The sinking of the Battle Cruiser Sharnhorst ...

[dogtag]

What a magnificent looking ship.
Years ago I taped a bio of the 6" cruiser HMS Belfast
which included this battle of the North Cape. It also
showed a Norwegian survey ship exploring the wreck.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12911441/Hitlers-monster-battleship-Arctic-Royal-Navy-trap.html

[bruce]

Magnificent. Yep! That it was. Sincerely. bruce.

[Allen]

Thanks for posting.

Mostly what you hear about is the Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz.

[blackhawknj]

On his flagship HMS Duke of York Admiral Fraser tells his officers "I hope that if any of you are ever called to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior you will command your ship as gallantly as Scharnhorst was commanded today."

[Art]

The biggest key to the British victory was that years before they had won the electronics war. The Brits had the finest radars on the planet and the type 284 P set on Duke of York found the Scharnhorst at 45,000 yards in apalling weather conditions. It was also was capable of "blindfire" meaning it was not only tied into the ships fire control computer but was so accurate the gun-layers did not have to be able to visually see the Scharnhorst to hit it. German naval radars were incapable of that kind of accuracy. Brit radar was so good we copied it early on and the Mk III fire control radar that the USS Washington used to sink the Japanese battlecruiser Kirishima in Nov. 1942 was a near clone of type 284.

It also didn't help that Bey had detached his destroyer screen to look for the convoy. Having that destroyer division with him would have made the fight at least somewhat more equal.

Years ago I read an excellent book on the Battle of the North Cape written by a Scharnhorst survivor who was on the bridge. This fellow said they didn't even see the Duke of York when the first salvo from it landed, he only knew from the splashes that the projectiles "were of the heaviest caliber."

Bey knew the Arctic convoys almost always had a battleship providing distant cover and any of those (Alabama, Duke of York ect.) outgunned his Battlecruiser by a lot. He probably should have run for home at the first contact with the enemy, but Hitler had it in for the surface fleet so he must have felt a lot of pressure. He almost pulled it off anyway. He was belatedly running for home and opening the distance when a 14" A.P. round fired from Duke of York at long range penetrated Scharnhorst's armor belt and put an engine room out of action. After that the end was certain.

Praising the enemy was touchy in the Royal Navy in WWII. Adm. Tovey sent a signal praising the "gallant fight" put up by Bismarck. This resulted in a reprimand with an admonition to the effect that a signal like that was not to be repeated. Adm. Fraser was wise enough to keep his compliments in house. He was right about the stoutness of Scharnhorst's defense though. Her damage control was superb, when she could pick up a target visually in her directors her shooting was accurate and by the time she went down the Scharnhorst had expended all of her heavy ordinance. Scharnhorst's shooting was not entirely without effect either, she inflicted serious damage to a heavy cruiser and moderate damage to a destroyer.