German battlecruiser Gneisenau

Gneisenau was a 31,100 ton Gneisenau class battlecruiser of the German Kriegsmarine, named to commemorate the World War I armored cruiser SMS Gneisenau, which was in turn named after the Prussian general August von Gneisenau.

Related Topics:
''Gneisenau'' class - Battlecruiser - Kriegsmarine - World War I - Armored cruiser - SMS ''Gneisenau'' - Prussian - August von Gneisenau

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Gneisenau was originalled called Armored Ship 'E', was at first to be a unit of the Deutschland class pocket battleship. She was built by Deutsche Werke Kiel, laid down in February of 1934. Construction was delayed and then scrapped as the design changed, and she was re-laid in May of 1935. She was launched in late 1936 and commissioned in 1938. She was 235 m (771 ft) in length, 30 m (98 ft) in beam, and displaced just under the naval treaty limit of 35000 tons. She carried a main armor belt of nearly 350 mm (13.78 in), comparable to modern battleships of the time, and vastly heavier than the British battlecruisers HMS Renown and HMS Repulse, ships which would have been her equal in main battery as designed, and the French battlecruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg. It is often said that she was a handsome ship, and looked as fast as she was. She and her sister Scharnhorst are generally spoken of as the most successful German design of the period. The main criticism of the design was their relatively low deck height, or "freeboard", which made them "wet" in North Atlantic conditions. This led to alterations in the sheer line and installation of the 'Atlantic Bow' in a winter 1938 refit. She conducted trials in the Atlantic in June, 1939.

Related Topics:
''Deutschland'' - Pocket battleship - Kiel - 1934 - 1935 - 1936 - 1938 - Naval treaty limit - HMS ''Renown'' - HMS ''Repulse'' - ''Dunkerque'' - ''Strasbourg'' - ''Scharnhorst''

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On 4 September 1939, the day after war was declared, she was attacked by Royal Air Force airraft at Brunsbüttelkoog with no damage. On 8 October, she sailed with the cruiser Koln and 9 destroyers to create a diversion for the Allied forces searching for the Deutschland. In late 1939 she operated with Scharnhorst in the North Atlantic and sank the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Rawalpindi, but suffered severe sea damage in a storm. In 1940 she covered the Norway invasion and fought with HMS Renown to no conclusion, but suffered damage to her aft turret. On 5 May, she exploded a magnetic mine about 21 meters off the port quarter, and suffered shock damage, flooding, and a loss of steering for 18 minutes. Damage was repaired by 21 May at Kiel. In the British withdrawal on 8 June, she and Scharnhorst surprised and sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, herself a converted battlecruiser, and her two escorts, the destroyers HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent. She was torpedoed in the North Atlantic in June; and after being repaired, joined Scharnhorst in their most successful merchant campaign in March, 1941, Gneisenau sinking 14 ships, Scharnhorst sinking 8, and managing to keep out of the way of British battleships covering the convoys. She was torpedoed again in April 1941, and hit by 4 bombs in Brest on the night of 9-10 April, and was repaired at Brest in France through December, 1941.

Related Topics:
4 September - Royal Air Force - 8 October - Koln - Allied - 1939 - Atlantic - Armed Merchant Cruiser - HMS ''Rawalpindi'' - 1940 - 5 May - 21 May - 8 June - Aircraft carrier - HMS ''Glorious'' - HMS ''Acasta'' - HMS ''Ardent'' - Torpedo - 1941 - 9 - 10 April - Brest - France

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In 1942, British air attacks made Brest unsafe, and accompanied by Scharnhorst, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and a covering screen of destroyers and torpedo boats, she attempted a daring daylight run to Germany, an operation called Operation Cerberus, and known to the British as the "Channel Dash". Although she escaped damage in the furious air battles that resulted, she struck a mine that laid her up at Kiel, where she was badly damaged in a bombing raid on 26-27 February 1942 that was to end her operational career. Some work was done in 1942 through 1944 to reconstruct her with twin 380 mm (15 in) guns, but it never came to fruition. Her guns from turret Anton were removed and sent to Denmark; and turrets Bruno and Caesar and their guns were sent to Norway. Her final sad duty was to be used as a blockship, sunk in Gotenhafen harbor. She was raised, broken up, and scrapped after the war. Her aft main turret, "Caesar", converted to a coastal battery named Austråt Fort, is still existing today near Trondheim, Norway.

Related Topics:
1942 - Prinz Eugen - Destroyer - Torpedo boat - Germany - Operation Cerberus - Channel Dash - Mine - Kiel - 26 - 27 February - 1944 - Denmark - Blockship - Gotenhafen - Trondheim - Norway

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