Scharnhorst

Scharnhorst was the lead ship of her class, and a battleship built for the Kriegsmarine in the mid/late 1930s. Scharnhorst was armed with nine 28 cm guns in triple turrets with plans to replace them with six 38 cm guns in twin turrets. These plans, however, were never carried out. Scharnhorst's first operation was to patrol between Iceland and the Faroe Islands with her sister Gneisenau, the light cruiser Köln and nine destroyers. Whilst on patrol, the fleet came across the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi and had Scharnhorst sink the ship. HMS Newcastle spotted the fleet, forcing the German...