Author Topic: The "Lucky Ship" runs out of Luck. Ther SCHARNHORST is sunk, 26 DEC 1943  (Read 1769 times)

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Offline PzLdr

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She was the lead ship in her class, weighing in at around 30,000 tons, armed with nine, 11" guns in triple turrets, and a top speed well in excess of 30 knots. Commissioned in the mid 1930s, along with her sister ship, GNIESENAU, SHARNHORST was the first truly 'heavy' naval unit in the Reichs Kriegsmarine, being classified at various times by various parties as a battle cruiser, a heavy cruiser, and finally a battleship. She was also one of the most active warships of World War II.

SCHARNHORST first appeared on the historical screen in November, 1939, when she and GNIESENAU, acting in concert attempted a breakout into the Atlantic to raid commerce. Instead, they ran into the armed merchant cruiser H.M.S RAWALPINDI, a converted liner. RAWALPINDI was sunk, the first of SCHARNHORST's victims, but not the last.

In April 1940, the consorts appeared off Norway as part of the WESER exercise. They were tasked with first escorting troop transports to Norway, and then acting as bait to draw any British battleships away from the landings in Norway. Pursued by H.M.S RENOWN, they were wildly successful, although GNIESENAU was hit, suffering some damage, as they outran the British ship heading north.

After repairs to GNIESENAU, the two ships appeared off Norway on June 8th. Their orders were to attack British troop transports in Norwegian Fjords. Enroute they stopped, inspected and released a British hospital ship. Shortly afterward they spotted smoke out to sea. It was the British aircraft carrier H.M.S GLORIOUS, escorted by two destroyers. GLORIOUS' captain, in a hurry to return to Scapa Flow for a court - martial had been detached for a Royal Navy flotilla to do so. Despite his haste, he was running with only two boilers 'up', and no combat air patrol. SHARNHORST's first salvos ripped upo the flight deck, preventing any aircraft taking off. The German warships quickly closed the range and sank the carrier. A spirited counter-attack by the destroyers resulted in the destroyers' sinking, but substantial damage to SCHARNHORST. After temporary repairs in Norway, the ships returned to Germany for more substantial repairs.

SCHARNHORST next appeared in January- February 1941. Successfully breaking into the Atlantic, she and GNIESENAU over a period of several days [after desultory success], sank 22 merchantmen under the command of Fleet Admiral Guenther Lutjens [soon the command BISMARCK and PRINZ EUGEN in the RHINE EXERCISE]. Both ships then fled to Brest for repairs, and a planned breakout to join BISMARCK in commerce raiding. Bombing and damage from the RAF prevented that plan, and instead of the battlecruisers joining BISMARCK, PRINZ EUGEN joined them in Brest.

There they stayed until early 1942, when as part of OPERATION CEREBUS, the three warships fled Brest, and sailing up the English Channel in broad daylight, broke through British defenses and escaped to Germany; although in the process both SCHARNHORST and GNIESENAU [at different times] struck mines. GNIESENAU never sailed again. She was de-commissioned, and her guns used for coastal defense [one of her turrets is still in Norway].

SCHARNHORST was sent to Norway where most of the 'heavy units of the German navy were now located, including the battleship TIRPITZ, the pocket battleship LUTZOW, and the heavy cruiser ADMIRAL HIPPER. Although it had been planned since before the war to 'up arm' SCHARNORST by replacing her main armament with six 15" guns in her three turrets, it was not done, and SCHARNHORST went to Norway still armed with the same  main guns found on the pocket battleships. Still, by now SCHARNHORST was known in the Kriegsmarine as a 'lucky ship', and her crew was justifiably proud of her service record.

SCHARNHORST accompanied TIRPITZ on the Spitzenberg raid, and was anchored a short distance away from the battleship when the latter was successfully attacked by British 'X' class midget submarines.

ON Christmas Day, 1943, SCHARNHORST, accompanied by five destroyers weighed anchor and headed north to attack a convoy returning to Britain from Murmansk. It was winter, the seas were bad, and the destroyers were forced to break off, and return to Norway. SCHARNHORST groped on, alone.

It was a trap. To the west, a British task force, led by the battleship DUKE OF YORK, a KG V class battleship [10 x 14" guns]was shadowing the convoy, expecting a German attack. The intial action was between SCHARNHORST and the convoy cruiser screen, including the ultra-modern H.M.S BELFAST, with a  state of the art fire control system. SCHARNHORST was driven off, but returned. At some point her forward gunnery control and radar was put out of action. SCHARNHORST now attempted to break off a flee at speed to Norway, but became engaged with DUKE OF YORK [Adm. Bruce Fraser]. She broke contact once, but then a salvo fro the British battleship damaged  SCHARNHORST's engines reducing her speed to the point where she could not outrun the battleship. SCHARNHORST went down fighting, living up to her motto of "Immer Vorans" ["Always forward"]. Less than forty survivors of a crew of around 2,000 were rescued. On his return to the area, Admiral Fraser dropped a wreath on the area SCHARNHORST went down, and told his officers that if they ever faced the SCHARNHORST's situation when they commanded a ship, he hoped they would do as well.

But the SCHARNHORST's luck had finally run out, and all that was left was an enviable fighting record. Modern searches for the SCHARNHORST's wreckage where the Royal Navy said she went down produced a zero. But throu the use of up to date computer equipment and data friom the time, the Norwegian Navy placed her some 20 miles northwest of where the British though she'd went down. Her shattered remains were found there within the last 20 years.
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