Gneisenau () was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class, which included her sister ship, . The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke dockyard in Kiel; she was laid down on 6 May 1935 and launched on 8 December 1936. Her outfitting was completed in May 1938: she was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. At one point after construction had started, a plan had been approved to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets, but when it was realized that this would involve a lot of redesign, that plan was abandoned, and construction continued with the originally planned lower-calibre guns. The upgrade had been intended to be completed in the winter of 1940–41, but instead, due to the outbreak of World War II, that work was stopped.
Gneisenau and Scharnhorst operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, for example making sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant ships. During their first operation, the two ships sank the British auxiliary cruiser in a short battle. Gneisenau and Scharnhorst also participated in the German invasion of Norway: Operation Weserübung. During operations off the coast of Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser and sank the aircraft carrier . Gneisenau was damaged in the action with Renown and later torpedoed by a British submarine, , off the coast of Norway. After a successful raid in the Atlantic in 1941, Gneisenau and her sister ship put in at Brest, France. The two battleships were the object of repeated bombing raids by the RAF, during which Gneisenau was hit several times, though she was ultimately repaired.
In early 1942, the two shipsalong with the heavy cruiser successfully made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. After reaching Kiel in early February, Gneisenau went into drydock. On the night of 26 February, the British launched an air attack on her; one bomb penetrated her armored deck and exploded in the forward ammunition magazine, causing serious damage and many casualties. The necessary repairs would have been so time-consuming that it was decided instead to rebuild the ship to replace the nine 28 cm guns with six 38 cm guns in double turrets. The 28 cm guns were removed and used as shore batteries. But in 1943 Hitler issued a stop-work order on the ship. On 27 March 1945, having been moved to Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in German-occupied Poland, she was sunk as a blockship, and in 1951 she was broken up for scrap.
Design
Gneisenau displaced at standard displacement and at full load. She was long overall and had a beam of and a maximum draft of . She was powered by three Germania geared steam turbines, which developed a total of and yielded a maximum speed of on speed trials. Her standard crew numbered 56 officers and 1,613 enlisted men, though during the war this was augmented up to 60 officers and 1,780 men. While serving as a squadron flagship, Gneisenau carried an additional ten officers and 61 enlisted men.
She was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11.1 in) L/54.5 guns arranged in three triple gun turrets: two turrets were placed forward in a superfiring arrangement—Anton and Bruno—and one aft—Caesar. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) L/55 guns, eight of which were placed in two-gun turrets and the remaining four were carried in individual turrets. Her heavy anti-aircraft armament consisted of fourteen 10.5 cm L/65. These guns were directed by four SL-6 stabilized anti-aircraft director posts. The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of sixteen SK C/30 L/83, and initially ten C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The number of 2 cm guns was eventually increased to thirty-eight. Two triple above-water torpedo tubes, taken from the light cruiser , were installed in March 1941.
Gneisenau had an armor belt that was thick in the central portion, where it protected the ship's ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. The ship had an armor deck that was thick on the flat portion, increasing to on downward-sloping sides that connected to the bottom of the belt. Her main battery turrets had of armor on their faces and on their sides. The conning tower was protected with 350 mm on the sides.
Service history
Gneisenau was ordered as Ersatz Hessen as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought , under the contract name "E." The Deutsche Werke in Kiel was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 6 May 1935. The ship was launched on 8 December 1936, after which fitting-out work was begun. The ship was completed in May 1938 and commissioned for sea trials on the 21st, under the command of Kapitän zur See (KzS) Erich Förste. The trials revealed a dangerous tendency to ship considerable amounts of water in heavy seas. This caused flooding in the bow and damaged electrical systems in the forward gun turret. As a result, she went back to the dockyard for extensive modification of the bow. The original straight stem was replaced with a raised "Atlantic bow." A diagonal cap was fitted to the smoke stack to keep the main mast free of smoke. The modifications were completed by September 1939, by which time the ship was finally fully operational.
Gneisenau left Germany for a round of trials in the Atlantic in June 1939. As it was peacetime, the ship carried primarily practice ammunition, with only a small number of live rounds. She was back in Germany when war began in September 1939. On the 4th, the day after the British declaration of war, Gneisenau was attacked by fourteen Wellington bombers, though they made no hits. In November, KzS Förste was replaced by KzS Harald Netzbandt.
The ship's first combat operation, under the command of Admiral Hermann Boehm, involved a sortie together with the light cruiser and nine destroyers through the Kattegat and Skagerrak towards the Norwegian coast on 7 October. The intent was to feint a breakout into the Atlantic which would keep pressure on the British to continue convoying, and to ease the pressure on the heavy cruiser , which was being pursued in the South Atlantic. A third goal was to draw the Home Fleet out of Scapa Flow and lure them into range of the Luftwaffe. The German force was found by British air reconnaissance on 8 October at the Norwegian south coast and promptly returned home, arriving on 10 October in Kiel. The Home fleet left Scapa Flow to intercept the German force but did not find anything. A total of 148 German aircraft were deployed to attack the Home Fleet but they achieved nothing. The British launched an air attack consisting of 12 Wellington bombers, though it too failed to hit any of the German warships. The Home Fleet did not return to Scapa Flow so when penetrated the harbor defenses of Scapa Flow on 14 October to attack the Home Fleet, it found only the old battleship lying at anchor.
The ship's second combat operation, under the command of Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, began on 21 November 1939; the ship, in company with her sister , was to attack the Northern Patrol between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The intent of the operation was again to draw out British units and ease the pressure on the heavy cruiser . A patrol line of four U-boats was stationed in the North Sea to intercept any sortie from the Home Fleet. The two battleships left Wilhelmshaven in company of the light cruisers and , and three destroyers, which parted company in the morning of 22 November for operations in the Skagerrak. The next day, the German flotilla intercepted the auxiliary cruiser . Scharnhorst fired first, followed by Gneisenau eight minutes later. The ship was quickly reduced to a burning wreck; Marschall ordered Scharnhorst to pick up survivors while he stood by in Gneisenau. The cruiser arrived on the scene, which prompted Marschall to halt rescue operations and flee. Based on the reports of Rawalpindi and Newcastle, the British deployed the Home Fleet with the battleships and from the Clyde towards Norway in case the Germans intended to return to Germany, and the battlecruisers and the French left from Devonport towards Iceland to prevent a breakout towards the Atlantic. Aware of these deployments through the B-Dienst, Marschall retreated northwards and waited for bad weather in order to break through a British cruiser and destroyer patrol line between Shetland and Norway. The Germans reached Wilhelmshaven on 27 November, and on the trip both battleships incurred significant damage from heavy seas and winds.
After returning to Kiel, Gneisenau went into drydock for repairs for the storm damage. During the repairs, the bow was remodeled a second time to incorporate additional flare and sheer, in an attempt to improve her seaworthiness. Gneisenau went into the Baltic for trials on 15 January 1940, after the completion of the refit. Her voyage back to the North Sea was blocked by ice in the Kiel Canal until 4 February. Between 18 February and 20 February, she participated in Operation Nordmark, a brief sortie into the North Sea as far as the Shetland Islands.
Operation Weserübung
Gneisenau was assigned to the forces participating in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Denmark and Norway. She and her sister were the covering force for the assaults on Narvik and Trondheim (Flag Officer Vize Admiral Günther Lütjens). The two ships left Wilhelmshaven on the morning of 7 April, along with the heavy cruiser and fourteen destroyers. The cruiser and destroyers carried the assault forces for Narvik and Trondheim, while Gneisenau and Scharnhorst provided cover for them. Later that day, at around 14:30, the three ships came under attack by a force of British bombers, though the bombers failed to make any hits. On the morning of 8 April, the destroyer encountered the British destroyer . Before being sunk, Glowworm rammed Admiral Hipper, though the latter was not seriously damaged. The crews of the two battleships went to battle stations, though they did not take part in the brief engagement. At 21:00, Gneisenau and Scharnhorst took up a position west of the Vestfjorden to provide distant cover to both of the landings at Narvik and Trondheim.
At 04:30 on the 9th, Gneisenau located the British battlecruiser Renown with her Seetakt radar; the call to battle stations rang out on both Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, though it was that fired first, at 05:05. Gneisenau scored two hits on Renown; the first failed to explode and the second exploded on her upper deck and damaged the radio equipment. Gneisenau and Scharnhorst then turned to disengage. Almost simultaneously, two of Renowns 15 in (38 cm) shells struck Gneisenau. One shell hit the director tower and passed through it without exploding; regardless, it cut several cables and killed one officer and five enlisted men. The second shell disabled the rear turret. This prompted Gneisenau to cease firing and increase speed in order to break away from Renown. Vice Admiral Lütjens feared that the destroyers escorting Renown could be used to make torpedo attacks against his unescorted battleships. In the course of the action, Gneisenau fired sixty 28 cm and eight 15 cm rounds. During the high-speed escape, both Gneisenau and Scharnhorst were flooded by significant quantities of water over their bows, which caused problems in both of their forward gun turrets.