The Scharnhorst class was a class of German battleships (or battlecruisers) built immediately prior to World War II. The first capital ships of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, it comprised two vessels, and . Scharnhorst was launched first, and is considered to be the lead ship by some sources; they are also referred to as the Gneisenau class''' in some other sources, as Gneisenau was the first to be laid down and commissioned. They marked the beginning of German naval rearmament after the Treaty of Versailles. The ships were armed with nine 28 cm (11 in) SK C/34 guns in three triple turrets; plans to replace these with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never realized.
The two ships were laid down in 1935, launched in late 1936, and commissioned into the German fleet by early 1939. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for the early years of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. The two ships participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser and sank the aircraft carrier on 8 June 1940. In the engagement with Glorious, Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history. In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany.
In late 1942, Gneisenau was heavily damaged in an Allied air raid against Kiel. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy; the Germans were instead intercepted by British naval patrols. During the battle of North Cape, a force led by the Royal Navy battleship sank Scharnhorst. In the meantime, repair work on Gneisenau had begun, and the ship was in the process of being rearmed. When Scharnhorst was sunk, work on her sister was abandoned. Instead, she was sunk as a blockship in Gotenhafen in 1945; the wreck was broken up for scrap in the 1950s.
Classification
They were the first class of German ships to be officially classified by the Kriegsmarine as Schlachtschiff (battleship). Previous German battleships were classified as Linienschiffe (ships of the line), and Panzerschiffe (armored ship). Their adversary, the Royal Navy, rated them as battlecruisers but after the war reclassified them as battleships. Jane's Fighting Ships 1940 lists both the Scharnhorst and es as "Battleships (Schlachtschiffe)"Jane's Fighting Ships 1940 pp. 212–213. Another adversary, the United States Navy, rated them as battleships. In English language reference works they are sometimes referred to as battleships and sometimes as battlecruisers.
Design
Development
The Treaty of Versailles, which established the terms concluding World War I, restricted German naval shipbuilding to warships displacing no more than . Debates in Germany over the role and size of its navy continued through the 1920s, when increased naval shipbuilding in France and the Soviet Union prompted the Germans to begin drawing up designs for large capital ships. The first design, completed in 1928, called for a battlecruiser armed with eight 30.5 cm (12 in) guns in four twin gun turrets, based on the design for the s that had not been completed during the war. In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany; he made clear to the naval command that he had no intention of building a large fleet to challenge British supremacy at sea. He was primarily concerned with the possibility of a limited war with France, which would require the protection of German sea lanes. To this end, he authorized two more ships—the —to augment the three Panzerschiffe (armored ships). These ships would displace 19,000 tons and have the same armament and speed as the Panzerschiffe; the extra tonnage would be taken up by increased protection. Hitler wanted to follow this course so he would not be seen as overtly flouting the Treaty of Versailles. He did not realize that such "unsinkable" commerce raiders would provoke Great Britain more severely than 26,000-ton battlecruisers armed with 28.3 cm (11.1 inch) guns, which would be regarded as inferior to all the Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers then in commission.
To combat the German Panzerschiffe, the French built two small s in the early 1930s. This in turn prompted the German navy to begin plans for a more powerful battlecruiser design. Since 1933, Erich Raeder, the head of the German Navy, had argued to increase the defensive qualities of the Panzerschiffe, and to increase the offensive power of the main battery with the addition of a third triple turret. This was also the view of the Kriegsmarine, which saw the 19,000-ton design as being unbalanced. Hitler agreed to increased armor protection and internal subdivision, but refused to permit an increase in armament. Finally, by February 1934, Hitler acquiesced over the addition of the third turret. The new ship would displace and be armed with nine 28.3 cm guns in three triple turrets. To secure political freedom to build the new ships, Hitler concluded the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement, which guaranteed Great Britain a 3 to 1 superiority in capital ships, and, more importantly, removed the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles for the German navy.
The construction of D-class cruisers were canceled to make way for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The provisional names of the planned D-class cruisers, Ersatz Elsass and Ersatz Hessen, were reallocated to the new ships, the contracts for which were awarded to the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven and the Deutsche Werke in Kiel. Construction was held up by 14 months, partly because Hitler wanted to secure the treaty with Britain before work began, and partly due to numerous design changes after the ships had been ordered.
Because the maximum caliber of naval gun allowed under the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was 40.6 cm (16 inch), Hitler soon had second thoughts about the guns to be used for the new ships and ordered that they be armed with 38 cm (15 inch) weapons. The 28.3 cm turrets were readily available; 38 cm turrets would take years to develop, and Hitler wanted capital ships as soon as possible to fulfill his political ideals. He was also reminded that, despite the allowances of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, the British had historically been sensitive about increases in main gun calibers aboard German capital ships. He therefore acquiesced to the ships' being armed with 28.3 cm guns, with the provision that they be upgunned to 38 cm at the earliest opportunity. The 38 cm turret was eventually used in the Bismarck-class battleships. A plan to upgrade Gneisenau with 38 cm guns was proposed in 1942 while she was under repair, which also required lengthening the hull, strengthening the barbettes, and overhauling the electrical system, but this was abandoned in 1943.
General characteristics Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were long at the waterline; Scharnhorst was long overall, while Gneisenau had a slightly shorter overall length, at . The ships both had a beam of . They were designed to displace , which would have given the ships a draft of . At standard displacement of , which reduced draft to , while at a full combat load of , draft increased to . The ships' hulls were constructed from longitudinal steel frames, over which the outer hull plates were welded. Their hulls contained 21 watertight compartments and had a double bottom for 79% of their length.
The German navy considered the ships to be poor sea boats; they were bow-heavy when fully equipped and very "wet" as high as the bridge. This problem was mitigated to some extent by replacement of the straight stem with an "Atlantic bow" to both Gneisenau and Scharnhorst in January and August 1939 respectively; use of the "A" turret remained restricted in heavy seas. The ships' stern was also frequently "wet", they were very slow entering a turn, and always required assistance from tugboats in shallow waters. With the rudder hard over, the ships lost over 50% speed and heeled over more than 10°. During trials, the ships heeled as much as 13° at hard rudder.Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had a crew of between 56 and 60 officers and 1,613 to 1,780 enlisted men. The crew was augmented by another 10 officers and 61 men when serving as a squadron flagship. They carried a number of smaller watercraft, including two picket boats, two launches, two barges, two pinnaces, two cutters, two yawls, and two dinghies.
Propulsion
Initially, diesel propulsion was planned for these ships, as had been used for the three Panzerschiffe. It was decided to use superheated steam propulsion, as the required total output for the desired speed was three times that of the Panzerschiffe. In the case of triple-screw ships, this would have meant more than twice the horsepower per shaft of the Panzerschiffe, and in the case of a quadruple-screw ship, this would have amounted to more than 40,000 horsepower per shaft. This requirement was beyond the diesel technology then available, and devising engines that could meet this demand would take an unforeseeable amount of time. Since high-pressure superheated steam had already proved successful, it was considered the most suitable choice for high power machinery.Scharnhorst was powered by three Brown, Boveri, & Co geared steam turbines, while Gneisenau was equipped with three Germania geared turbines. The turbines drove three-bladed screws that were in diameter. Steam was provided to the turbines by 12 Wagner ultra-high-pressure oil-fired water-tube boilers, which produced pressures up to and temperatures up to . The engines were rated at at 265 revolutions per minute (rpm), and on trials produced up to at 280 rpm. When steaming in reverse, the engines were rated for . The ships had a designed speed of ; on trials both vessels beat their designed speeds—Scharnhorst hit and Gneisenau made . The ships carried of fuel oil as designed; additional storage areas, including hull spaces between the belt and torpedo bulkhead, increased capacity to . At maximum fuel load, the ships were expected to steam for at a cruising speed of ; Scharnhorst reached only at 19 knots, while Gneisenau managed only at that speed.
Electrical power was supplied to the ships by five electricity plants. Each plant consisted of four diesel generators and eight turbo-generators. The four diesel generators were divided into pairs: two provided 150 kilowatts each and two supplied 300 kW each. The eight turbo-generators were also of mixed capacity; six ran supplied 460 kW each and the remaining two provided 230 kW each. Total power output was 4,120 kW at 220 volts.
Armament
The Scharnhorst-class ships were built with a main battery of nine 28.3 cm (11.1 inch) SK C/34 54.5 caliber quick-firing guns in three triple turrets, two forward and one aft. These guns were an improvement over the earlier 28.3 cm SK C/28 guns mounted on the Deutschland-class cruisers. While the 28.3 cm guns were of a smaller caliber than main guns of other navies, they were still preferred by a number of gunnery officers in the Kriegsmarine due to their higher rate of fire. The guns were equipped with three different types of shells, an armor-piercing (AP) L/4,4 shell that weighed 330 kg (727.5 lb) and two high explosive (HE) shells that both weighed 315 kg (694.4 lb)—an L/4,4 type with a base fuse and an L/4,5 version with a nose fuse. All three types of shells used the same propellant charges: an RPC/38 42.5 kg (93.7 lb) fore charge and an RPC/38 76.5 kg (168.6 lb) main charge. They fired these shells at a rate of fire of 3.5 rounds per minute.