German battleship Scharnhorst - Wikipedia. Scharnhorst. History. Nazi Germany. Name: Scharnhorst. Namesake: Gerhard Johann von Scharnhorst (1. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 1. June 1. 93. 5 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1. Completed in January 1. Scharnhorst, German battle cruiser completed in 1939. It did great damage to Allied shipping in northern waters during World War II before it was sunk by the British battleship “Duke of York” on Dec. C/3. 4 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 3. SK C/3. 4 guns in twin turrets were never carried out. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation, Scharnhorst sank the auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement (November 1. The battleship/battlecruiser Scharnhorst was a German capital ship that entered service in 1939 and saw service in World War II including the invasion of Norway, the 'Channel Dash', and the Battle of the North Cape. Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. Scharnhorst definition, Gerhard Johann David von . Listen to SCHARNHORST . Stream Tracks and Playlists from SCHARNHORST on your desktop or mobile device.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Weser. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier. HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. In that engagement Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest- range naval gunfire hits in history. In early 1. 94. 2, after repeated British bombing raids, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. In early 1. 94. 3, Scharnhorst joined the Bismarck- classbattleship. Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy, but British naval patrols intercepted the German force. During the Battle of the North Cape (2. December 1. 94. 3), the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst. Only 3. 6 men were pulled from the icy seas, out of a crew of 1,9. Construction and characteristics. The ship was launched on 3 October 1. Adolf Hitler, Minister of War Generalfeldmarschall. Werner von Blomberg, and the widow of Kapit. Fitting- out work followed her launch, and was completed by January 1. Scharnhorst was commissioned into the fleet on 9 January for sea trials, which revealed a dangerous tendency to ship considerable amounts of water in heavy seas. This caused flooding in the bow and damaged electrical systems in the forward gun turret. As a result, she went back to the dockyard for extensive modification of the bow. The original straight stem was replaced with a raised . The modifications were completed by November 1. Scharnhorst displaced 3. She was powered by three Brown, Boveri & Cie geared steam turbines, which developed a total of 1. W and yielded a maximum speed of 3. Her standard crew numbered 5. While serving as a squadron flagship, Scharnhorst carried an additional ten officers and 6. She was armed with nine 2. L/5. 4. 5 guns arranged in three triple gun turrets: two turrets forward, one superfiring. The design also enabled the ship to be up- gunned with six 1. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 1. L/5. 5 guns, fourteen 1. L/6. 5 and sixteen 3. L/8. 3, and initially ten 2 cm (0. The number of 2 cm guns was eventually increased to thirty- eight. Six 5. 3. 3 cm (2. N. His tenure as the ship's commander was brief; in September 1. Kz. SKurt- Caesar Hoffmann. Hoffmann served as the ship's captain until 1. On 1 April 1. 94. Hoffmann, who had been promoted to Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) and awarded the Knight's Cross, transferred command of the ship to Kz. SFriedrich H. In October 1. Scharnhorst's last mission, H. The intent of the operation was to draw out British units and ease the pressure on the heavy cruiser (. Two days later, the German flotilla intercepted the British armed merchant cruiser. Rawalpindi. At 1. Scharnhorst spotted the vessel, and less than an hour later Scharnhorst had closed the range. At 1. 7: 0. 3, Scharnhorst opened fire, and three minutes later a salvo of her 2. Rawalpindi's bridge, killing the captain and the majority of the officers. During the brief engagement, Rawalpindi managed to score a hit on Scharnhorst, which caused minor splinter damage. By 1. 7: 1. 6, Rawalpindi was burning badly and in the process of sinking. Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, aboard Gneisenau, ordered Scharnhorst to pick up survivors. These rescue operations were interrupted by the appearance of the cruiser Newcastle. The German force quickly fled north before using inclement weather to make the dash south through the North Sea. Four allied capital ships, the British Hood, Nelson, Rodney, and the French Dunkerque followed in pursuit. The Germans reached Wilhelmshaven on 2. November, and on the trip both battleships incurred significant damage from heavy seas and winds. Scharnhorst was repaired in Wilhelmshaven, and while in dock, her boilers were overhauled. Operation Weser. Heavy ice in the Baltic kept the ship there until February 1. Wilhelmshaven, arriving on 5 February. She was then assigned to the forces participating in Operation Weser. 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. They were joined by the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. Later that day, at around 1. British bombers, which failed to make any hits. Heavy winds caused significant structural damage that evening, and flooding contaminated a portion of Scharnhorst's fuel stores. At 0. 9: 1. 5 the following morning, Admiral Hipper was detached to reinforce the destroyers at Narvik, which had reported engaging British forces. Early on 9 April, the two ships encountered the British battlecruiser HMS Renown. Gneisenau's Seetakt radar picked up a radar contact at 0. Half an hour later, Scharnhorst's navigator spotted gun flashes from Renown firing at Gneisenau; the Germans returned fire three minutes later. Gneisenau was hit twice in the opening portion of the engagement, and one shell disabled her rear gun turret. Scharnhorst's radar malfunctioned, which prevented her from being able to effectively engage Renown during the battle. At 0. 5: 1. 8, the British battlecruiser shifted fire to Scharnhorst, which maneuvered to avoid the falling shells. By 0. 7: 1. 5, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had used their superior speed to escape from the pursuing Renown. Heavy seas and the high speed with which the pair of battleships escaped caused them to ship large amounts of water forward. Scharnhorst's forward turret was put out of action by severe flooding. Mechanical problems with her starboard turbines developed after running at full speed, which forced the ships to reduce speed to 2. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had reached a point north- west of Lofoten, Norway, by 1. April. The two ships then turned west for 2. After a day of steaming west, the ships turned south and rendezvoused with Admiral Hipper on 1. April. An RAF patrol aircraft spotted the three ships that day, which prompted an air attack. The German warships were protected by poor visibility, however, and the three ships safely reached port later that day. Scharnhorst returned to Germany, and was repaired at the Deutsche Werke in Kiel. During the repair process, the aircraft catapult that had been installed on the rear gun turret was removed. The two ships left Wilhelmshaven on 4 June to return to Norway. They were joined by Admiral Hipper and four destroyers. The purpose of the sortie was to interrupt Allied efforts to resupply the Norwegians and to relieve the pressure on German troops fighting in Norway. On 7 June, the squadron rendezvoused with the tanker Dithmarschen to refuel Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers. The next day, a British corvette was discovered and sunk, along with the oil tanker Oil Pioneer. The Germans then launched their Arado 1. Allied vessels. Admiral Hipper and the destroyers were sent to destroy Orama, a 1. Atlantis, a hospital ship, was allowed to proceed unmolested. Admiral Marschall detached Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers to refuel in Trondheim, while he would steam to the Harstad area. Scharnhorst firing against HMS Glorious. At 1. 7: 4. 5, the German battleships spotted the British aircraft carrier. Glorious and two escorting destroyers, Ardent and Acasta, at a range of some 5. Scharnhorst was closer and therefore fired first. Six minutes after opening fire, Scharnhorst scored a hit at a range of 2. The shell struck the carrier's upper hangar and started a large fire. Less than ten minutes later, a shell from Gneisenau struck the bridge and killed Glorious's captain. The two destroyers attempted to cover Glorious with smoke screens, but the German battleships could track the carrier with their radar. By 1. 8: 2. 6 the range had fallen to 2. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were firing full salvos at the carrier. After approximately an hour of shooting, the German battleships sent Glorious to the bottom. They also sank the two destroyers. Before sinking one of them, Acasta, managed to hit Scharnhorst with a torpedo at 1. Acasta also hit Scharnhorst's forward superfiring turret with her 4. The torpedo hit caused serious damage; it tore a hole 1. The rear turret was disabled and 4. The flooding caused a 5 degree list, increased the stern draft by almost a meter, and forced Scharnhorst to reduce speed to 2. The ship's machinery was also significantly damaged by the flooding, and the starboard propeller shaft was destroyed. The damage was severe enough to force Scharnhorst to put into Trondheim for temporary repairs. She reached port on the afternoon of 9 June, where the repair ship Huaskaran was waiting. The following day a reconnaissance plane from RAF Coastal Command spotted the ship, and a raid by twelve Hudson bombers took place on 1. June. The Hudsons dropped thirty- six 2. The Royal Navy joined in the attacks on the ship by sending the battleship Rodney and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. On 1. 3 June, Ark Royal launched fifteen Skua dive bombers; German fighters intercepted the attackers and shot eight of them down. The other seven made it past the air defenses and attacked Scharnhorst, but only scored one hit, and the bomb failed to detonate.
1 Comment
James Ayres LaMar
10/7/2023 04:50:45 pm
My machine was briefly attacked and protected by Avast and Webroot. You have a bug. I was looking for a painting of the famous channel dash I photographed thirty years ago as a museum.
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