John A Silkstone

Scharnhorst German Capital Ship

1936 SCHARNHORST Like much of Germanys surface fleet during World War II, the Scharnhorst and her sister-ship the Gneisenau were really effective only in that they tied down precious British naval assets.

A POLITICAL NECESSITY

The Scharnhorsts were to have been enlarged Deutschland-class pocket battleships, with steam turbines rather than diesels and with heavier armour accounting for the increase in displacement to 1 9,000 tons. However, they grew to 26,000 tons even before the design was finalised, with the addition of a further three 280mm (11 in) guns in a triple turret necessitating their being stretched to almost 230m (755ft) overall. Hitler would have liked the pair to be fitted with 380mm (l5in) guns, but they
were not available at the time, so he settled for the original size. Scharnhorst was eventually to grow to a standard displacement of almost 33,000 tons, 42 per cent of which was armour. She was laid down at Wilhelmshaven Dockyard in May 1935 and launched just over a year later on 30 June 1936. She joined the Kriegsmarine on 7 January 1939 and was sunk by a British squadron consisting of the battleship Duke of
York, the cruisers Belfast, Jamaica, Norfolk and Sheffield, together with a destroyer flotilla, about 40 miles (74km) off the North Cape, at 1945hrs on 26 December 1943, with the loss of over 1800 men.

SOPHISTICATED POWERPLANT FOR HIGH SPEED

Like the contemporary Hipper-class heavy cruisers, the Scharnhorsts had very sophisticated powerplants, working at very high pressure and temperature to develop the sort of power necessary to push them along at a maximum speed in excess of 31 knots (58km/h). Scharnhorst had 12 Wagner boilers operating at a temperature of 480 degrees and delivering steam to her three four-chambered Brown-Boveri geared turbines at a pressure of 50 atmospheres.

TECHNICAL DATA

Type: Battleship
Machinery: 3-shaft Brown-Boveri geared turbines delivering 1 62,000shp
Dimensions (overall): Length 229.8m (754k); beam 30m (98.5k)
Displacement: 38,900 tons deep load
Draught: 9.9m (32.511) deep load
Complement. 1840 -
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NAVAL SHIPS
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