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The Channel Dash (German: Unternehmen Zerberus, Operation Cerberus) was a German naval operation during the Second World War. [a] A Kriegsmarine (German Navy) squadron comprising two Scharnhorst-class battleships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and their escorts was evacuated from Brest in Brittany to German ports.
The first capital ships of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, it comprised two vessels: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Scharnhorst was launched first, [1] and is considered to be the lead ship by some sources; they are also referred to as the Gneisenau class in some other sources, [2] as Gneisenau was the first to be laid down and commissioned. [1]
Scharnhorst ' s forward (Anton) turret was put out of action by severe flooding. [15] Mechanical problems with her starboard turbines developed after running at full speed, which forced the ships to reduce speed to 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). [30] Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had reached a point north-west of Lofoten, Norway, by 12:00 on 9 April ...
Gneisenau also struck a mine at 18:55 GMT. [33] Both ships recovered and steamed on. Scharnhorst had been stopped dead in the water with engine damage after the first hit. The failure to alert Bomber Command earlier meant a chance was missed to deliver an attack on Scharnhorst when it was most vulnerable. The second and third mine hits came ...
During the high-speed escape, both Gneisenau and Scharnhorst were flooded by significant quantities of water over their bows, which caused problems in both of their forward gun turrets. [24] Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had reached a point north-west of Lofoten, Norway, by 12:00 on 9 April. The two ships then turned west for 24 hours while ...
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 ...
About the same time, Renown struck Gneisenau with two shells and a third a little later. [6] The hits damaged Gneisenau on the director tower forward range finders and aft turret putting it out of action, a port anti-aircraft gun was also hit. Renown then transferred fire to Scharnhorst, which had moved to hide Gneisenau with smoke.
Word of war reached Admiral Maximilian von Spee—of the German East Asia Squadron—while at Ponape (17 July – 6 August). He concentrated the majority of his squadron at Pagan Island in the nearby Mariana Islands, and then steamed off into the Pacific with the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the Königsberg-class light cruiser SMS Nürnberg, the auxiliary ...