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There were two battleships in this class
built for the German Navy, the other
being Gneisenau.
Sharnhorst’s first
deployment during World War Two was to
patrol the Faeroes/Iceland passage. This
led to her sinking the British merchant
cruiser Rawalpindi. Her next role
in the war was to provide support for the
German invasion of Norway. During a
battle in the Norwegian Sea June 8th
1940, Sharnhorst and
Gneisenau sank the British carrier
Glorious and the destroyers
Acasta and Ardent. Between
January 22nd and March 22nd 1941,
Sharnhorst and Gneisenau
were operated in the Atlantic sinking
several Allied merchant ships before
putting into the German held port of
Brest/France.
With British bombers making frequent
attacks on the German warships based at
Brest, Sharnhorst, Gneisenau and
the heavy cruiser Prinz
Eugen were forced to make a
desperate run through the English Channel
to safer ports in Germany February 11th
1942. After repairs to damage sustained
by hitting a mine on that voyage,
Sharnhorst was deployed to
Northern Norway for attacks on supply
convoys bound for Russia. On December
26th 1943, Sharnhorst along with a
few destroyers attacked one of these
convoys. The convoys escorting British
cruisers Belfast, Norfolk
and Sheffield engaged
Sharnhorst in a battle until the
battleship Duke of
York along with supporting
cruisers and destroyers arrived at the
scene. That three hour-long battle ended
with Sharnhorst devastated by
gunfire and sunk by torpedoes. There were
only 36 survivors from her crew of 1,968.
Gneisenau also hit a mine after
fleeing Brest and later sustained serious
damaged by Allied bombers while being
repaired at Kiel. Her damaged hulk was
used to form a blockade at the mouth of
Gdnyia Harbor in March 1945.
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