German battleship Gneisenau
Encyclopedia
Gneisenau was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship
and battlecruiser
, of the German Kriegsmarine
. She was the second vessel of her class
, which included one other ship, Scharnhorst
. 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. Completed in May 1938, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm C/34 guns in three triple turrets, though there were plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets.
Gneisenau and Scharnhorst operated together for much of the early portion of World War II
, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation, the two ships engaged the auxiliary cruiser in a short battle. Gneisenau and Scharnhorst participated in Operation Weserübung
, the German invasion of Norway. During operations off 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 Norway. After a successful raid in the Atlantic in 1941, Gneisenau and her sister put in at Brest, France
. The two battleships were the subject of repeated bombing raids by the RAF; Gneisenau was hit several times during the raids, though she was ultimately repaired.
In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel
from occupied France to Germany. After reaching Kiel in early February, the ship went into drydock. On the night of 26 February, the British launched an air attack on the ship; one bomb penetrated her armored deck and exploded in the forward ammunition magazine, causing serious damage and a large number of casualties. The repairs necessitated by the damage were so time consuming that it was determined to rebuild the ship to accommodate the 38 cm guns as originally intended. The 28 cm guns were removed and used as shore batteries. The aft turret (Caesar) was installed at Austrått fort in Ørland
, Norway
where it still remains as a museum exhibit. The mid-ship turret (Bruno) was used at Fjell festning near Bergen
. The front turret (Anton) was heavily damaged, thus individual guns were moved to separate forts in Denmark
and the Netherlands. In 1943, Hitler
ordered the cessation of conversion work, and on 27 March 1945, she was sunk as a blockship
in Gdynia
(Gotenhafen) in German-occupied Poland. She was eventually broken up for scrap in 1951.
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
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 displaced 32100 LT (32,615.2 MT) as built and 38100 LT (38,711.5 MT) fully loaded, with a length of 234.9 m (770.7 ft), a beam of 30 m (98.4 ft) and a maximum draft of 9.9 m (32.5 ft). She was powered by three Germania
geared steam turbines, which developed a total of 165930 shp and yielded a maximum speed of 31.3 kn (61.3 km/h) 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 nine 28 cm (11.1 in) L/54.5 guns arranged in three triple gun turret
s: two superfiring
turrets forward—Anton and Bruno—and one aft—Caesar. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) L/55
guns, fourteen 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65
and sixteen 3.7 cm (1.5 in) L/83, and initially ten 2 cm (0.78740157480315 in) anti-aircraft guns. The number of 2 cm guns was eventually increased to thirty-eight. Six 53.3 cm (21 in) above-water torpedo tubes, taken from the light cruiser
s Nürnberg
and Leipzig
, were installed in 1942.
, 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 Wilhelm Marschall
, began on 21 November 1939; the ship, in company with her sister Scharnhorst
, the light cruiser Köln
, and nine destroyers, was to patrol the area between Iceland and the Faroe Islands
. The intent of the operation was to draw out British units and ease the pressure on the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee
, which was being pursued in the South Atlantic. Two days later, 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. Four allied capital ships, the British , , , and the French Dunkerque
followed in pursuit. 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.
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
; the two ships left Wilhelmshaven on the morning of 7 April, along with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper
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 Bernd von Arnim
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 West Fjord
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 (38.1 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. Marschall 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.
Admiral Hipper rejoined the two battleships off Trondheim on the morning of 11 April, and the three ships returned to Wilhelmshaven, arriving the following day. There, the damage incurred during the engagement with Renown was repaired. She was then drydocked in Bremerhaven
for periodic maintenance on 26–29 April. The ship was to go to the Baltic following the completion of repairs, but on the morning of 5 May, while steaming at 22 kn (12 m/s) off the Elbe estuary, Gneisenau detonated a magnetic mine about 21 m (68.9 ft) off the port rear quarter and 24 m (78.7 ft) below the hull. The explosion caused significant damage to the hull and flooded several compartments, which caused the ship to take on a half-degree list to port. The concussive shock from the blast damaged many internal and topside components, including the starboard low-pressure turbine and the rear rangefinders. Repairs were effected in a floating drydock in Kiel from 6 to 21 May. A brief shakedown cruise followed in the Baltic, and by the 27th, she was back in Kiel at full combat readiness.
Gneisenau and Scharnhorst left Wilhelmshaven on 4 June to return to Norway. They were joined by Admiral Hipper and four destroyers. The purpose of the sortie was to interrupt Allied resupply efforts to the Norwegians and to relieve the pressure on German troops fighting in Norway. On 7 June, the squadron rendezvoused with the tanker Dithmarschen to refuel Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers. The next day, the trawler
was discovered and sunk, along with the oil tanker Oil Pioneer. The Germans then launched their Arado 196 float planes to search for more Allied vessels. Admiral Hipper and the destroyers were sent to destroy Orama, a 19500 LT (19,813 MT) passenger ship, while Atlantis, a hospital ship
, was allowed to proceed unmolested. Admiral Marschall detached Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers to refuel in Trondheim, while he would steam to the Harstad
area.
At 17:45, the German battleships spotted the British aircraft carrier
and two escorting destroyers, and , at a range of some 50000 m (54,680.7 yd). Scharnhorst was closer and therefore fired first. Scharnhorst had some boiler difficulty, which reduced her speed to 29 kn (15.8 m/s). This allowed Gneisenau to overtake her sister during the action. Although the destroyers attempted to cover Glorious with smoke screens, the German battleships used their Seetakt radar to assist the gunlaying. In less than an hour's shooting, Glorious was reduced to a burning hulk. Gneisenau then turned her fire on Acasta, while Scharnhorst dispatched Ardent. Before Acasta was sunk, she fired a spread of torpedoes at Gneisenau, which the latter successfully evaded. One of them struck Scharnhorst, however, and caused serious damage. After all three ships had sunk, Marschall withdrew his force to Trondheim to conduct emergency repairs to Scharnhorst. In the meantime, Marschall sortied with Gneisenau, Admiral Hipper, and four destroyers, though after two days he returned to Trondheim when it became clear that the British convoys were too heavily guarded.
Admiral Günther Lütjens
replaced Marschall as the commander of the squadron, and on 20 June he sortied with Gneisenau, Admiral Hipper, and four destroyers in the direction of Iceland. His intention was to give the impression he was attempting to break out into the Atlantic, to draw British attention away from Scharnhorst as she made the return voyage to Germany. About 40 nmi (74.1 km) northwest of Halten
, however, the submarine torpedoed Gneisenau. The torpedo hit the ship in the bow, just forward of the splinter belt, and caused serious damage. The ship took on a significant amount of water in the two forward watertight compartments, and she was forced to return to Trondheim at reduced speed. In Trondheim, the repair ship Huascaran effected temporary repairs that permitted the ship to return to Kiel on 25–27 July, escorted by Admiral Hipper, Nürnberg
, four destroyers, and six torpedo boats. A strong force from the British Home Fleet attempted to intercept the flotilla, but it failed to find it. Upon arrival, Gneisenau went into drydock at the Howaldtswerke
dockyard for five months of repair work. In August, the ship's commander was replaced by KzS Otto Fein, who would captain the ship for the majority of her active wartime career.
and the heavy units of the British Home Fleet deployed to cover the passage between Iceland and the Faroes. The Germans' radar detected the British at long range, which allowed Lütjens to avoid the British patrols, with the aid of a squall
. By 3 February, the two battleships had evaded the last British cruiser patrol, and had broken into the open Atlantic.
On 6 February, the two ships refueled from the tanker Schlettstadt south of Cape Farewell
. Shortly after 08:30 on 8 February, lookouts spotted convoy HX-106
, though it was escorted by the battleship . Lütjens' orders prohibited him from engaging Allied capital ships, and so the attack was called off. Scharnhorsts commander, KzS Hoffmann, however, closed to 23000 m (25,153.1 yd) in an attempt to lure Ramillies away from the convoy so that Gneisenau could attack the convoy. Lütjens ordered Hoffmann to rejoin the flagship immediately. The two battleships steamed off to the northwest to search for more shipping. On 22 February, the pair spotted an empty convoy sailing west, though it dispersed at the appearance of the battleships. Gneisenau sank three ships, and along with a fourth destroyed by Scharnhorst, the pair accounted for 25,784 GRT
of Allied shipping.
Lütjens then decided to move to a new area, as the surviving members of the dispersed convoy had sent distress signals. He chose the Capetown-Gibraltar convoy route, and positioned himself to the northwest of Cape Verde
. The two ships encountered another convoy, escorted by the battleship , on 8 March. Lütjens again forbade an attack, though he shadowed the convoy and directed U-boat
s to attack it. A pair of U-boats sank a total of 28,488 GRT of shipping on the night of 8–9 March. Malaya turned on the two battleships and closed to 24000 m (26,246.7 yd), well within the range of the Germans' guns, but Lütjens refused to be drawn into an engagement. He instead turned toward the mid-Atlantic, where the two ships refueled from the tankers Uckermark and Ermland on 12 March.
On 15 March, the two battleships, with the two tankers in company, encountered a dispersed convoy in the mid-Atlantic. Gneisenau captured three tankers and sank a fourth, totaling 20,139 GRT of shipping. The next day, stragglers from a convoy were sighted. Gneisenau sank seven ships for 26,693 GRT, while her sister accounted for six vessels for 35088 LT. One of the surviving ships radioed the location of the German battleships, which summoned the powerful British battleships Rodney and . Scharnhorst and Gneisenau used their high speed to escape in a squall, and the intervention by the British battleships convinced Lütjens that the chances of further success were small. He therefore decided to head for Brest
in occupied France, which the ships reached on 22 March. She then entered drydock for periodic maintenance.
Three days later, on the night of 9–10 April, several British bombers dropped around 25 MT (24.6 LT) of 227 kg AP bombs on the ship, four of which hit. All four hit the starboard side of the forward superstructure. Two of the bombs exploded on the main armor deck while the other two failed to detonate. The attack killed 72 initially and wounded 90, of which 16 later died of their injuries. The bombs slightly damaged the main armor deck and caused some structural damage on the starboard side. It was decided to make alterations to the ship while she was drydocked for repairs; these included the installation of fourteen additional 2 cm anti-aircraft guns and six 53.3 cm torpedo tubes amidships. The aircraft hangar was rearranged, and the catapult that had been mounted on top of it was removed. The length of repairs and modifications precluded participation in Operation Rheinübung
, the sortie by the new battleship Bismarck
in May 1941. While in drydock, the British continued to attack the ship, though no further damage was done. On 6 February 1942, a bomb fell close to the ship, but caused no damage.
to Germany. The intention was to deploy the vessels to Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. The so-called "Channel Dash", codenamed Operation Cerberus, would avoid the increasingly effective Allied radar and patrol aircraft in the Atlantic. Vice Admiral Otto Ciliax
was given command of the operation. In early February, minesweepers
swept a route through the English Channel
, though the British failed to detect the activity.
At 23:00 on 11 February, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen left Brest. They entered the Channel an hour later; the three ships sped at 27 kn (14.7 m/s), hugging the French coast along the voyage. The British failed to detect their departure, as the submarine that had been tasked with observing the port had withdrawn to recharge its batteries. By 06:30, they had passed Cherbourg, at which point they were joined by a flotilla of torpedo boats. The torpedo boats were led by Kapitän
Erich Bey
, aboard the destroyer Z29
. General der Jagdflieger (General of Fighter Force) Adolf Galland
directed Luftwaffe fighter and bomber forces (Operation Donnerkeil
) during Cerberus. The fighters flew at masthead-height to avoid detection by the British radar network. Liaison officers were present on all three ships. German aircraft arrived later to jam British radar with chaff. By 13:00, the ships had cleared the Strait of Dover
, though half an hour later, a flight of six Swordfish torpedo bombers
, with Spitfire
escort, attacked the Germans. The British failed to penetrate the Luftwaffe fighter shield and all six Swordfish were destroyed. Several more attacks were launched over the next two hours, but the Luftwaffe screen repulsed them all.
Five British destroyers mounted an attack on the German squadron at 16:17. The ships attempted to close to torpedo range, though heavy seas and overcast conditions hampered their attack. Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen inflicted serious damage to the destroyer . At 19:55, Gneisenau detonated a magnetic mine off Terschelling
. The mine exploded just forward of the rear gun turret but caused only minor damage. Slight flooding was quickly stopped, though the shock disabled the center turbine. The ship stopped for less than 30 minutes before resuming the voyage; by 03:50, Gneisenau and two destroyers reached Helgoland. After being joined there by Prinz Eugen, the ships left for Kiel, but thick ice in the canal forced the ships to stop in Brunsbüttel
. While maneuvering in the port, Gneisenau struck a submerged wreck. The collision tore a hole in the hull and caused some minor flooding. Gneisenau reached Kiel the following day, where she went into a floating dry dock at the Deutsche Werke
dockard.
Repair work on Gneisenau was completed by 26 February 1942, and she was scheduled to deploy to Norway on 6 March. Her ammunition stores had been restocked and she was prepared for a short round of trials before her departure. On the night of 26–27 February, however, the British launched a heavy air raid on the ship. The ship was hit by a single bomb in her forecastle
that penetrated the armored deck and exploded. Red-hot bomb fragments ignited propellant charges in the forward turret and caused a tremendous explosion. The turret was thrown off its mount and the entire bow section was burned out. The crew partially flooded the magazine to prevent a more catastrophic explosion. The blast killed 112 men and wounded 21 others.
The extensive damage convinced the Naval Staff to rebuild Gneisenau to mount the six 38 cm guns originally planned, rather than repair the ship. The damaged bow section was removed in order to attach a lengthened bow, which would correct the decrease in freeboard
that would have been caused by the heavier 38 cm guns. On 4 April, the ship went to Gotenhafen,(now Gdynia
), escorted by the training ship and the icebreaker Castor. She was formally decommissioned on 1 July. By early 1943, the ship had been sufficiently repaired to begin the conversion process, but Hitler, angered by the failure of German surface raiders at the Battle of the Barents Sea
in December 1942 ordered the cessation of all work. Gneisenau was disarmed and her 28 cm and 15 cm gun turrets were used as shore batteries. Turret Caesar was installed in a coastal fortress in Trondheim as the coastal battery Orlandet.
Gneisenau remained unused in Gotenhafen until the end of the war. As the Red Army
advanced on the city, the remaining crew took the ship out to the entrance of the harbor and sank the vessel as a blockship
on 27 March 1945. In 1947, the Polish government ordered the ship be removed, and initial salvage operations began. The ship was sealed and refloated on 12 September 1951 then completely scrapped. She was the largest ship raised at the time. Norway offered to return the turret in Trondheim in 1979, though the offer was rejected. The gun turret was instead preserved as a museum in Norway.
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
and battlecruiser
Battlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
, of the German Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
. She was the second vessel of her class
Scharnhorst class battleship
The Scharnhorst class were the first capital ships, alternatively referred to as battlecruisers or battleships, built for the German Navy after World War I. The class comprised two vessels: the lead ship Scharnhorst and Gneisenau...
, which included one other ship, Scharnhorst
German battleship Scharnhorst
Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15...
. The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defence industry to shrink...
dockyard in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
; she was laid down on 6 May 1935 and launched on 8 December 1936. Completed in May 1938, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm C/34 guns in three triple turrets, though there were plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets.
Gneisenau and Scharnhorst operated together for much of the early portion of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation, the two ships engaged the auxiliary cruiser in a short battle. Gneisenau and Scharnhorst participated in Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
, the German invasion of Norway. During operations off 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 Norway. After a successful raid in the Atlantic in 1941, Gneisenau and her sister put in at Brest, France
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
. The two battleships were the subject of repeated bombing raids by the RAF; Gneisenau was hit several times during the raids, though she was ultimately repaired.
In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
from occupied France to Germany. After reaching Kiel in early February, the ship went into drydock. On the night of 26 February, the British launched an air attack on the ship; one bomb penetrated her armored deck and exploded in the forward ammunition magazine, causing serious damage and a large number of casualties. The repairs necessitated by the damage were so time consuming that it was determined to rebuild the ship to accommodate the 38 cm guns as originally intended. The 28 cm guns were removed and used as shore batteries. The aft turret (Caesar) was installed at Austrått fort in Ørland
Ørland
Ørland is a municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Fosen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Brekstad. Other villages include Uthaug, Opphaug, and Ottersbo...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
where it still remains as a museum exhibit. The mid-ship turret (Bruno) was used at Fjell festning near Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
. The front turret (Anton) was heavily damaged, thus individual guns were moved to separate forts in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and the Netherlands. In 1943, Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
ordered the cessation of conversion work, and on 27 March 1945, she was sunk as a blockship
Blockship
A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used.It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of HMS Hood at Portland Harbour; or it may be brought by enemy raiders and used to...
in Gdynia
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
(Gotenhafen) in German-occupied Poland. She was eventually broken up for scrap in 1951.
Construction and configuration
Pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
, under the contract name "E." The Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defence industry to shrink...
in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
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
Fitting-out
Fitting-out, or "outfitting”, is the process in modern shipbuilding that follows the float-out of a vessel and precedes sea trials. It is the period when all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and readied for delivery to her owners...
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 displaced 32100 LT (32,615.2 MT) as built and 38100 LT (38,711.5 MT) fully loaded, with a length of 234.9 m (770.7 ft), a beam of 30 m (98.4 ft) and a maximum draft of 9.9 m (32.5 ft). She was powered by three Germania
Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft
Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft was a German shipbuilding company, located in the harbour at Kiel, and one of the largest and most important builders of U-boats for the Kaiserliche Marine in World War I and the Kriegsmarine in World War II.-History:The company was founded in 1867 by Lloyd Foster, as...
geared steam turbines, which developed a total of 165930 shp and yielded a maximum speed of 31.3 kn (61.3 km/h) 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 nine 28 cm (11.1 in) L/54.5 guns arranged in three triple gun turret
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
s: two superfiring
Superfire
The idea of superfire is to locate two turrets in a row, one behind the other, but with the second turret located above the one in front so that the second turret could fire over the first...
turrets forward—Anton and Bruno—and one aft—Caesar. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) L/55
15 cm SK C/28
The 15 cm SK C/28 was a German medium-caliber naval gun used during the Second World War. It served as the secondary armament for the Bismarck class and Scharnhorst-class battleships, Deutschland-class pocket battleships and the Graf Zeppelin class aircraft carrier...
guns, fourteen 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65
10.5 cm FlaK 38
The 10.5 cm SK C/33 was a German anti-aircraft gun used during World War II by the Kriegsmarine on a number of their larger capital ships. It was later adapted for Luftwaffe as a competitor to the famed 8.8 cm FlaK 18 as the 10.5 cm FlaK 38...
and sixteen 3.7 cm (1.5 in) L/83, and initially ten 2 cm (0.78740157480315 in) anti-aircraft guns. The number of 2 cm guns was eventually increased to thirty-eight. Six 53.3 cm (21 in) above-water torpedo tubes, taken from the light cruiser
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
s Nürnberg
German cruiser Nürnberg
The Nürnberg, was a German light cruiser of the Leipzig class named after the city of Nuremberg. Some sources consider the Leipzig and Nürnberg to be of separate, single ship, classes...
and Leipzig
German cruiser Leipzig
The German light cruiser Leipzig was the lead ship of her class . She was the fourth German warship to carry the name of the city of Leipzig.-History:...
, were installed in 1942.
Service history
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 bombersVickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
, 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 Wilhelm Marschall
Wilhelm Marschall
Wilhelm Marschall was a German admiral during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Pour le Mérite which he received as commander of the German U-boat during World War I...
, began on 21 November 1939; the ship, in company with her sister Scharnhorst
German battleship Scharnhorst
Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15...
, the light cruiser Köln
German cruiser Köln
Köln was a German light cruiser prior to and during World War II, one of three K-Class cruisers named after cities starting with the letter K. This ship was named after the city of Köln . The others in her class were the Königsberg and the Karlsruhe...
, and nine destroyers, was to patrol the area between Iceland and the Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
. The intent of the operation was to draw out British units and ease the pressure on the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee
German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee
Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron that fought the battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands in World War I...
, which was being pursued in the South Atlantic. Two days later, 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. Four allied capital ships, the British , , , and the French Dunkerque
French battleship Dunkerque
The Dunkerque was the first unit of a new class of warships of the French Navy built in the 1930s, officially rated as battleships, or even «navires de ligne» , as Dunkerque and Strasbourg constituted, from the commissionig of Strasbourg to some days after Mers-el Kebir, the «1ère Division de Ligne»...
followed in pursuit. 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
Kiel Canal
The Kiel Canal , known as the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal until 1948, is a long canal in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau. An average of is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula....
until 4 February.
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
, the invasion of Denmark and Norway. She and her sister were the covering force for the assaults on Narvik
Narvik
is the third largest city and municipality in Nordland county, Norway by population. Narvik is located on the shores of the Narvik Fjord . The municipality is part of the Ofoten traditional region of North Norway, inside the arctic circle...
and Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
; the two ships left Wilhelmshaven on the morning of 7 April, along with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper
German cruiser Admiral Hipper
Admiral Hipper, the first of five ships of her class, was the lead ship of the Admiral Hipper–class of heavy cruisers which served with the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1935 and launched February 1937; Admiral Hipper...
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 Bernd von Arnim
German destroyer Z11 Bernd von Arnim
Z11 Bernd von Arnim was a built for the German Navy in the late 1930s. At the beginning of World War II, the ship was initially deployed to blockade the Polish coast, but she was quickly transferred to the German Bight to lay minefields in German waters...
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 West Fjord
Vestfjord
Vestfjord is a Norwegian fjord, which would be described as a firth or an open bight of sea between the Lofoten archipelago and mainland Norway, northwest of Bodø...
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
Action off Lofoten
The Action off Lofoten was a naval battle fought between the German Kriegsmarine and the British Royal Navy off the southern coast of the Lofoten Islands, Norway during World War II...
with her Seetakt radar
Seetakt radar
The shipborne Seetakt radar was developed in the 1930s and was used by the German Navy during World War II.In Germany during the late 1920s, Hans Hollmann began working in the field of microwaves, which were to later become the basis of almost all radar systems. In 1935 he published Physics and...
; 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 (38.1 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. Marschall 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.
Admiral Hipper rejoined the two battleships off Trondheim on the morning of 11 April, and the three ships returned to Wilhelmshaven, arriving the following day. There, the damage incurred during the engagement with Renown was repaired. She was then drydocked in Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
for periodic maintenance on 26–29 April. The ship was to go to the Baltic following the completion of repairs, but on the morning of 5 May, while steaming at 22 kn (12 m/s) off the Elbe estuary, Gneisenau detonated a magnetic mine about 21 m (68.9 ft) off the port rear quarter and 24 m (78.7 ft) below the hull. The explosion caused significant damage to the hull and flooded several compartments, which caused the ship to take on a half-degree list to port. The concussive shock from the blast damaged many internal and topside components, including the starboard low-pressure turbine and the rear rangefinders. Repairs were effected in a floating drydock in Kiel from 6 to 21 May. A brief shakedown cruise followed in the Baltic, and by the 27th, she was back in Kiel at full combat readiness.
Gneisenau and Scharnhorst left Wilhelmshaven on 4 June to return to Norway. They were joined by Admiral Hipper and four destroyers. The purpose of the sortie was to interrupt Allied resupply efforts to the Norwegians and to relieve the pressure on German troops fighting in Norway. On 7 June, the squadron rendezvoused with the tanker Dithmarschen to refuel Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers. The next day, the trawler
Naval trawler
A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...
was discovered and sunk, along with the oil tanker Oil Pioneer. The Germans then launched their Arado 196 float planes to search for more Allied vessels. Admiral Hipper and the destroyers were sent to destroy Orama, a 19500 LT (19,813 MT) passenger ship, while Atlantis, a hospital ship
Hospital ship
A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital; most are operated by the military forces of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones....
, was allowed to proceed unmolested. Admiral Marschall detached Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers to refuel in Trondheim, while he would steam to the Harstad
Harstad
is the second largest city and municipality by population, in Troms county, Norway – the city is also the third largest in North Norway. Thus Harstad is the natural centre for its district. Situated approximately north of the Arctic Circle, the city celebrated its 100th anniversary in...
area.
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
and two escorting destroyers, and , at a range of some 50000 m (54,680.7 yd). Scharnhorst was closer and therefore fired first. Scharnhorst had some boiler difficulty, which reduced her speed to 29 kn (15.8 m/s). This allowed Gneisenau to overtake her sister during the action. Although the destroyers attempted to cover Glorious with smoke screens, the German battleships used their Seetakt radar to assist the gunlaying. In less than an hour's shooting, Glorious was reduced to a burning hulk. Gneisenau then turned her fire on Acasta, while Scharnhorst dispatched Ardent. Before Acasta was sunk, she fired a spread of torpedoes at Gneisenau, which the latter successfully evaded. One of them struck Scharnhorst, however, and caused serious damage. After all three ships had sunk, Marschall withdrew his force to Trondheim to conduct emergency repairs to Scharnhorst. In the meantime, Marschall sortied with Gneisenau, Admiral Hipper, and four destroyers, though after two days he returned to Trondheim when it became clear that the British convoys were too heavily guarded.
Admiral Günther Lütjens
Günther Lütjens
Günther Lütjens was a German Admiral whose military service spanned almost 30 years. Lütjens is best known for his actions during World War II, primarily his service as admiral of the squadron comprising and her consort, , during the Operation Rheinübung sortie.-Early career:Günther Lütjens was...
replaced Marschall as the commander of the squadron, and on 20 June he sortied with Gneisenau, Admiral Hipper, and four destroyers in the direction of Iceland. His intention was to give the impression he was attempting to break out into the Atlantic, to draw British attention away from Scharnhorst as she made the return voyage to Germany. About 40 nmi (74.1 km) northwest of Halten
Halten, Sør Trøndelag
Halten is an old fishing village constituted of several uninhabited islands in the municipality of Frøya in Sør Trøndelag county, Norway. Halten is located at the northern end of the Froan islands and constitute the northernmost part of the string of islands north of Frøya, which stretch from Sula...
, however, the submarine torpedoed Gneisenau. The torpedo hit the ship in the bow, just forward of the splinter belt, and caused serious damage. The ship took on a significant amount of water in the two forward watertight compartments, and she was forced to return to Trondheim at reduced speed. In Trondheim, the repair ship Huascaran effected temporary repairs that permitted the ship to return to Kiel on 25–27 July, escorted by Admiral Hipper, Nürnberg
German cruiser Nürnberg
The Nürnberg, was a German light cruiser of the Leipzig class named after the city of Nuremberg. Some sources consider the Leipzig and Nürnberg to be of separate, single ship, classes...
, four destroyers, and six torpedo boats. A strong force from the British Home Fleet attempted to intercept the flotilla, but it failed to find it. Upon arrival, Gneisenau went into drydock at the Howaldtswerke
Howaldtswerke
Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. In 2009 it was the largest shipyard in Germany and has more than 2,400 employees. It has been part of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems owned by ThyssenKrupp, since 2005...
dockyard for five months of repair work. In August, the ship's commander was replaced by KzS Otto Fein, who would captain the ship for the majority of her active wartime career.
Operation Berlin
Scharnhorst joined Gneisenau, in preparation for Operation Berlin, the planned breakout into the Atlantic Ocean designed to wreak havoc on the Allied shipping lanes. Severe storms caused damage to Gneisenau, though Scharnhorst was undamaged. The two ships were forced to put into port during the storm: Gneisenau went to Kiel for repairs while Scharnhorst put in to Gdynia (Gotenhafen). Repairs were quickly completed, and on 22 January 1941, the two ships, again under the command of Admiral Lütjens, left port for the North Atlantic. They were detected in the SkagerrakSkagerrak
The Skagerrak is a strait running between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea.-Name:...
and the heavy units of the British Home Fleet deployed to cover the passage between Iceland and the Faroes. The Germans' radar detected the British at long range, which allowed Lütjens to avoid the British patrols, with the aid of a squall
Squall
A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed which is usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to an increase in the sustained winds over a short time interval, as there may be higher gusts during a squall event...
. By 3 February, the two battleships had evaded the last British cruiser patrol, and had broken into the open Atlantic.
Cape Farewell, Greenland
Cape Farewell , is a headland on the southern shore of Egger Island, Greenland. Located at it is the southernmost extent of Greenland, projecting out into the North Atlantic Ocean and the Labrador Sea on the same latitude as Stockholm and the Scottish Shetland Islands. Egger and the associated...
. Shortly after 08:30 on 8 February, lookouts spotted convoy HX-106
Convoy HX-106
Convoy HX-106 consisted of some 41 ships, eastbound from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England. The use of convoys was a standard tactic throughout the Battle of the Atlantic as a defence against U-boats and German commerce raiders....
, though it was escorted by the battleship . Lütjens' orders prohibited him from engaging Allied capital ships, and so the attack was called off. Scharnhorsts commander, KzS Hoffmann, however, closed to 23000 m (25,153.1 yd) in an attempt to lure Ramillies away from the convoy so that Gneisenau could attack the convoy. Lütjens ordered Hoffmann to rejoin the flagship immediately. The two battleships steamed off to the northwest to search for more shipping. On 22 February, the pair spotted an empty convoy sailing west, though it dispersed at the appearance of the battleships. Gneisenau sank three ships, and along with a fourth destroyed by Scharnhorst, the pair accounted for 25,784 GRT
Gross Register Tonnage
Gross register tonnage a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", one of which equals to a volume of . It is calculated from the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel. The ship's net register tonnage is obtained by reducing the volume of non-revenue-earning spaces i.e...
of Allied shipping.
Lütjens then decided to move to a new area, as the surviving members of the dispersed convoy had sent distress signals. He chose the Capetown-Gibraltar convoy route, and positioned himself to the northwest of Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
. The two ships encountered another convoy, escorted by the battleship , on 8 March. Lütjens again forbade an attack, though he shadowed the convoy and directed U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s to attack it. A pair of U-boats sank a total of 28,488 GRT of shipping on the night of 8–9 March. Malaya turned on the two battleships and closed to 24000 m (26,246.7 yd), well within the range of the Germans' guns, but Lütjens refused to be drawn into an engagement. He instead turned toward the mid-Atlantic, where the two ships refueled from the tankers Uckermark and Ermland on 12 March.
On 15 March, the two battleships, with the two tankers in company, encountered a dispersed convoy in the mid-Atlantic. Gneisenau captured three tankers and sank a fourth, totaling 20,139 GRT of shipping. The next day, stragglers from a convoy were sighted. Gneisenau sank seven ships for 26,693 GRT, while her sister accounted for six vessels for 35088 LT. One of the surviving ships radioed the location of the German battleships, which summoned the powerful British battleships Rodney and . Scharnhorst and Gneisenau used their high speed to escape in a squall, and the intervention by the British battleships convinced Lütjens that the chances of further success were small. He therefore decided to head for Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
in occupied France, which the ships reached on 22 March. She then entered drydock for periodic maintenance.
Air attacks in Brest
After arriving in Brest, Gneisenau was the subject of repeated British air raids. The first attack took place on the night of 20–31 March, and a second occurred on 4–5 April. During the second raid, a 227 kg (500.4 lb) armor-piercing (AP) bomb narrowly missed the ship. As a result of the attacks, the ship was moved out of the dry dock and moved to the harbor. On 6 April, the ship was attacked by British torpedo bombers, which managed to score a single hit. The torpedo struck Gneisenau in the vicinity of the rear main battery turret. Some 3050 MT (3,001.8 LT) of water flooded the ship and caused a 2 degree list to starboard. The flooding also disabled several components of the ship's propulsion system. The explosion caused significant destruction to the side plating as well as the starboard and centerline propeller shafts. The concussive shock also caused widespread damage to the ship's electronic components. A salvage tug came alongside to assist in the pumping effort. Following the attack, Gneisenau returned to the drydock for repairs.Three days later, on the night of 9–10 April, several British bombers dropped around 25 MT (24.6 LT) of 227 kg AP bombs on the ship, four of which hit. All four hit the starboard side of the forward superstructure. Two of the bombs exploded on the main armor deck while the other two failed to detonate. The attack killed 72 initially and wounded 90, of which 16 later died of their injuries. The bombs slightly damaged the main armor deck and caused some structural damage on the starboard side. It was decided to make alterations to the ship while she was drydocked for repairs; these included the installation of fourteen additional 2 cm anti-aircraft guns and six 53.3 cm torpedo tubes amidships. The aircraft hangar was rearranged, and the catapult that had been mounted on top of it was removed. The length of repairs and modifications precluded participation in Operation Rheinübung
Operation Rheinübung
Operation Rheinübung was the sortie into the Atlantic by the new German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on 18–27 May 1941, during World War II...
, the sortie by the new battleship Bismarck
German battleship Bismarck
Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...
in May 1941. While in drydock, the British continued to attack the ship, though no further damage was done. On 6 February 1942, a bomb fell close to the ship, but caused no damage.
Operation Cerberus
On 12 January 1942, the German Naval Command, in a conference with Hitler, made the decision to return Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, and the heavy cruiser Prinz EugenGerman cruiser Prinz Eugen
Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third member of the class of five vessels. She served with the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936 and launched August 1938; Prinz Eugen entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940...
to Germany. The intention was to deploy the vessels to Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. The so-called "Channel Dash", codenamed Operation Cerberus, would avoid the increasingly effective Allied radar and patrol aircraft in the Atlantic. Vice Admiral Otto Ciliax
Otto Ciliax
Otto Ciliax was an admiral in the German Navy. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
was given command of the operation. In early February, minesweepers
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
swept a route through the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, though the British failed to detect the activity.
Kapitän
Kapitän is the German word for Captain. It is also a shortened version of several ranks in the German navy, ranging from Korvettenkapitän to Kapitän zur See. The general meaning is equivalent to Captain....
Erich Bey
Erich Bey
Erich Bey was a German naval officer who most notably served as a commander of the Kriegsmarine's destroyer forces and commanded the battleship Scharnhorst in the Battle of North Cape on 26 December 1943, during which the German ship was sunk. He was killed during that action. Bey was also a...
, aboard the destroyer Z29
German destroyer Z29
Z29 was a built for the Kriegsmarine during World War II.-External links:*...
. General der Jagdflieger (General of Fighter Force) Adolf Galland
Adolf Galland
Adolf "Dolfo" Joseph Ferdinand Galland was a German Luftwaffe General and flying ace who served throughout World War II in Europe. He flew 705 combat missions, and fought on the Western and the Defence of the Reich fronts...
directed Luftwaffe fighter and bomber forces (Operation Donnerkeil
Operation Donnerkeil
Unternehmen Donnerkeil was the codename for a German military operation of the Second World War. Donnerkeil was designed as an air superiority operation to support the Kriegsmarine Operation Cerberus, also known as the "Channel Dash".In 1941 Kriegsmarine surface vessels had carried out commerce...
) during Cerberus. The fighters flew at masthead-height to avoid detection by the British radar network. Liaison officers were present on all three ships. German aircraft arrived later to jam British radar with chaff. By 13:00, the ships had cleared the Strait of Dover
Strait of Dover
The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel. The shortest distance across the strait is from the South Foreland, 6 kilometres northeast of Dover in the county of Kent, England, to Cap Gris Nez, a cape near to Calais in the French of...
, though half an hour later, a flight of six Swordfish torpedo bombers
Fairey Swordfish
The Fairey Swordfish was a torpedo bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company and used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during the Second World War...
, with Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
escort, attacked the Germans. The British failed to penetrate the Luftwaffe fighter shield and all six Swordfish were destroyed. Several more attacks were launched over the next two hours, but the Luftwaffe screen repulsed them all.
Five British destroyers mounted an attack on the German squadron at 16:17. The ships attempted to close to torpedo range, though heavy seas and overcast conditions hampered their attack. Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen inflicted serious damage to the destroyer . At 19:55, Gneisenau detonated a magnetic mine off Terschelling
Terschelling
Terschelling is a municipality and an island in the northern Netherlands, one of the West Frisian Islands.Waddenislanders are known for their resourcefulness in using anything and everything that washes ashore. With few trees to use for timber, most of the farms and barns are built with masts...
. The mine exploded just forward of the rear gun turret but caused only minor damage. Slight flooding was quickly stopped, though the shock disabled the center turbine. The ship stopped for less than 30 minutes before resuming the voyage; by 03:50, Gneisenau and two destroyers reached Helgoland. After being joined there by Prinz Eugen, the ships left for Kiel, but thick ice in the canal forced the ships to stop in Brunsbüttel
Brunsbüttel
Brunsbüttel is a town in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany that lies on the mouth of the Elbe river, near the North Sea. It is the location of the western entrance to the Kiel Canal, the eastern entrance being located at Kiel-Holtenau...
. While maneuvering in the port, Gneisenau struck a submerged wreck. The collision tore a hole in the hull and caused some minor flooding. Gneisenau reached Kiel the following day, where she went into a floating dry dock at the Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defence industry to shrink...
dockard.
Fate
Forecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...
that penetrated the armored deck and exploded. Red-hot bomb fragments ignited propellant charges in the forward turret and caused a tremendous explosion. The turret was thrown off its mount and the entire bow section was burned out. The crew partially flooded the magazine to prevent a more catastrophic explosion. The blast killed 112 men and wounded 21 others.
The extensive damage convinced the Naval Staff to rebuild Gneisenau to mount the six 38 cm guns originally planned, rather than repair the ship. The damaged bow section was removed in order to attach a lengthened bow, which would correct the decrease in freeboard
Freeboard (nautical)
In sailing and boating, freeboardmeans the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level, measured at the lowest point of sheer where water can enter the boat or ship...
that would have been caused by the heavier 38 cm guns. On 4 April, the ship went to Gotenhafen,(now Gdynia
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
), escorted by the training ship and the icebreaker Castor. She was formally decommissioned on 1 July. By early 1943, the ship had been sufficiently repaired to begin the conversion process, but Hitler, angered by the failure of German surface raiders at the Battle of the Barents Sea
Battle of the Barents Sea
The Battle of the Barents Sea took place on 31 December 1942 between German surface raiders and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Barents Sea north of North Cape, Norway...
in December 1942 ordered the cessation of all work. Gneisenau was disarmed and her 28 cm and 15 cm gun turrets were used as shore batteries. Turret Caesar was installed in a coastal fortress in Trondheim as the coastal battery Orlandet.
Gneisenau remained unused in Gotenhafen until the end of the war. As the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
advanced on the city, the remaining crew took the ship out to the entrance of the harbor and sank the vessel as a blockship
Blockship
A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used.It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of HMS Hood at Portland Harbour; or it may be brought by enemy raiders and used to...
on 27 March 1945. In 1947, the Polish government ordered the ship be removed, and initial salvage operations began. The ship was sealed and refloated on 12 September 1951 then completely scrapped. She was the largest ship raised at the time. Norway offered to return the turret in Trondheim in 1979, though the offer was rejected. The gun turret was instead preserved as a museum in Norway.