Ship Modelers Association

The following information was taken from the “Ships of the World – An Historical Encyclopedia” along with information gathered from the Internet.

She was a Scharnhorst-class battlecruiser with a length of 770.5 feet, breadth of 98.4 feet and a depth of 32.5 feet. Her tonnage was 38,100 with a compliment of 1800 officers and men. She was a steel ship armed with 9 each 11.2 inch guns ( in three turrets of 3 guns each) as main armament, with 12 each 6 inch, 14 each 10.5 cm, 16 each 3.7 cm, 34 each 2 cm and 6each 21 inch torpedo tubes. She carried 4 seaplanes, had an armor belt of 14 inches with 2 inch on deck, was powered by geared turbine engines with 165,930 shp on 3 screws capable of 31.5 kts. She was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft, Wilhelmshaven, Germany in 1939.

Under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, Germany was prohibited from laying down any warships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 raised the maximum tonnage, and SCHARNHORST and her sister ship GNEISENAU were laid down the same year with a nominal displacement of 26,000 tons. This displacement was exceeded. She was commissioned two months before the German invasion of Poland, SCHARNHORST’S first war cruise into the North Atlantic, with GNEISENAU, resulted in the sinking of the armed merchant cruiser ROWALPINDI on November 23, 1939, southeast of Iceland.

The following April the two ships took part in the German landing at Narvik; on April 9, 1940, they engaged HMS RENOWN, though SCHARNHORST was unscathed. During the Allied withdrawal from Norway two months later, the ships sank aircraft carrier HMS GLORIOUS and destroyers ACASTA and ARDENT off Narvik. However, SCHARNHORST was torpedoed by ACASTA and was twice attached by aircraft from HMS ARK ROYAL at Trondheim before she could return to Kiel. There she remained until January 22, 1941, when SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU began a commerce-raiding cruise during which they sank a total of 22 ships totaling more than 105,000 gross tons. They returned on March 23 to Brest where they were joined by PRINZ EUGEN on June 1.

Though under periodic attach by British aircraft, the ships’ greatest threat was that Hitler would order their guns removed for use as shore batteries in Norway. To effect their return to home waters, Admiral Erich Raeder ordered Operation Cerberus, a plan of dramatic simplicity. The ships would leave Brest, sail up the English Channel, through the 20-mile-wide Dover Strait, into the North Sea and home. The ships left Brest at 1930 hours on February 11, 1942. Though spotted by British patrols at 1042 the next morning, due to a series of errors they were not even challenged until after noon when shore batteries on South Foreland opened fire on the ships, then about 10 miles west of Calais.

About 12 minutes later, a flotilla of seven motor gunboats and motor torpedo boats tried to work their way past the screen of E-boats and destroyers, but they were driven back or sunk without inflicting serious damage. A flight of six Swordfish attached at 1245, with the loss of all planes and most of their crews. At 1432, SCHARNHORST struck a mine that left her dead in the water for 17 minutes, tough there were no British forces to take advantage of the situation.

Six destroyers engaged the overwhelming German force starting at 1517 but to no effect, and a total of 242 bombers launched that afternoon likewise failed to damage the enemy. SCHARNHORST hit a second mine at 2134 but docked under her own power at Wilhelmshaven the next morning. Following lengthy repairs at Kiel, SCHARNHORST was deployed to northern Norway, and she sailed with TIRPITZ to bombard Spitzbergen on September 6-8, 1943. She was not at Altenfjord when British midget submarines crippled TRIPITZ.

On Christmas Day, Germany’s only operational capital ship, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Erich Bey (Captain Hintze commanding), was ordered to sea with five destroyers to intercept convoy JW55B. At 0820 the next morning, Bey inexplicably turned away from the destroyers, which took no part in the coming engagement. Within half an hour, SCHARNHORST had been picked up on the radar of three British cruisers, HMS NORFOLK, BELFAST, and SHEFFIELD, which were escorted by four destroyers. At 0930, NORFOLK opened fire and scored two hits that knocked out SCHARNHORST’S radar, and Bey withdrew; the three cruisers also turned away.

Rather than return to base, Bey tired for a second attack on the cruisers. This began at 1221 – at this time of year it was virtually a night action – and knocked out NORFOLK’S “X” turret before breaking off again after 20 minutes. All this time, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser had been steaming to catch up with SCHARNHORST in HMS DUKE OF YORK, which opened with accurate fire from her 14-inch guns at 1651, followed by the curiser HMS JAMAICA; this force was also accompanied by four destroyers. SCHARNHORST was hit at least 13 times before getting out of range – or so the combatants thought.

At 1820, a 14-inch shell fired at a range of more than 18,000 yards – more than 16 kilometers, or 10 miles – plunged into her boiler room, reducing her speed from 26 knots to about 10 knots. Although her speed was soon back up to 22 knots, within 20 minutes of this fatal blow, the destroyers had maneuvered into position. Four torpedoes struck home and SCHARNHORST came under withering fire from FAMAICA, BELFAST, and DUKE OF YORK, which closed to 3,000 yards and only stopped firing at 1729. Fifteen minutes later, having been hit by eight more torpedoes, SCHARNHORST exploded and sank in the ocean with the loss of 1,803 of her crew. There were only 36 survivors.