Scharnhorst was a German capital ship , alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser , of Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class , which included her sister ship Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven ; she was laid down on 15 June and launched a year and four months later on 3 October Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II , including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping.
During her first operation in November , Scharnhorst sank the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement. In that engagement Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history. In early , after British bombing raids, the two ships made the Channel Dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy but British naval patrols intercepted the German force.
Only 36 men survived, out of a crew of 1, Scharnhorst displaced 32, long tons 32, t at standard displacement and 38, long tons 38, t at full load. She was While serving as a squadron flagship , Scharnhorst carried an additional 10 officers and 61 enlisted men. She was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm The design also enabled the ship to be up-gunned with six inch guns, which never took place.
Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm 5. These guns were directed by four SL-6 stabilized anti-aircraft director posts. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of sixteen 3. Scharnhorst had an armor belt that was mm The ship had an armored deck that was 20 to 40 mm 0. Her main battery turrets had mm 14 in of armor on their faces and mm 7. The conning tower was protected with mm on the sides.
His tenure as the ship's commander was brief; in September , an illness forced him to go on sick leave, and he was replaced by KzS Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann. Hoffmann served as the ship's captain until Scharnhorst was ordered as Ersatz Elsass as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought Elsass , under the contract name "D.
