Gneisenau

Scuttled

Type	Battleship
Class	Scharnhorst
War	Second World War
Main guns	9 × 11″ guns

Scharnhorst's sister and partner in the sinking of Rawalpindi and Glorious, the Atlantic raid of 1941 and the Channel Dash. Two weeks after reaching Germany she was wrecked by RAF bombs in drydock at Kiel; her rebuilding with 15-inch guns was abandoned, and she was sunk as a blockship at Gotenhafen in March 1945.

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Schlachtschiff "Gneisenau" Schlachtschiff "Gneisenau" Photo: Klein, A., CC BY-SA 3.0 de · Wikimedia Commons

Armament and specifications

Armament

9 × 28 cm/54.5 (11 inch) SK C/34
12 × 15 cm/55 (5.9") SK C/28
14 × 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK C/33
16 × 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30
10 (later 16) × 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 or C/38
6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes

Armour

Belt: 320 mm (12.6 in)
Deck: 50 to 105 mm (2.0 to 4.1 in)
Turrets: 200 to 360 mm (7.9 to 14.2 in)
Conning tower: 350 mm

Builder	Deutsche Werke
Laid down	6 May 1935
Launched	8 December 1936
Commissioned	21 May 1938
Displacement	Standard: 32,100 long tons (32,600 t) Full load: 38,100 long tons (38,700 t)
Length	229.8 m (753 ft 11 in)
Speed	31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)
Complement	56 officers 1,613 enlisted