Scharnhorst

Sunk

Type	Battleship
Class	Scharnhorst
War	Second World War
Main guns	9 × 28 cm/54.5 (11 inch) SK C/34

Fast battleship with nine 11-inch guns, sometimes called a battlecruiser. With Gneisenau she sank the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi in 1939 and the carrier Glorious with her destroyers Ardent and Acasta off Norway in June 1940, raided the Atlantic in 1941 and dashed up the English Channel from Brest in February 1942. Sunk by Duke of York and her escorts off the North Cape on 26 December 1943; 36 of her 1,968 crew survived.

For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Schlachtschiff "Scharnhorst" Schlachtschiff "Scharnhorst" Photo: UnknownUnknown, 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 inch) 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	Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven
Laid down	15 June 1935
Launched	3 October 1936
Commissioned	7 January 1939
Displacement	Standard: 32,100 long tons (32,600 t) Full load: 38,100 long tons (38,700 t)
Length	234.9 m (770 ft 8 in)
Speed	31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)
Complement	56 officers 1,613 enlisted