[History] Scharnhorst: Menace of the North Atlantic

Scharnhorst was a German battlecruiser (or battleship depending on classification) that served in WWII, the lead ship of her class. Designed to counter the French Dunkerque-class battleships, Scharnhorst was a significantly enlarged and improved development on the previous Deutschland-class pocket battleships (“panzerschiffe”). Scharnhorst operated with her sister ship Gneisenau during the early years of WWII, wreaking havoc on Allied shipping. However, she ultimately met her demise at the Battle of the North Cape, where she was sunk by a large British force led by the battleship HMS Duke of York.

Design and development

Following the end of WWI, Germany’s navy was significantly reduced by the Treaty of Versailles, which prevented Germany from owning any modern battleships. As a result, the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) pursued an innovative type of vessel: pocket battleships (“Panzerschiffe”: armoured ship) that were small enough to be classified as cruisers, but carried battlecruiser-calibre armament. And thus, Germany built three ships of the Deutschland class of “pocket battleships”, armed with six 11-inch (283 mm) guns and displacing ~10,000 tons each. However, these ships were still inadequate to deal with the Royal Navy’s battlecruisers, as well as the new French fast battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg. Following the negotiation of the Anglo-German naval agreement, allowing battleship construction, the German government cancelled the fourth and fifth ships of the Deutschland-class and proceeded with a new design.

The new ships were significantly larger and better armoured than the pocket battleships. Scharnhorst had a displacement of 32,100 tons standard and 38,100 tons fully loaded: a ~20,000-ton increase from the Deutschland class. The ships retained the 11-inch guns of the Deutschland class but gained a third triple turret, bringing the total to 9 guns. While these guns were quite impressive, with a 17-second reload time, they were limited in effectiveness against the armour of enemy battleships. As a result, the ship was designed to be rearmed with 15-inch (381 mm) guns in dual turrets, but the opportunity for this refit never arose. In addition to the main guns, Scharnhorst had twelve 5.9-inch (150 mm) guns mounted in amidships turrets. Anti-aircraft armament consisted of fourteen 4.1-inch (105 mm) dual-purpose guns in twin turrets, sixteen 37 mm and ten (later sixteen) 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. Scharnhorst had two Seetakt radars for fire-control, with a range of ~16 km. She could also carry multiple Arado 196 seaplanes for longer range reconnaissance.

Scharnhorst was designed with a heavy armour belt, up to 12.5 inches of Krupp cemented armour at the waterline. Her main gun turrets had up to 14.3 inches of armour while her deck had up to 5.9 inches of armour. Scharnhorst was massive, at 234 m long, and had a crew of 1,840 men. Her three steam turbines allowed a maximum speed of 31 knots (58.3 km/h), though at this speed, the ship was unmanoeuvrable: during her sea trials in 1939, Scharnhorst took on so much water through the bow that a refit was necessitated: her bow was redesigned with a flared “clipper-style” bow that prevented the forward “A” turret from firing at 0-degree elevation.

Scharnhorst was ordered in January 1934 and her keel was laid on June 15th, 1935. Scharnhorst, and her sister Gneisenau, were named after a pair of armoured cruisers sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands during the First World War. Scharnhorst was launched on October 3rd, 1936, with Adolf Hitler himself in attendance. She was completed in January 1939 and entered service under the command of Captain Otto Ciliax.

Early combat service

Scharnhorst saw her first combat action with Gneisenau in November 1939, when the pair of battlecruisers spotted the British merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi. Despite seeing signals from Scharnhorst to stop and abandon ship, the cruiser decided to valiantly fight on, even as the German battlecruisers possessed a combined eighteen 11-inch guns. After a brief engagement, the Rawalpindi was sunk, and only 38 crew members survived from the crew of 276. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau then escaped in a squall, pursued by British battleships Warspite, Hood, and Repulse, who had sailed in to aid the Rawalpindi.

In 1940, Scharnhorst participated in the invasion of Norway, where she had a short engagement with the British battlecruiser HMS Renown. This combat resulted in heavy seas-related flooding to Scharnhorst which put her “A” turret out of action; Scharnhorst spent the month of April 1940 in drydock for an overhaul to her gunnery and propulsion systems.

Two months later, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau stumbled into the British light carrier HMS Glorious along with her escorting destroyers Ardent and Acasta. In the ensuing battle, all three British ships were sunk, with the loss of 1,519 men. However, Scharnhorst was hit by a torpedo from Acasta, resulting in the deaths of 50 sailors and severe flooding which put the “C” turret out of action. Scharnhorst spent the next five months in drydock for repairs.

Atlantic raids and Channel Dash

In January 1941, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau broke out into the Atlantic to begin a raid on Allied merchant shipping. During this raid, the two ships together sank over 110,000 tons of Allied shipping, Scharnhorst herself sinking a total of 9 ships totalling 50,588 tons. Both ships arrived at Brest in late March. The ships were to participate in a massive Kriegsmarine attack in May 1941 alongside the newly-commissioned battleship Bismarck in the Atlantic. However, British aerial raids on Brest resulted in Scharnhorst and Gneisenau being put out of action. Bismarck would ultimately conduct the raid escorted by the cruiser Prinz Eugen, with disastrous results.

In late 1941, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen were holed up in Brest, an unfavourable position given that British bombers conducted regular attacks. As a result, a daring plan was created, for the three capital ships to sail through the English Channel in broad daylight, codenamed Operation Cerberus. All three ships made it through the channel, though Scharnhorst hit two mines and an E-boat was lost. The dash was a great embarrassment to the Royal Navy and Air Force, as 242 bombers had been scrambled in an attempt to destroy the German force.

Battle of the North Cape

Scharnhorst would remain at Kiel for most of 1942, and in early 1943, she sailed with the cruiser Prinz Eugen to Norway to join the battleship Tirpitz. It was with the German Norway squadron that Scharnhorst would meet her demise. In December 1943, Scharnhorst attempted another sortie into the North Atlantic. However, the British had intercepted German radio messages and were fully aware of what was happening. They sent Convoy JW 55B as bait, with an additional three cruisers as reinforcement. Admiral Bruce Fraser’s main fleet, sent to intercept and sink the Scharnhorst, was composed of the battleship Duke of York, heavy cruiser Jamaica and four destroyers.

At 09:00, Scharnhorst made contact with the British cruisers Norfolk, Belfast, and Sheffield. Both sides exchanged fire, and at 12:41, Scharnhorst unknowingly turned towards the Duke of York. At 16:20, the forces made contact, and Scharnhorst was simultaneously engaged by Duke of York and the smaller escorting ships. By 19:00, all of Scharnhorst's main-calibre guns and most of her secondary guns had been knocked out. Her engines were knocked out one by one, and at 20:00, the German battlecruiser capsized and exploded. Only 36 survivors were rescued from her crew of 1,960. The battlecruiser had fought valiantly, unescorted and completely alone against a British force of 13 warships: Scharnhorst had taken 19 torpedoes before she sank, along with hundreds of high-calibre shells. Scharnhorst's wreck was discovered in 2000 at a depth of 300 m.

Bibliography

• Scharnhorst: Nazi Germany’s Super Battleship or paper tiger? | The National Interest
• Speed and strength — Scharnhorst — german battleship with 25 photos. | WAR HISTORY ONLINE
• Wrecksite — Scharnhorst Battleship 1939-1943. | Wrecksite.eu
• KMS Scharnhorst. | Military Factory
• Scharnhorst: How hitler’s pocket battleship was destroyed. | 19FortyFive