In February 1942, six Swordfish armed with torpedoes encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire in the English Channel and were shot down but not before two torpedoes were launched at a German battleship sailing at high speed. This attack was part of a wider British effort to stop the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau from making their way back to Germany. The Scharnhorst is one of the most famous capital ships to have served with the Kriegsmarine. Yet she and her sister ship Gneisenau have been largely overshadowed by the Bismarck and Tirpitz, despite the fact that they played a more proactive role in the Second World War and were Germany's most successful battleships. This book provides an authoritative and informative look at the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the first capital ships of the Kriegsmarine, from their conception through the first successful years of the Second World War to their respective losses. This is a detailed account of naval warfare against the Royal Navy off the coast of Norway and the war against Allied commerce from the German perspective.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1995, Daniel Knowles graduated with an Honours degree in history and politics from the University of Northumbria in 2016. His university dissertation was on the changing perceptions to the wartime role played by RAF Bomber Command. Knowles had previously contributed to Fonthill Media with Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Great Battleship (2018) and HMS Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy (2019).
Acknowledgements; Kriegsmarine Ranks; Introduction; Chapter 1: In the Shadow of Versailles; Chapter 2: Anatomy of the Scharnhorst-Class; Chapter 3: Gneisenau: Construction and Sea Trials; Chapter 4: Scharnhorst: Construction and Sea Trials; Chapter 5: To War; Chapter 6: Operation Juno; Chapter 7: Operation Berlin; Chapter 8: At Brest; Chapter 9: Operation Cerberus: The Channel Dash; Chapter 10: Deployment to Norway; Chapter 11: The Hunters and the Hunted; Chapter 12: Ostfront; Chapter 13: 'Scharnhorst Will Ever Reign Supreme'; Chapter 14: 'On the Field of Honour'; Chapter 15: Fate of the Gneisenau; Chapter 16: Wreck of the Scharnhorst; Paint Schemes of the Scharnhorst; Paint Schemes of the Gneisenau; Epilogue; Appendix I: Commanding Officers; Appendix II: Ships Sunk by the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst During Operation Berlin; Survivors of the Scharnhorst; Scharnhorst Roll of Honour; Gneisenau Roll of Honour; Endnotes; Bibliography; Index.
