Figure 1: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939-1943) in port when first completed, circa early 1939. Note ship's badge mounted on her bow, and snowy conditions at right. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939-1943) ceremony on the ship's after deck, with the Nazi-era naval ensign flying at the stern, circa early 1939. This may be the ship's commissioning ceremony on 7 January 1939. Note snow on shore in the distance, stern anchor and decoration on the ship. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: German battleships Scharnhorst (left) and Gneisenau in a German port, circa spring or early summer 1939, after Gneisenau had been refitted with a "clipper" bow, but before Scharnhorst had been similarly fitted. Two rowing shells (one with four oarsmen and a coxswain, the other with two oarsmen only) are in the foreground. Fine screen halftone reproduction, published in the contemporary German booklet "Deutsche Seemacht." US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939) tied to a mooring buoy in Wilhelmshaven Harbor, circa 1939, as men in a boat push off from her bow. Note anchors, ship's badges on her bow and on the boat, and paired cables running down from her starboard bow chock. In mid-1939, Scharnhorst's bow was greatly modified from the configuration seen here. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 15. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939) photographed by A. Klein, Kiel, in the fall of 1939, after completion of her July-August 1939 refit. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 1. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Gneisenau (German battleship, 1938) view of the ship's forward two triple 283-mm (11-inch) gun turrets, with forecastle and capstans in the foreground, circa later 1939 or 1940. The battleship Scharnhorst is in the left distance. She has been refitted with a "clipper" bow. Fine screen halftone reproduction, published in the contemporary German booklet "Deutsche Seemacht." US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: German battleships Scharnhorst (left) and Gneisenau in a German port, circa 1939-41. The photograph was received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation with their letter of 2 October 1941. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Norway campaign, 1940. German battleship Scharnhorst firing her forward 283-mm (11-inch) guns during the engagement with the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her escorts, 8 June 1940. Photographed from the battleship Gneisenau. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939) view looking aft on the foredeck, with anchor handling gear in the foreground and two triple 283-mm (11-inch) gun turrets beyond. Taken during the winter of 1939-40 at Kiel, Germany. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst,"page 9. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939) view from the forward superstructure, looking toward the bow, as the ship throws spray while underway during the winter of 1939-40. Note ice accumulated on her triple 283-mm (11-inch) gun turrets. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 16. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939) view of the ship's forward 283-mm (11-inch) triple gun turrets, showing ice accumulated overnight during operations in the winter of 1939-40. Probably taken in the Baltic Sea in January 1940. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 8. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939) close-up view of the starboard main bow anchor, ice-covered during the winter of 1939-40, probably in January 1940 in the Baltic Sea. Ice also coats the ship's foredeck, lifelines and 11-inch gun turrets. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 7. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: Scharnhorst’s commanding officer, Kapitan zur Zee Kurt Caesar Hoffman, addresses his officers and crew from a platform by the after main battery gun turret, circa winter 1939-40. Part of the aircraft catapult is visible atop the turret. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 18. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: Sailors standing on Scharnhorst's after deck with a Christmas tree, circa December 1939. The ship was then under repair at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 14. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: Scharnhorst in the ice in Kiel harbor, Germany, during the winter of 1939-40, probably in late January 1940 when the ship was working up after refit. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 6. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 16: Icy lifelines seen from Scharnhorst's main deck during the winter of 1939-40, probably in the Baltic Sea in January 1940. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 7. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 17: German Naval Memorial at Laboe, near Kiel, Germany. Photographed from on board the battleship Scharnhorst during the winter of 1939-40. This memorial was built in 1927-36 to honor the memory of German sailors lost in the First World War, 1914-1918. Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 8. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 18: A crewman poses on Scharnhorst's deck under ice-coated 11-inch gun barrels during the winter of 1939-40, probably in January 1940 in the Baltic Sea. The original caption translates "Menacing Cold." Copied from the contemporary German photo album "Meine Kriegserinnerungen auf Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst," page 6. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 19: Operation "Cerberus," February 1942. German battleships in the English Channel en route from Brest, France, to Wilhelmshaven, Germany, 12 February 1942. Photographed from the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. The battleship Gneisenau is in the center, with Scharnhorst in the distance, to the left. Copied from the report of officers of Prinz Eugen, with some identification by her Gunnery Officer, Paul S. Schmalenbach, 1970. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 20: Operation "Cerberus," February 1942. German heavy ships steaming up the English Channel en route from Brest, France, to Wilhelmshaven, Germany, 12 February 1942. Photographed from the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, with the battleship Gneisenau next ahead and the Scharnhorst in the distance. Copied from the report of officers of Prinz Eugen, with some identification by her Gunnery Officer, Paul S. Schmalenbach, 1970. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 21: Aerial reconnaissance photograph of Kiel, Germany, probably taken by the British Royal Air Force circa February-June 1942. The arrow in upper right center marks the position of the battleship Scharnhorst, which was then under repair at the Kiel navy yard for damage received during the February 1942 "Channel Dash." From contemporary files of the US Office of Naval Intelligence. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 22: Scharnhorst (German battleship, 1939-1943) in the Alta Fjord, Norway, circa March-December 1943. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after the famous Prussian General Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst (1755-1813), Scharnhorst was a 32,100-ton Gneisenau class battleship (also called at various times a battlecruiser) that was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft shipyard at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, and was commissioned on 7 January 1939. The ship was approximately 772 feet long and 98 feet wide, had a top speed of 31 knots, and had a crew of 1,968 officers and men. Scharnhorst was armed with nine 11-inch guns, 12 5.9-inch guns, 14 4.1-inch guns, 16 1.5-inch guns, and six torpedo tubes. She also carried three Arado Ar 196A float planes.
After some initial shakedown cruises, Scharnhorst was modified in mid-1939 and some substantial structural changes were made to the battleship. She was given a new mainmast that was located further aft from the old one and a new “clipper bow” was welded on the ship to improve her performance at sea. Her relatively low freeboard, though, always ensured that she would be very “wet” when sailing in rough weather. While Scharnhorst was still undergoing these modifications in the dockyard, the war in Europe began in September 1939.
Scharnhorst’s first operational mission began on 21 November 1939. Scharnhorst, escorted by her sister battleship Gneisenau, the light cruiser Koln, and nine destroyers, steamed to the area between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. This task force was trying to lure British Royal Navy units away from the German “pocket” battleship Admiral Graf Spee, which at that time was being chased in the South Atlantic by the Royal Navy. On 23 November, the Scharnhorst’s task force stumbled onto the British auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi that was on patrol in the area. At 17:03, Scharnhorst opened fire with her 11-inch guns and after only three minutes the lightly-armed Rawalpindi was ablaze, with her bridge destroyed and most of her crew dead (including the captain). Rawalpindi sank shortly after the start of the battle, but she did manage to send out a distress signal informing the Royal Navy of her location as well as that of the Scharnhorst and her task force. The British sent four allied capital ships after them, including HMS Hood, HMS Nelson, HMS Rodney, and the French battleship Dunkerque. But the German task force made a clean getaway and returned to Wilhelmshaven on 27 November.
After another overhaul, Scharnhorst entered the Baltic Sea for some gunnery practice. Heavy ice conditions kept her in the Baltic until 5 February 1940, when she returned to Wilhelmshaven. She then participated in Operation Weserubung, which was the invasion of Denmark and Norway. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau escorted the German amphibious assault groups invading Narvik and Trondheim, Norway. On 9 April 1940, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau encountered the British battlecruiser HMS Renown, part of the Royal Navy task force sent to intercept the German warships. At great distance, the ships fired shots at each other. Gneisenau was hit twice at the start of the battle, with one British shell knocking out her rear gun turret. Scharnhorst’s radar then malfunctioned, preventing her from shooting accurately at Renown. Renown then fired several shots at Scharnhorst, but missed as the German battleship used her speed to evade the British shell fire. The two German battleships then broke off the engagement and retreated. After making some temporary repairs at sea, they returned to Germany.
Both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau left Wilhelmshaven on 4 June 1940 and returned to Norway. On 8 June, the two German battleships spotted the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, which was being escorted by the destroyers HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta. Scharnhorst was the first to open fire and after six minutes scored a hit on the carrier at a range of 26,400 yards. The shell hit Glorious on its upper hangar deck and started a large fire. Less than ten minutes later, a shell from Gneisenau hit the carrier’s bridge, killing the captain and his staff. After being pounded relentlessly for nearly an hour, the flame-engulfed HMS Glorious sank. The two small destroyers Ardent and Acasta charged at the two German battleships and were also blown to pieces. It was a heroic effort and the two destroyers kept firing away with their smaller 4.7-inch guns as they were being pounded to death by the gigantic battleships. Incredibly, Acasta managed to fire a torpedo at Scharnhorst during the charge and scored a major hit. The explosion from the torpedo tore a huge hole in Scharnhorst’s hull, causing serious flooding. The battleship’s rear turret was disabled and 48 sailors were killed in the blast. Flooding caused serious damage to much of the ship’s machinery and created a 5-degree list. Also, the ship’s starboard propeller shaft was destroyed. Scharnhorst limped to Trondheim, Norway, for temporary repairs, which were completed by 20 June. The battleship returned to Germany under heavy escort.
Scharnhorst spent the rest of 1940 being repaired. From 22 January to 22 March 1941, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau steamed into the Atlantic and sank several merchant ships. The two German battleships posed an enormous threat to the British trade route to the United States, so a large number of Royal Navy warships were sent to try and hunt the pair down. The two ships eventually made their way to Brest, France, after their foray into the Atlantic ended. But while at Brest, the two German capital ships were the target of numerous Royal Air Force bombing attacks. On 24 July 1941, British bombers scored five hits on Scharnhorst, causing major damage to the warship. The damage kept Scharnhorst non-operational into late 1941. The German Naval Command then decided to concentrate major German surface warships in Norway to attack allied merchant convoys headed for Russia. This decision had an enormous impact on Scharnhorst’s future.
Since it was too risky to attempt to send the German battleships to Norway via the North Atlantic, a bold plan was created to move the ships north. It was called “Operation Cerberus” and on 11 February 1941, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were joined by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and the three ships left Brest. They decided to go straight through the English Channel to reach Germany. The three ships had a heavy naval and air escort throughout the journey. The British and the Royal Navy were caught completely off guard by the bold move, which became known as the famous “Channel Dash.” The three German ships hugged the French coast as they sailed right past England at a brisk 27 knots. Several British aircraft tried to attack the ships, but the heavy German air escort prevented them from getting near the German vessels. But Scharnhorst’s luck ran out when she hit two sea mines during the trip, causing substantial damage. Although the ship had to slow down to only 10 knots because of the damage, Scharnhorst made it to Kiel, Germany, on 13 February. Gneisenau was also damaged by a sea mine, but both ships still made it back to Germany by sailing right past the English coast, causing the Royal Navy to be extremely embarrassed by the whole incident.
The damage caused by the mine blasts, along with problems with her steam power plant, kept Scharnhorst in the shipyard until March 1943. She then steamed to northern Norway to join the battleship Tirpitz in raids on allied merchant convoys headed for Russia. After going on several training missions, Scharnhorst, Tirpitz, and nine destroyers went on an offensive mission and bombarded the Norwegian base on the island of Spitzbergen on 8 September 1943. The guns from the two battleships shelled fuel tanks, coal mines, harbor facilities, and military installations on the island. The destroyers landed approximately 1,000 troops on Spitzbergen and silenced the important allied weather station based there. This facility transmitted vital weather information which was used by the Allies to schedule convoys to the Soviet Union. After Tirpitz returned to her base in Norway, though, British mini-submarines attacked her and caused serious damage to the battleship. This incident reduced the German Arctic Task Force to just Scharnhorst and her five escorting destroyers.
With the German Army losing on the Eastern Front, it became even more important to try and disrupt the flow of supplies going to the Soviet Union. Therefore, Hitler and Grossadmiral Karl Donitz (Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy) decided to have Scharnhorst attack the next allied merchant convoy that sailed next to Norway. By now Konteradmiral Erich Bey was given command of the small German task force and on 22 December 1943, Donitz ordered Bey to get ready to go to sea. Later that day, German reconnaissance aircraft located a convoy of 20 transports, escorted by cruisers and destroyers, approximately 460 miles west of Tromso, Norway, and headed for Russia. Donitz ordered Bey to attack the convoy but retreat if confronted by superior forces. Bey planned to attack the convoy on 26 December if the weather was good. At that time of year in the far north, there was only 45 minutes of full daylight and six hours of twilight, making an attack on the convoy in daylight difficult. Since Scharnhorst’s radar capabilities were not as good as those found on British warships, fighting at night could pose much danger for the German warships.
Unfortunately for Konteradmiral Bey, the Royal Navy managed to decode Bey’s orders and knew about the German attack on the convoy ahead of time. Knowing where Scharnhorst was and what she was about to do, the British positioned their forces to intercept the German battleship on 25 December. The cruisers HMS Norfolk, HMS Belfast, and HMS Sheffield were immediately sent to attack Scharnhorst, while the powerful British battleship Duke of York, along with another cruiser and four destroyers, moved in position to prevent Scharnhorst’s escape back to Norway. The Battle of the North Cape was about to begin.
At 09:21 on Christmas day 1943, lookouts on Belfast spotted Scharnhorst. The British cruisers quickly swung into action and opened fire on Scharnhorst. The German battleship was hit twice, with one of the British shells destroying her forward range finders and radar antenna. Seeing that he was outnumbered and now also partially “blind” because of losing the antenna, Bey ordered his five escorting destroyers to return to port and decided to bring Scharnhorst back to her base in Norway as well. But, unknown to Bey, the decision to retreat only drove Scharnhorst right into the guns of the other British task force, the one that had the battleship HMS Duke of York in it.
Scharnhorst did score two significant hits on HMS Norfolk, causing some damage, but the British cruisers continued keeping the German battleship busy until reinforcements arrived. At 16:17, Duke of York finally made radar contact with Scharnhorst and at 16:50 she was within range and opened fire on the German battleship. After five minutes of lobbing shells at Scharnhorst with her 14-inch guns, Duke of York started scoring some hits on the German battleship. Scharnhorst tried to fight back, but her aim was bad due to her damaged radar and the hits that were now crippling the ship. At 18:42, Duke of York ceased fire after firing 52 salvos and hitting Scharnhorst at least 13 times. These hits destroyed most of Scharnhorst’s secondary armament, making her vulnerable to destroyer attacks. This the British did, with the destroyers HMS Scorpion and HMS Stord moving in for the kill. The two destroyers launched a total of eight torpedoes, four of which hit Scharnhorst. The torpedo hits slowed Scharnhorst down to only 10 knots, allowing more British ships to come even closer to the dying German battleship. The cruisers HMS Jamaica and Belfast moved into position and fired more torpedoes at Scharnhorst. After several more hits, Scharnhorst settled further into the water and began to list to starboard. She was hit too many times by too many ships and just couldn’t take it any longer. At 19:45, Scharnhorst went down by the bows, with her propellers still turning slowly. Out of a crew of 1,968 officers and men, only 36 were rescued from the frigid waters by the British warships.
The Battle of the North Cape was a clear victory for the Royal Navy and it helped alleviate some of the embarrassment it sustained after the famous “Channel Dash,” of which Scharnhorst was a prominent member. Like a huge, wounded, beast, Scharnhorst fought until the very end. But, as Konteradmiral Erich Bey and the crew of Scharnhorst discovered, great strength is still no match against a greater number of large warships.
