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Gneisenau (German pronunciation: [ˈɡnaɪ̯zənaʊ̯]) was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class , which included her sister ship, Scharnhorst .
The Scharnhorst class was a class of German battleships (or battlecruisers) built immediately prior to World War II.The first capital ships of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, it comprised two vessels: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
At approximately 13:20, the battlecruisers opened fire at a range of 14 kilometers (8.7 mi). After a two-hour-long battle, Scharnhorst was dead in the water and listing heavily. The ship was sunk shortly thereafter. Gneisenau had been hit more than 50 times at close range; the crew gave three cheers for the Kaiser before the vessel sank.
British and German naval movements off Norway between 7 and 9 April 1940. Whitworth's force consisted of the battlecruiser Renown and the nine remaining destroyers.HMS Hotspur, Hardy, Havock, and Hunter were H-class destroyers, HMS Esk was an E-class destroyer and HMS Ivanhoe, Icarus and Impulsive were of the I class.
When Gneisenau was moved back in her dock, she was hit by four bombs in the night of 10 April. These second hits on Gneisenau raised the first doubts, for German naval planners, over the viability of Brest as a base for German capital ships. [61] Prinz Eugen was seriously damaged by a bomb on 1 July.
In late 1942, Gneisenau was heavily damaged in an Allied air raid against Kiel. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the Bismarck-class battleship Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy; the Germans were instead intercepted by British naval patrols.
The battlecruiser type was an outgrowth of older armored cruiser designs; they were intended to scout for the main battle fleet and attack the reconnaissance forces of opposing fleets. Kaiser Wilhelm II insisted that the new battlecruisers be able to fight in the line of battle with battleships to counter Germany's numerical inferiority ...
SMS Scharnhorst Scharnhorst steaming at high speed, c. 1907–1908 History German Empire Name Scharnhorst Namesake Gerhard von Scharnhorst Laid down 22 March 1905 Launched 23 March 1906 Commissioned 24 October 1907 Fate Sunk in action, Battle of the Falkland Islands, 8 December 1914 General characteristics Class and type Scharnhorst -class armored cruiser Displacement 12,985 t (12,780 long ...