The Sinking of the Scharnhorst: A Factual Account From the German Viewpoint; Siegfried Breyer â Die Schlachtschiffe der Scharnhorst-Klasse. All the heavy ships of the German Navy should be reduced to scrap, their guns removed and used for coastal defences. Scharnhorst presented an imposing silhouette, with three triple turrets, a heavy bridge superstructure, and a single large stack. Scharnhorst was, in fact, making for a position ahead of the convoy from which she could commence a sweep with destroyers to the south-west. Its auxiliary battery consisted of twelve 15 cm L/55 guns, sixteen 3.7 cm SK C/30 L/83, and fourteen 10.5 cm L/65. Scharnhorst German Battle Cruiser of WW2. With her flared "clipper" bow and an extraordinary top speed of 33 knots, she had been described as one of the most beautiful warships ever built. Williamson, Gordon (2003). The vessel has been discovered almost 105 years to the day after it sank, on 8 December 1914 during the Battle of the Falkland Islands. No I don't agree. So he decided to withdraw to Norway, and use to the full her speed advantage of five knots. The Russian offensive was rolling along unchecked. The vessel's multibeam sonar produces an image of two objects, one 170m long, the other 70m long, and positioned at an angle to the first. Many of those had been ordered to abandon ship, but were left behind in the water when the Allied ships quickly departed the area. Her conning tower was ⦠Scientists and technologists used all of their expertise to plan building the battleship⦠Germany was forbidden to even commission battleships at the time. You will receive a verification email shortly. Scharnhorst wreck German warships in a Norwegian port, probably Trondheim, in June 1940. Her main mast and her rangefinders are the right way up on the seabed some distance away. However, an attack by British midget submarines badly damaged the Tirpitz, leaving the Scharnhorst to operate alone. Although there were 38 survivors, none had been picked up by the German warships. The guns were "15 centimeters." Sending down her ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), part of the mystery is immediately solved. According to Wiki*, the Scharnhorst was sunk on 26 December 1943 to the extreme north of Norway in the Battle of the North Cape, so the location of it's wreck ⦠In his official Dispatches, Admiral Fraser stated that 'no ship saw the enemy sink' but, regardless of this, he proceeded to record an official position for that sinking. 1,519 men were lost from the three ships. Unknown to the German command, the convoyâs British escort, led by Admiral Sir Robert Burnett and Admiral Bruce Fraser, had successfully intercepted the Scharnhorstâs radio communications. "Most big warships in deep waters have turned [over] on the way down to the seabed because of their large superstructure, but the Karlsruhe has gone straight down and is resting on its keel.". Remembering the incident, Rex Chard, Navigating Officer on one of the destroyers, remarked, 'in sea-warfare one is always very sorry for the sailors. In future, aircraft-carriers would dictate the outcome of major naval engagements. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, Aliens on 1,000 nearby stars could see us, new study suggests. It was 570 feet (174 meters) long and could reach a top speed of 32 knots (37 mph or 59 km/h) — quite fast for the time. In this wartime painting, flares illuminate the night sky on the day after Christmas 1943, as elements of the British Royal Navy led by the battleship Duke of York surround and overwhelm the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, sending her to a watery grave in what came to be known as the Battle of the North Cape. The wreck of the World War I German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was found beneath more than 5,000 feet of seawater near the Falkland Islands in the ⦠It added to the galloping sense of defeat stoked up by German losses on the Eastern front. We must help'. For comprehensive pictorial coverage of Scharnhorst, see: Check the layout again. According to the Reuters news agency, Norwegian broadcasters also reported that the underwater images taken by the ROV included a medallion on the warship decorated with a Nazi swastika symbol. The underwater survey vessel Sverdrup II, operated by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, was used to scan the sea floor. OSLO, Norway ââ The wreck of the German battleship Scharnhorst has been found in arctic waters more than a half-century after it ⦠Enigma: The Battle for the Code by Hugh Sebag-Montifiore (2000-01), The Death of the Scharnhorst by John Winton (1983), Scharnhorst and Gneisenau: The Elusive Sisters by Richard Garrett (1978), Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty's Operational Intelligence Centre - 1939-45 by Patrick Beesly (1977), The Loss of the 'Scharnhorst' by A J Watts (1970), The Russian Convoys by BB Schofield (1964), Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days by Gross-Admiral Karl Doenitz (1959), The Drama of the 'Scharnhorst': A Factual Account from the German Viewpoint by Corvette-Captain Fitz-Otto Busch (1956), Hitler and His Admirals by Anthony Martienssen (1948). In the Public Record Office in London, the actual navigational log of HMS Duke of York Admiral Fraser's flagship, records an entirely different position for the sinking from that shown in the official Dispatches. Seen for the first time in almost 60 years, Scharnhorst's hull lies upside down on the seabed. It also had ten 2cm ⦠"The ship was an important actor at a crucial time of Norwegian modern history," Kvalø told Live Science in an email. The wreck of a German First World War armoured battlecruiser has been located off the Falkland Islands. For other ships of the same name, see Scharnhorst. It then left Kristiansand later that day, bound for Germany; along the way, it was hit by torpedoes from the British submarine Truant, which blasted large holes in the hull. T he wreck of a First World War German battlecruiser sunk by the Royal Navy in 1914 has been found off the coast of the Falkland Islands.. 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