SPECIFICATION

Displacement: 32,000 tons standard, 38,900 tons full load

Dimensions: length 234.9 m (770 ft 8 in) overall; beam 30.0 m (98 ft 5 in); draught 9. 1 m (29 ft 10 in) deep Machinery: 3-shaft geared steam turbines delivering 160,000 shp (119312 kW)

Speed: 32 kts

Armour: belt 330 mm ( 13 in); decks 501 10 mm (2-4.25 in); turrets 355 mm( 14 in)

Armament: nine 280-mm ( 1 1-in), 12 150-mm (5.9-in), 14 105-mm (4. 1-in) AA and 16 37mm AA guns, and six 533mm (21-in) torpedo tubes

Aircraft: two Arado floatplanes 

Complement: 1,840 officers and men

KMS Scharnhorst was planned as the Ersatz Elsass, fourth of a class of six planned 'pocket battleships'. By 1933, however, the weaknesses of the 'pocket battleship' or Panzerschiffe were so obvious that Hitler gave the German navy permission to expand the design to 26,000 tons as a reply to the French Dunkerque.

It was hoped to arm the ship with three twin 380-mm ( 15-in) turrets, but to save time three triple 280-mm ( 1 1-in) turrets were used. The design was nominally of 26,000 tons, but had reached 32,000 tons; to conceal the size of the new battle-cruiser the Kriegsmarine continued to quote the lower figure.

For most of her active life the Scharnhorst operated with her sister KMS Gneisenau, and both ships made forays into the North Atlantic in 1940-1. The Scharnhorst was badly damaged by a torpedo fired by the destroyer HMS Acasta while attacking the carrier HMS Glorious in June 1940.

Although the two ships posed a considerable threat to the British while lying at Brest in 1941 and the repeated raids by the Royal Air Force were far too inaccurate to do any serious damage, Hitler felt the two units were too exposed, and ordered them to return. Operation 'Cerberus', the daylight dash through the English Channel in February 1942, was probably the Kriegsmarine's greatest success, for it took the British completely by surprise, the two battle-cruisers and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen slipping past ineffectual air and sea attacks. Apart from slight damage to Scharnhorst from a magnetic mine during the final phase it had been a humiliation for the British and proof that audacity pays.

After repairs lasting until August 1942 the ship was sent to Norway in March 1943. She took part in the raid on Spitzbergen in September but otherwise lay in a remote fjord until December 1943, when Admiral Donitz ordered her to sea for an attack on a British convoy.

It was a badly planned operation, and the Scharnhorst failed in her attempt to brush aside the destroyers and cruisers escorting the convoy. Incompetent reconnaissance by the Luftwaffe left her with no idea that the battleship HMS Duke of York was closing fast, and she was taken by surprise when 356-mm (14-in) shells started to hit her. She disengaged but the British and Norwegian destroyers slowed her down with torpedoes, allowing the Duke of York to pound her again. She was finally sunk by torpedoes from HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica and went down with the loss of all but 46 of 1,840 men on board.