Scharnhorst-class cruiser
The Scharnhorst class was the last traditional class of armored cruisers built by the Kaiserliche Marine. The class comprised two ships, and. They were larger than the s that preceded them; the extra size was used primarily to increase the main armament of 21 cm guns from four to eight. The ships were the first German cruiser to reach equality with their British counterparts. The ships were named after 19th century Prussian army reformers, Gerhard von Scharnhorst and August von Gneisenau.
Built for overseas service, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were assigned to the East Asia Squadron in 1909 and 1910, respectively. Scharnhorst relieved the old armored cruiser as the squadron flagship, which had been on station since 1900. Both ships had short careers; shortly before the outbreak of World War I, the ships departed the German colony at Tsingtao. On 1 November 1914, the ships destroyed a British force at the Battle of Coronel and inflicted upon the Royal Navy its first defeat since the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814. The East Asia Squadron, including both Scharnhorst-class ships, was subsequently annihilated at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December.
Design
The Second Naval Law in Germany, passed in 1900, envisioned a force of fourteen armored cruisers for both service overseas in Germany's colonial empire and as scouts for the main battle fleet in German waters. The naval expansion program was primarily directed against the British Royal Navy, then the world's preeminent naval force. Germany's armored cruiser force followed a series of iterative developments based on the cruiser, and the Scharnhorst class represented the culmination of that evolutionary development.During the design process for the class, the General Department issued a request that the new cruisers be capable of fighting in the line of battle in the event that German battleships were damaged and unable to continue fighting. Up to this point, this had not been a consideration in German armored cruiser construction, and so a significant increase in both firepower and armor protection would be required to accommodate it. This in turn required much larger ships, and the Scharnhorsts were accordingly about heavier than the preceding s. The weight increase secured a doubling of the main battery, a 50% increase in belt armor, and an increase in top speed by more than a knot over the Roon class. The speed increase was achieved by the addition of two boilers that provided more power for the propulsion system. As a result of these improvements, the Scharnhorst class was the first German armored cruiser design that compared favorably to its foreign counterparts.
Several other minor changes were introduced, including a strengthening of the tertiary battery of guns to the level used in contemporary battleships like the. The design staff considered adding a pair of these guns to the conning tower roof abreast of the bridge, but experience with the same arrangement on the s demonstrated the excessive blast effect interfered with control of the ships, and so those guns were suppressed in the Scharnhorst design.
General characteristics and machinery
The ships of the class were long overall, and long at the waterline. They had a beam of, a draft of, and displaced standard, and at full load. The ships' hulls were constructed of transverse and longitudinal steel frames, over which the outer hull plating was riveted. The vessels had 15 watertight compartments and a double bottom that ran for 50% of the length of the hull.The ships had a standard crew of 38 officers and 726 enlisted men. Scharnhorst, as the squadron flagship, had a larger crew, including an additional 14 officers and 62 men. Gneisenau, when serving as the squadron second command flagship, had an extra staff of 3 officers and 25 men. The ships carried a number of smaller vessels, including two picket boats, two launches, one pinnace, two cutters, three yawls, and one dinghy.
The Scharnhorst-class ships used the same powerplant as in the preceding : three 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. Each engine drove a single propeller; the center shaft on Scharnhorst was in diameter while the outer two were wide. Gneisenaus screws were slightly smaller, at wide on the center shaft and on the outer pair. The triple expansion engines were supplied with steam by 18 coal-fired marine-type boilers with 36 fire boxes. The engines were designed to provide, though on trials they achieved higher figures—28,782 ihp for Scharnhorst and 30,396 ihp for Gneisenau. The ships were rated at a top speed of, though on trials Scharnhorst steamed at a maximum of, while Gneisenau ran at. The vessels carried of coal normally, though they were capable of storing up to of coal. This provided a maximum range of at a cruising speed of. The ships had a single rudder. The vessels' electrical plant consisted of four turbo-generators that delivered 260 kilowatts at 110 volts.
Armament
The ships' main battery armament consisted of eight SK L/40 guns, four in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the main superstructure on the centerline, and the remaining four were mounted in single wing turrets located amidships. The centerline turrets were the DrL C/01 type turrets, which were hydraulically operated, and the mounts provided a range of elevation from -5 to +30 degrees. The wing turrets used electric motors to train the guns, but elevation was hand-operated. These guns fired a armor-piercing shell at a muzzle velocity of. The centerline turrets had a maximum range of, while the wing turrets could only engage targets out to. The guns were supplied with a total of 700 rounds.Secondary armament included six SK L/40 guns in individual casemates. These guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of. They could be elevated to 30 degrees, which provided a maximum range of. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, the ships carried a tertiary battery of eighteen 8.8 cm SK L/35 guns, which were mounted in individual casemates and pivot mounts in the superstructure. The 8.8 cm guns fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of. These guns had a maximum elevation of 25 degrees and a range of.
As was customary for warships of the period, the Scharnhorst-class ships were equipped with four submerged torpedo tubes. One was mounted in the bow, one on each broadside, and the fourth was placed in the stern. The ships were supplied with a total of 11 torpedoes. The C/03 torpedo carried a warhead and had a range of when set at a speed of and at.
Armor
As was the standard for German warships, the ships of the Scharnhorst class were protected by Krupp armor. They had an armor belt that was thick in the central portion of the ship, extending from abreast the forward conning tower to just aft of the rear tower, where the propulsion machinery areas were located. This was a significant increase in thickness over earlier German armored cruisers. Tests at the navy's firing range at Meppen had revealed that the belt used in all preceding designs was too thin to stop the medium-caliber shells that the cruisers would likely face in combat. The belt decreased to on either end of the central citadel; this extended all the way to the bow and almost completely to the stern, the extreme end of which was not armored. The entire belt was backed with teak planking. The main armored deck ranged in thickness from over critical areas and down to elsewhere. The deck sloped down to connect to the belt at its lower edge; this portion was between thick.The forward conning tower had thick sides and a thick roof. The rear conning tower was less well-armored, with sides that were only thick and a roof that was thick. The main battery gun turrets had thick sides and thick roofs, while the amidships guns were protected with thick gun shields and thick roofs. The barbettes that supported the turrets were thick. The 15 cm battery was protected by a strake of armor that was thick, while the guns themselves were protected with thick shields.
Ships
Service history
Upon commissioning, both ships of the class were assigned to the German East Asia Squadron, with Scharnhorst serving as Admiral Maximilian von Spee's flagship. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were regarded as well-trained vessels; both ships won awards for their excellence at gunnery. At the start of World War I, the two ships were in the Caroline Islands on a routine cruise; the rest of von Spee's squadron was dispersed around the Pacific. The declaration of war by Japan on Germany convinced von Spee to consolidate his force with the cruisers and from the American station, and head for Chile to refuel. The flotilla would then attempt to return to Germany via the Atlantic Ocean. Admiral von Spee also intended to attack the three British cruisers under the command of Admiral Christopher Cradock, and any British shipping encountered. On 22 September, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau approached the island of Papeete in French Polynesia with the intention of seizing the coal stockpiled in the harbor. The ships conducted a short bombardment that resulted in the sinking of the old gunboat. However, von Spee feared that the harbor had been mined, and decided to avoid the risk. The French had also set fire to the coal stocks to prevent the Germans from using the coal.Battle of Coronel
At approximately 17:00 on 1 November 1914, the East Asia Squadron encountered Cradock's ships off Coronel. Because the German ships had an advantage in speed, von Spee was able to keep the distance to 18 kilometers, before closing to to engage the British flotilla at 19:00. Scharnhorst hit some 34 times; at least one of the shells penetrated Good Hopes ammunition magazines, which resulted in a tremendous explosion that destroyed the ship. The light cruiser closed to point-blank range to attack ; after a severe pummeling, Monmouth sank as well. The British light cruiser and the auxiliary cruiser both escaped under the cover of darkness. First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher remarked that it was "the saddest naval action of the war." The defeat was the first to be inflicted on the Royal Navy since the 1814 Battle of Plattsburgh. After news of the battle reached Kaiser Wilhelm II in Berlin, he ordered 300 Iron Crosses to be awarded to the men of von Spee's squadron. After refueling in Valparaiso, the East Asia Squadron departed for the Falkland Islands, in order to destroy the British wireless transmitter located there.Battle of the Falkland Islands
Some six hours after news of the battle reached England, Admiral Fisher ordered Admiral John Jellicoe, the commander of the Grand Fleet, to detach the battlecruisers and to hunt down the German ships. Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee was placed in command of the flotilla, which also included the armored cruisers,,, and, and the light cruisers and Glasgow, which had survived Coronel. Sturdee's ships reached the Falklands by the morning of 8 December, shortly before von Spee's squadron arrived. The British spotted the East Asia Squadron at 09:40; von Spee was unaware that the British had sent the two battlecruisers, and when he observed them, he ordered his ships to withdraw. Despite the head start, the fast battlecruisers quickly caught up with the worn-out German ships, which had just completed a 16,000 mile voyage without repairs.At approximately 13:20, the battlecruisers opened fire at a range of. After a two-hour-long battle, Scharnhorst was dead in the water and listing heavily. The ship was sunk shortly thereafter. Gneisenau had been hit more than 50 times at close range; the crew gave three cheers for the Kaiser before the vessel sank. Nürnberg and Leipzig were also sunk, though Dresden managed to escape temporarily, before she too was destroyed off Juan Fernández Island. Some 2,200 men were killed, among them Admiral von Spee.