Scharnhorst (ship, 1936)
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The Scharnhorst was the first battleship built in Germany after the First World War . The ship was named after the Prussian lieutenant general and military reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755-1813).
Originally planned as an armored ship of the Deutschland class , she was put into service after a redesign in 1939 and took part in various operations of the German navy during the Second World War, where she was damaged several times. The Scharnhorst was sunk by British naval forces on December 26, 1943 in the North Sea about 160 km north of the North Cape after a battle lasting several hours.
The Scharnhorst was the type ship of the class of two ships named after her . Her sister ship was the Gneisenau . Their most striking feature was the weak main armament for battleships with a caliber of only 28 cm. The originally planned upgrade to 38 cm guns, the main armament of the Bismarck class , was never carried out.
history
The Scharnhorst was the first ship of the German Navy that was to go well beyond the limits of the Versailles Treaty from the start . Originally, she was laid down as an ironclad with a displacement of around 18,000 tons . In response to the construction of the French battleships of the Dunkerque class , construction was canceled in July 1934 and started again about a year later according to a different design with an official tonnage of 26,000 t. This displacement was actually exceeded considerably. The new Scharnhorst design provided it with good armor protection, and its high-pressure, superheated steam turbine system gave it superior speed.
With regard to the main artillery, equipping with 38 cm twin towers was considered, but since these were still under development and would have delayed the commissioning of the units considerably, the decision was made in favor of the already existing and proven 28 cm triple towers. However, only at first glance did these look like the main armament of the Deutschland class . In terms of both the strength of the turret armor and the length of the gun barrels, the turrets represented a further development. A later upgrade to 38 cm cannons in twin turrets was constructively prepared and, in the case of the only sister ship, the Gneisenau, was also started, but not completed.
During the Second World War, the Scharnhorst was used in various companies, often together with her sister ship.
Outbreak of war
Shortly after the renovations and tests were completed at the end of August 1939, the Second World War began on September 1, 1939 with Germany's attack on Poland. From November 21 to 27, 1939, Gneisenau and Scharnhorst undertook their first patrol in the North Sea. The ships ran out to lure British warships from the Atlantic into the North Sea, which in turn was supposed to relieve the armored ships operating in the Atlantic against merchant ships . On November 23, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the auxiliary cruiser Rawalpindi northwest of the Faroe Islands . 21 survivors were recovered from Gneisenau , 6 more from the Scharnhorst , before the cruiser Newcastle was discovered, which had intercepted the emergency calls from the Rawalpindi . In order to avoid a possible engagement with a group of heavy British battleships of the British Home Fleet , Admiral Marschall broke off the operation and had the battleships return to their base.
"Nordmark" company
"Nordmark" was the code name for the advance of the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst , the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and two destroyers into the sea area between Shetland and Norway from February 18 to 20, 1940. That was in the beginning battle for the "Ore Road" from Northern Norway Fleet chief Admiral Marschall led, ultimately unsuccessful company Nordmark was directed against the convoy traffic in the area between Great Britain and Scandinavia . Only the submarines set up as part of the advance were able to sink twelve merchant ships with 38,000 GRT and the British destroyer Daring .
Company "Weser Exercise"
The Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau belonged to Group 1 during the occupation of Norway as part of the Weser Exercise Company . This was to land troops in Narvik . On April 6, 1940, the destroyers of the group in Bremerhaven took over mountain fighters , who were commanded by Lieutenant General Eduard Dietl . The next day the two battleships ran out together with the ten destroyers Georg Thiele , Wolfgang Zenker , Bernd von Arnim , Erich Giese , Erich Koellner , Diether von Roeder , Hans Lüdemann , Hermann Künne , Wilhelm Heidkamp and Anton Schmitt . Group 2 ( Admiral Hipper and four destroyers) were encountered in the German Bight . As far as Trondheim , both groups marched north together. At dawn on April 9, the destroyers, under the leadership of Commodore Friedrich Bonte , entered Narvik and landed their troops. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau took over the remote security at sea and met the British battle cruiser Renown here . The Gneisenau got a direct hit in the Vormars , which put the forward artillery control center out of action. The German ships broke off the fight and returned to Wilhelmshaven.
Company "Juno"
On June 4, 1940, the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as well as the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the destroyers Hans Lody , Hermann Schoemann , Erich Steinbrinck and Karl Galster left Kiel . The aim was to relieve the German troops in Narvik. For this purpose, the formation commanded by Admiral Wilhelm Marschall was supposed to stop the British supplies and intercept the British withdrawal, which was already beginning. On June 7, the German naval command learned that a British convoy with 10,000 men had left the Narvik area as part of the evacuation towards England. Marschall decided to intercept this formation, which consisted of seven transport ships. On the afternoon of the next day, the German ships were roughly level with Harstad when the aircraft carrier Glorious with its two securing destroyers Ardent and Acasta was suddenly sighted. Since the aircraft carrier also had aircraft evacuated from Norwegian land bases on board and these hindered the launch of its own carrier aircraft, no torpedo aircraft could be brought into the air against the German combat group at short notice. The Scharnhorst opened fire around half past four in Germany and shortly afterwards was able to hit the Glorious for the first time . With the third volley, a hit could be achieved from a distance of 24 km, which is considered to be the greatest hit distance on a moving ship in the entire Second World War. After several hits, the front hangar went up in flames, whereupon the ship was abandoned by the crew. The two escort destroyers were also sunk, but the already sinking Acasta was able to fire a torpedo fan , from which a torpedo hit the Scharnhorst below the eighth triple tower and claimed 48 deaths. The leak torn by the torpedo hit was twelve meters long and four meters high. Because of the damage, Admiral Marschall broke off the venture, which allowed the undiscovered British troop convoy, which was only 100 nautical miles to the north, to escape. The German ships arrived in Trondheim the next day, where the necessary repairs were carried out in the nearby Lofjord with the help of the workshop ship Huascaran and the salvage ship Parat .
Company "Berlin"
Together with her sister ship Gneisenau , the Scharnhorst ran out of Gotenhafen on January 22, 1941 for an Atlantic company. The association was led by the fleet chief, Vice Admiral Günther Lütjens . A breakthrough through the passages at the Faroe Islands failed and the German ships withdrew to the east. After an oil takeover, an attempt was made a few days later to get into the Atlantic via the Denmark Strait . This time it succeeded and the unit began to cross the Allied convoy routes. The Scharnhorst was able to sink eight ships with approx. 50,000 GRT in the next few weeks. Convoys secured by British battleships, such as the sighted HX 106 , were avoided as ordered. On March 22, 1941, both ships entered Brest .
"Cerberus" company
From February 11 to 13, 1942 the Scharnhorst , the Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen crossed the English Channel . With this company, the Scharnhorst ran twice on sea mines . The first detonated in front of the mouth of the Scheldt , which led to a temporary total breakdown of the machines, as a result of which the Scharnhorst remained idle for some time. However, this was not observed by the British so that no attack took place. Another mine was detonated in front of Terschelling without causing any further damage. The Scharnhorst went to the shipyard in Wilhelmshaven and was out of service for the next eight months.
In March 1943, Scharnhorst moved with Tirpitz to Narvik (company “Paderborn”). On April 4, 1943 there was an explosion below deck in department III in one of the storage rooms of the Scharnhorst . 17 seafarers were killed, the cause was never established. One suspected an act of sabotage while staying in Gotenhafen.
Company "Sicily"
On September 6, 1943, a German combat group consisting of the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst and nine destroyers prepared to attack Allied bases on Spitsbergen in the Altafjord at the North Cape in Norway . Two days later, around 7:00 a.m., the combat group reached the Grönfjord and Advent Bay . A battalion of Grenadier Regiment 349 landed on Svalbard to blow up radio and weather stations as well as the local coal mine. The mining settlements in Barentsburg and Longyearbyen were shelled by the heavy ship guns of the Tirpitz and the Scharnhorst . The company closed without major losses. The allied bases were destroyed.
Company "Eastern Front"
The Scharnhorst was on December 26, 1943 in the North Sea , about 160 km north of the North Cape , after a heavy fight with two British combat groups, consisting of a battleship, three light and one heavy cruiser and at least eight destroyers, under the leadership of the battleship Duke of York sunk.
The aim of the German enterprise had been to intercept the British northern sea convoy JW 55B , which was on its way to Russia. The Scharnhorst was supported by Kampfgruppe 1, consisting of destroyers Z 29 , Z 30 , Z 33 , Z 34 and Z 38 .
Right from the start, the company was under an unfavorable star for Scharnhorst . At this time of year in these latitudes, with the exception of one hour of twilight around noon, it is almost constantly complete darkness. However, since the Scharnhorst's range of fire could not be used in the dark, it would have been tactically wiser to forego the venture. This would certainly have happened if the German leadership had known that the British already had a powerful radar at their disposal at that time , which they could operate in a targeted manner , even in complete darkness. It was assumed that the British had a previously unknown method of location, but the assumptions were more in the direction that the British were able to target the radar radiation of the German ships. That is why the Scharnhorst drove at the beginning of the battle in the morning hours in complete darkness with the radar switched off and was therefore completely surprised by the first attack by the second British security force. In the course of the battle, the Scharnhorst was isolated from its destroyer security, this lost touch and was finally ordered back to the coast. Without securing the destroyers, the fire of the two British combat units could be concentrated exclusively on the Scharnhorst .
Chronology of the battle
At around 9.30 a.m., the Belfast , the Norfolk and the Sheffield opened fire on the Scharnhorst from a distance of about twelve kilometers . The ship was hit several times. One hit destroyed the battleship's fore-Mars rotating hood and with it the radar antenna attached to it. After the loss of the main radar, a fight over long distances was impossible, and Rear Admiral Erich Bey ordered to drive north. At around noon, however, they stopped south again.
The actual battle began between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. and lasted until about 7:30 p.m. when the last torpedoes were shot down from the Jamaica on the ship. At that time the Scharnhorst was already unable to maneuver, was on fire and was listing heavily to starboard. About a quarter of an hour later, a huge explosion destroyed the front of the ship. Presumably, the ammunition chambers of the front tower group exploded after a torpedo hit. The forecastle with the two front turrets was separated from the rest of the hull. At 8:30 p.m. the sinking was officially confirmed by the British Admiral Fraser .
In addition to numerous heavy (at least 13 35.6 cm caliber) and medium shell hits, the Scharnhorst received at least 14 torpedo hits in the battle before it was at the position 72 ° 16 ′ N , 28 ° 41 ′ E. went down. A total of over 50 torpedoes and well over 2000 shells of various calibers were fired at the Scharnhorst . Only 36 men of the crew were rescued (30 by the Scorpion and six by the HMS Matchless ), the rest of the 1968 crew were killed, including the commander, Captain Fritz Hintze, the combat group commander Erich Bey and all the officers. The work to rescue the survivors swimming in the water was canceled due to fears that German submarines were in the vicinity.
In the North Cape Hall in Norway, this battle is shown on display boards.
Discovery of the wreck
In September 2000 the wreck of the Scharnhorst was found by the Norwegian journalist Alf R. Jacobsen after long research, which included the inspection of British, German and Norwegian military archives and interviews with survivors and bereaved relatives, in about 300 m water depth. The wreck was examined and filmed by Argus robots from the Norwegian Navy . There was a report on the German battleship on Norwegian television. Jacobsen reports in his book (see literature) in detail about the search and discovery of the wreck.
memory
At the Nordfriedhof Kiel a stele commemorates the battleship Scharnhorst .
Commanders
| January 7 to October 1939 | Sea captain Otto Ciliax |
| October 1939 to March 1942 | Sea captain Kurt Caesar Hoffmann |
| April 1942 to October 1943 | Sea captain Friedrich Hüffmeier |
| October to December 26, 1943 | Sea captain Fritz Hintze |
Known crew members
- Ansgar Bethge (1924-2008), was from 1980 to 1985 sixth inspector of the Navy
- Horst von Schroeter (1919–2006), was Vice Admiral from 1976 to 1979 in command of the Allied Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea Accesses ( COMNAVBALTAP )
literature
- Heinrich Bredemeier: battleship Scharnhorst . Heyne Verlag, ISBN 3-453-87095-6 .
- Uwe Grewe: Battleship Scharnhorst - End in the North Sea 1943 . Ships – People – Fates, Volume 84/85.
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr and Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 7 : Ship biographies from Prussian eagle to Ulan . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 113–119 (Licensed edition by Koehler's Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).
- Alf R. Jacobsen: The Scharnhorst - sinking and discovery of the legendary battleship . Ullstein Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-550-07594-4 .
- Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: The battleships of the Scharnhorst class . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1991, ISBN 3-7637-5892-5 .
- Karl H. Peter : Battle cruiser Scharnhorst. Fight and doom . ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin Darmstadt Bonn 1951.
- Anthony J. Watts: The sinking of the Scharnhorst - climax and turning point of the battle for the Russian convoys in 1943 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-87943-384-4 .
- Joachim Weber: Death in the polar night. Battle and sinking of the Scharnhorst in the North Sea, 1943 . MarineForum 12-2018, pp. 29-31.
Web links
- Information about Scharnhorst on schlachtschiff.com ( page no longer available )
- Information about Scharnhorst at scharnhorst-class.dk (English)
- Information about the battleship Scharnhorst on german-navy.de (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ Steve Backer: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , 2012, Seaforth Publishing, p. 6
- ↑ HMS Rawalpindi In: ww2db.com . World War II Database, accessed September 12, 2019.
- ^ Janusz Piekałkiewicz : The Second World War. Page 333–334, ISBN 3-89350-544-X
- ↑ The Loss of HMS Glorious ( Memento from May 22, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Gerard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke: Battleships of the Scharnhorst Class: Warships of the Kriegsmarine , 2014, Naval Institute Press p. 113