SURFACE RAIDER THE BATTLESHIP GNEISENAU

This summer marks 80 years since the German Scharnhorst class battleship Gneisenau (K235) was decommissioned from the Kriegsmarine on 1 July 1942. Gneisenau participated in the invasion of Norway with her sistership Scharnhorst, and a naval battle, which saw them sink the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Glorious. She was damaged and later hit by a submarine torpedo, but she was still able to be a threat to Allied shipping in the Atlantic.

 Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were the first battleships built for the German Navy. Their strength was their speed and agility, rather than their armaments. While in the captured French port of Brest, both Gneisenau and Scharnhorst were hit in bombing raids by the RAF, but were repaired. However, in early 1942 both ships made a run for the German naval base of Kiel, where, on 26 February 1942, Gneisenau suffered a direct hit from an RAF bomb.

The bomb, which ripped through her armoured deck, exploded in one of ’s ammunition magazines, causing serious damage and a great number of casualties. The damage