Scharnhorst class armoured cruisers (1906)

SMS Scharnhorst, Gneisenau

The last German armoured cruisers

Before their better-known counterparts in the Second World War, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had been the Imperial Navy's most recognizable and famous German cruisers. Named after famous Prussian generals during the Napoleonic wars, they had been the ultimate and very best German armoured cruiser at the end of a long lineage, just before the first battlecruisers came out in 1906.


SMS Scharnhorst by Arthur Renard

Development

Ordered at Blohm & Voss and Weser shipyards in 1905 and launched in March-June 1906, SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were completed in 1907 and 1908. Heavily inspired by the previous Roon class of 1903, they retained their general appearance. However, they were much larger, better protected, and better armed, thanks to the choice of giving them a new battery of eight 210 mm in turrets and barbettes. They were designed specifically to successfully oppose their British equivalents, also the end of their line, the Minotaur class.


The Roon class was in many ways similar to the Scharnhorst class.

Design

Protection

Both ships had a Krupp armor belt which started at 150 mm (5.9 in) thick (center), decreasing to 80 mm (3.1 in) on both ends of the citadel, down to nothing on ends of the ship, and backed with teak planking. The deck was protected from 60 mm (2.4 in) to 35 mm (1.4 in) and it sloped down to the belt at 40–55 mm thick. The forward conning tower was 200 mm (7.9 in) with a 30 mm roof. However, the rear one was a mere 50 mm with a 20 mm roof. The main battery was protected by 170 mm (6.7 in) of steel with 30 mm roofs. Amidships guns had 150 mm (5.9 in) shields and 40 mm roofs. The secondary guns had 80 mm shields.


Brassey's diagram of the class

Powerplant

The machinery was generally the same as the previous Roon class: Three 3-cylinder triple-expansion engines that drove a single propeller each. Gneisenau's screws were slightly smaller than her sister-ship. The engines were fed by 18 coal-fired marine-type boilers and 36 fireboxes. Their total output was about 26,000 metric horsepower (19,000 kW; 26,000 ihp), but on trials, both ships achieved higher speeds at 28,782 ihp for Scharnhorst and 30,396 ihp for Gneisenau. Scharnhorst topped 23.5 knots and Gneisenau reached 23.6 knots (43.7 km/h; 27.2 mph). Both carried 800 t of coal but had a maximum storage of 2,000 should the outbreak of war force them to stay at sea for longer

This made for a 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) radius at about 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). Their electrical plant was made of four turbo-generators for a total of 260 kilowatts at 110 volts, the last time this voltage was used. In the next ship of the German armoured/battlecruiser lineage, Blücher, generators were rated at 225 volts.


Jane's diagram of the class.

Armament

The main armament of these ships was equivalent to the interwar heavy cruiser standard, with eight 210 mm (8.3 in) SK L/40 guns. There were two main turrets fore and aft, and four under single-wing turrets at each end. Their projectiles were 108 kg (238 lb) armor-piercing shells flying at 780 meters per second (2,600 ft/s). The guns achieved a 4 to 5 rpm rate of fire, and 700 rounds were carried in total. With 30° of elevation, these guns achieved a range of 12,400 metres (single turrets) to 16,300 metres (17,800 yd) range.


Scharnhorst rear turret

Secondary armament comprised of six 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/40 guns in casemates, capable of 4-5 rpm, with 1,020 rounds in storage. With 20° of elevation, they were capable of a 13,700 metres (15,000 yd) range. Their tertiary artillery, quick-firing for anti-torpedo warfare, comprised eighteen 8.8 cm (3.46 in) guns in casemates, firing 10 kg (22 lb) shells at 620 m/s (2,000 ft/s). There was a total of 2,700 rounds in store, which could be fired at a range of 11,000 m (12,000 yd). There were also four 45 cm (18 in) submerged torpedo tubes, which launched a C/03 type torpedo. The latter carried a 176 kg (388 lb) HE warhead at 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph), and a range of 1,500 metres (1,600 yd). 11 torpedoes were carried.

Active carrer

Of little use in the Hochseeflotte because of the introduction of faster, modern battlecruisers, they were transferred to the Pacific squadron under the command of Von Spee, with whom the two ships would be written down in the history books. In 1909 they were based at Tsing-Tao. With the outbreak of the war and the entry of Japan into the central empires, their place was no longer secure, and the squadron began to wage war on commerce in the eastern Pacific and on the coast West of South America. As Spee attemted to return to Germany, the following is known to him: The only possible pitfall in the Cape Horn area was Admiral Cradock's squadron, based in the Malvinas Islands. The latter had no choice but to face his rival with inferior forces, in order to forbid him to cross the Atlantic.


SMS Scharnhorst prewar

The following is known: The only possible pitfall in the Cape Horn area was Admiral Cradock's squadron, based in the Malvinas Islands. The latter had no choice but to face his rival with inferior forces, in order to forbid him to cross the Atlantic.

The clash took place at Coronel on Nov. 1, 1914. The Good Hope and Monmouth were sunk there, while the Germans took almost no damage. The squadron passed Cape Horn and found itself harassing convoys from Argentina and Brazil. However, a British force was quickly assembled to track down Von Spee. The latter had to fight its way back and was forced to battle once again on 8 August 1914 off the Falklands. Faced this time with battlecruisers, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau stood little chance but fought with gallantry. Scharnhorst was sunk with all hands, while many of Gneisenau's crew were rescued from the choppy waters of the South Atlantic.


Two views of the Scharnhorst type.

More on SMS Scharnhorst

Generalleutnant Gerhard von Scharnhorst laid down at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg on January 1905 was commissioned on 24 October 1907. She was Admiral Maximilian von Spee's flagship at the German East Asia Squadron.
Her crew was esteemed one of the best trained, and like her sister-ship, she won awards for their excellence at gunnery. The declaration of war caught her in the Caroline Islands on a routine cruise. Japan's declaration of war soon convinced Spee to depart from Asia, and join Leipzig and Dresden from the American station, and heading for Chile to refuel. The goal was then to return to Germany via the Atlantic Ocean.
However en route he planned also to attack shipping and get rid of Admiral Christopher Cradock's squadron.

Generalleutnant Gerhard von Scharnhorst laid down at Blohm & Voss, Hamburg on January 1905 was commissioned on 24 October 1907. She was Admiral Maximilian von Spee's flagship at the German East Asia Squadron. Her crew was esteemed one, and one of the best trained in the Kaiserliche Marine. Thus, like her sister-ship, she won awards for her excellence at gunnery. The declaration of war caught her in the Caroline Islands on a routine cruise. Japan's declaration of war soon convinced Spee to depart from Asia, join Leipzig and Dresden from the American station, and head for Chile to refuel. The goal was then to return to Germany via the Atlantic Ocean. However, en route, he planned also to attack shipping and get rid of Admiral Christopher Cradock's squadron. Von Spee's squadron met Admiral Cradock fleet off Coronel.

The German armoured cruiser excelled in this battle, engaging British cruisers at 18 kilometers, then closing to 12 km at about 19H PM. She scored 34 hits on HMS Good Hope, at least one landing in the ship's ammunition magazines, which detonated. While the result was perceived by the First Lord of the admiralty as "the saddest naval action of the war", the Kaiser ordered 300 iron crosses for the crews upon return. However, the squadron's next objective was to destroy the Falklands island radio station after refueling in Valparaiso. In the meantime, Fisher ordered Admiral John Jellicoe to detach battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible to catch and destroy Von Spee, under the orders of Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee. The squadron also comprised cruisers Carnarvon, Cornwall, Defence, Kent, and was soon reinforced by the light cruisers Bristol and Glasgow, escaped from Coronel. They arrived at the Falklands by the morning of 8 December, spotting the Germans at 9:40 AM.


Scharnhorst sinking, with the Gneisenau behind.


HMS Inflexible picking up Scharnhorst's survivors.

In turn, Von Spee also spotted them and ordered a retreat. However the worn-out ships could not escape the fast battlecruisers, that caught them at 13:20, opening fire at 14 km (8.7 mi), and not ceasing until 15:00, leaving the Scharnhorst a burning wreck, riddled of dozens of 305 mm impacts, listing and later sinking rapidly. Gneisenau was hit too, by no less than 50 rounds, and sank rapidly, her crew cheering the kaiser before going down. Although hundreds of survivors were picked up, some 2,200 men perished, among which Admiral von Spee, who became a martyr and national hero back in Germany. His memory would be revived through the naming of a pocket battleship after him, one of the three Deutschland class, which also operated in the South Atlantic, while both cruisers would be revived in the next class of German interwar battleships.

Links/Sources

wikipedia.org Scharnhorst class cruiser
On historyofwar.org
On worldwar1.co.uk
On dreadnoughtproject.org

HD 1/400 author's Illustration of the Scharnhost, late 1914

Naval History