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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.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway, from April to June 1940. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent .
Dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet steam in a line of battle The battleships of I Battle Squadron and II Battle Squadron before the outbreak of World War I. The German navies—specifically the Kaiserliche Marine and Kriegsmarine of Imperial and Nazi Germany, respectively—built a series of battleships between the 1890s and 1940s.
Lütjens initially took the ships into Korsfjord in Norway and planned to repair Gneisenau at Trondheim, but was ordered to return to Germany. [20] Both ships reached Gotenhafen on 2 January. [19] Gneisenau was transferred to Kiel to be repaired. [19] The battleships received additional small calibre anti-aircraft guns during this period. [19] [20]
SMS Gneisenau [a] was an armored cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), part of the two-ship Scharnhorst class.Named for the earlier screw corvette of the same name, the ship was laid down in June 1904 at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and commissioned in March 1908.
Renown began the action by opening fire on Gneisenau with her 15-inch guns. The German warships replied at 04:11 with Gneisenau obtaining two hits on Renown with her 11-inch shells. Both shells failed to explode, with the first hitting the British battlecruiser's foremast and the second passing through the ship near the steering gear room.
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 compared to the British Royal Navy. SMS Von der Tann was the first German battlecruiser, built in 1908–1910.