten watertight spaces in four main compartments. The explosion caused splinter damage and disabled the ammunition hoists for the 37 mm anti-aircraft guns. Scharnhorst class battleship. Hitler wanted to follow this course so he would not be seen as overtly flaunting the Treaty of Versailles. A fast battleship of the King George V class, Duke of York easily outgunned Scharnhorst, and had better radar. As more water entered Scharnhorst, her speed continued to fall to 5 kn (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph). The underwater survey vessel Sverdrup II, operated by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, was used to scan the sea floor. We use 3D printed game pieces regularly to enhance the realism of our fleet and also to use as equipment upgrade paths during the game. [15] In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany; he made clear to the naval command that he had no intention of building a large fleet to challenge British supremacy at sea. A pair of U-boats sank a total of 28,488 tons of shipping on the night of 8–9 March. Scharnhorst was a battleship/battlecruiser that served with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.Commissioned in 1939, the ship mounted a main armament of nine 11-inch guns and was capable of 31 knots. At 14:45, the ships were attacked by five Whirlwind fighter-bombers—German fighters beat them back. [62] She sank at the position 72°16′0″N 28°41′0″E / 72.266667°N 28.683333°E / 72.266667; 28.683333. The eight turbo-generators were also of mixed capacity; six ran supplied 460 kW each and the remaining two provided 230 kW each. On 20 June, enough repair work had been done to permit the ship to sail down to Kiel. 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. [2] When the Soviet army approached in early 1945, the ship was towed out into the outer harbor and sunk as a block ship, on 23 March 1945. [8] Construction was held up by 14 months, partly because Hitler wanted to secure the treaty with Britain before work began,[18] and partly due to numerous design changes after the ships had been ordered. The modifications were completed by November 1939, by which time the ship was finally fully operational. On the morning of 25 July, one of the escorting destroyers shot down a British patrol plane. The ships were the first German cruiser … [50] Fraser in the powerful battleship Duke of York, along with the cruiser Jamaica and four destroyers, moved to a position southwest of Scharnhorst to block a possible escape attempt. The blast damaged the ship's circuit breakers and knocked out her electrical system for 20 minutes. "[24] The slopes significantly increased armour protection in the critical areas of the ship. [18], Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had reached a point north-west of Lofoten, Norway, by 12:00 on 9 April. Shortly after 08:30 on 8 February, lookouts spotted convoy HX 106, escorted by the battleship Ramillies. Battleship Scharnhorst-class Wehrmacht Kriegsmarine (German Navy 1935-1945) Scharnhorst The two ships were laid down in 1935, launched in late 1936, and commissioned into the German fleet by early 1939. 1940 German postcard showing the Gneisenau & Scharnhorst sinking the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious on 8 June 1940. Extensive damage from shellfire and torpedoes is evident; the bow was blown off, presumably from a magazine explosion in the forward turrets, and lies in a tangled mass of steel some distance from the rest of the hull. The ships' hulls were constructed from longitudinal steel frames, over which the outer hull plates were welded. [lower-alpha 2], Their adversary, the Royal Navy, rated them as battlecruisers[9][10] though after the war classified them as battleships. Scharnhorst sank two ships. The Scharnhorst-class battleships carried nine 28.3 cm (11.1 inch) SK C/34 54.5 (34 caliber) quick-firing guns located in three triple turrets, two forward and one aft. During her first operation, Scharnhorst sank the auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement (November 1939). [27] She reached port on the afternoon of 9 June, where the repair ship Huaskaran was waiting. Scharnhorst was hit at least four times by torpedoes fired by HMS Scorpion and HNoMS Stord. Battleship Scharnhorst is Scharnhorst class first ship, ship types are divided into battleship, the initial design can dress up as a 380 mm main gun battleship jumped to meet future war, but during World War II and not implemented. 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 ships were to be redeployed to Norway, to assist in the disruption of convoys to the Soviet Union, as well as the defence of occupied Norway. The two ships then refueled from the tankers Uckermark and Ermland on 12 March. [17], Gneisenau, depicted in her 1942 configuration, To combat the German Panzerschiffe, the French built two small Dunkerque-class battleships in the early 1930s. [56], Scharnhorst and her five destroyers left port at around 19:00 and were in the open sea four hours later. Behind the outer plate was a large void which would allow gases from the explosion to expand and dissipate. They were the first class of German ships to be officially classified by the Kriegsmarine as Schlachtschiff (battleship). After locating a large submerged object, the research team then used the Royal Norwegian Navy's underwater recovery vessel HNoMS Tyr to examine the object visually. She was launched on 8 December 1936, and completed on 21 May 1938. The underwater protection could only stop a 200 kg (440 lb) warhead in these areas. [67] Fraser then ordered Jamaica and Belfast to move into range and finish the crippled ship off with torpedoes. [20], Because the maximum calibre of naval gun allowed under the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was 40.6 cm (16 inch), Hitler soon had second thoughts about the guns to be used for the new ships and ordered that they be armed with 38 cm (15 inch) weapons. In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. With only turret Caesar operational, all available men were sent to retrieve ammunition from the forward turrets to keep the last heavy guns supplied. [46] There she met Lützow and the battleship Tirpitz. [18] This was also the view of the Kriegsmarine, which saw the 19,000-ton design as being unbalanced. The Germans were unaware that they had been detected, and they had turned off their radar to prevent the British from picking up on the signals. 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. Three heavy cruisers encountered Scharnhorst shortly before 10 a.m. on Dec. 26, and engaged in running battle that resulted in damage to both sides. A21201.jpg 5,298 × 3,966; 5.06 MB [29], On 6 February, the two ships refueled from the tanker Schlettstadt south of Cape Farewell. The destroyers laid a smoke screen in an attempt to hide the carrier, but the Germans quickly closed the distance. Scharnhorst was ordered as Ersatz Elsass as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought Elsass, under the contract name "D."[4] The Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 16 July 1935. [8] 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. Unbeknownst to the Germans, HMS Duke of York was also on a course for intercept. Work was conducted in a floating dry dock and lasted until July 1942. [16] Since 1933, Erich Raeder, the head of the German Navy, had argued to increase the defensive qualities of the Panzerschiffe, and to increase the offensive power of the main battery with the addition of a third triple turret. Shell splinters rained on Duke of York and disabled the fire-control radar. Hoffmann served as the ship's captain until 1942. Casualties amounted to two men killed and 15 wounded. [59], Twenty-eight cm shells from Scharnhorst struck Duke of York's mast and disabled her surface radars. The Scharnhorst class were the first capital ships, alternatively referred to as battlecruisers or battleships, built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine after World War I.The class comprised two vessels: the lead ship Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The class comprised two vessels: the lead ship Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. [70], Coordinates: 72°16′N 28°41′E / 72.267°N 28.683°E / 72.267; 28.683, Scharnhorst-class battleship of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, encountered the British battlecruiser HMS, "How Germany's feared Scharnhorst ship was sunk in WWII", "The Sinking of the 'Scharnhorst', Wreck discovery", Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in December 1943, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=German_battleship_Scharnhorst&oldid=999505695, World War II shipwrecks in the Arctic Ocean, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 10 January 2021, at 14:58. 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 Coverly Kennedy, and the majority of the officers. Turrets "B" and "C" were to be removed and transferred to Norway to serve as coastal defence guns. [29] Scharnhorst managed to sink only one ship during the encounter, the 6000 ton tanker Lustrous. See more ideas about battleship, warship, naval. [16], At 09:15 the following morning, Admiral Hipper was detached to reinforce the destroyers at Narvik, which had reported engaging British forces. Tirpitz Class Battleship. After several more torpedo hits, Scharnhorst settled further into the water and began to list to starboard. The warships of the World War II era German Navy are among the most popular subject in naval history with an almost uncountable number of books devoted to them. The Scharnhorst class battleships were the first warships of the Kriegsmarine in construction of which new armour plates made of hard Wotan (Wotan Hart) and soft Wotan (Wotan weich) steel were widely used. [19], The two ships left Wilhelmshaven on 4 June to return to Norway. A German capital ship, Gneisenau, along with half of her career conducting trials and training cruises in attacks... 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