The Last Battleship of the Third Reich

Built in defiance of the weaponization limits mandated by the Treaty of Versailles and the Washington Naval Treaty, Hitler’s mega battleship the Scharnhorst wreaked havoc on British and Russian supply ships employed in the arctic convoys of WW2, intended to ferry weapons and essential supplies to the Russians in their defense of the Eastern Front. Of Germany’s great battleships, the Bismarck had been sunk in 1941, while the Tirpitz had been badly damaged in September of 1943, leaving the Scharnhorst as the last great battleship of the once proud Kriegsmarine, at the same time, making the ship a prime target of the Royal Navy.

Beginning of the End

On Christmas Eve, 1943, the Scharnhorst set sail from her birth in Norway to hunt down yet another British convoy, only this time, the Royal Navy was notified of the German’s intentions, immediately dispatching a task force to hunt down the Nazi menace on Boxing Day. Divided into two forces, one led by Admiral Robert Burnett, who commanded the battle cruisers Norfolk, Belfast and Sheffield, while the second comprised four destroyers led by Admiral Bruce Fraser, including the Duke of York and the Jamaica. Waiting in ambush for the Scharnhorst’s arrival at the north cape of Norway, when German Admiral Eric Bay caught sight of the trap, he ordered his crew to battle stations, just as the Belfast scored the first hit on the Scharnhorst, destroying the ship’s radar array. Twenty minutes later, the Belfast and Norfolk advanced yet again, only this time the Scharnhorst scored two hits on the Norfolk. Trailing the Scharnhorst at a great distance, the Duke of York scored twice on the German ship, knocking out a turret and igniting the forward magazine, forcing the crew to flood the compartment to save the ship from a catastrophic explosion.

Last Stand

Despite mounting casualties and the loss of two more turrets, Admiral Bay attempted to face off with his British aggressors, battling for hours until another shell from the Duke of York penetrated the Scharnhorst’s upper belt armor and exploded in the boiler room. After firing 52 salvos at the enemy ship, the Duke of York launched eight torpedoes at the Scharnhorst, striking the battleship four times, followed by more torpedo strikes from Jamaica and Belfast, which saw the once great ship go down by her bow. Of the 2,000 German sailors aboard the Scharnhorst, only 36 were rescued from the icy waters of Norway’s north cape. For the remainder of the war, the Nazi’s once dominant surface navy would never recover its former glory, making the sinking of the Scharnhorst, Germany’s last major battleship of the Second World War.