Armored Cruiser SMS Scharnhorst (1907)
Above, the Scharnhorst on her trials. One of the most powerful armored cruisers ever built for any navy, she was fated to be flagship of the German East Asia Squadron, based at Qingdao in the recently-founded German colony of Shandong. The Squadron asserted the German Empire's rights in a region where Britain, Russia, France, and increasingly the U.S. and Japan, all were out for their cut. But Scharnhorst and her identical and inseparable sister Gneisenau were to write upon history's page in a context quite different from colonial disputes -- in two pitched sea battles with the Royal Navy in the opening months of World War I -- arguably the most heroic actions in the history of the German Navy.
The Scharnhorst class came along just as German capital ship design was breaking through to embrace full-fledged sea power. Building on the success of previous German armored cruiser design (Prinz Heinrich, Yorck), the Scharnhorst resembled a four-funnel cruiser version of the Deutschland class battleships being built at the same time she was laid down, with interesting whalebacks and cutaways on the hull and complicated masts of interest to the expert modeler. A powerful and competitive design when built -- inciting the British to "reply" with their final armored cruiser design, the Minotaur class -- the Scharhnorst class became obsolete the following year (1908) when HMS Invincible appeared, pioneering the battlecruiser concept. In fact, Invincible and her ilk were conceived precisely to outperform armored cruisers such as the Scharnhorst: first generation battlecruisers had three knots of superior speed to catch them, and overwhelmingly superior heavy guns (eight 12") to maul them with when they did catch up. In fact, Scharnhorst and Invincible were to have precisely that kind of relationship, ship-to-ship.
Scharnhorst was a powerful warship compared to other cruisers existing in 1907. With a broadside of six 8.2s and a robust seven inches of belt armor, she was a potent raider and bombardment platform. The ship had a number of peculiarities. Her midships citadel took an almost pyramidal form, with gun emplacements along the fore and aft stair-steps up the side of the ship. Besides the four 8.2s in turrets, two more of the big guns and three 5.9s were mounted in this way on each side.
Like many of the capital ships of the Kaiserliche Marine (the old German Imperial Navy), the two ships were named for prominent German generals: Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755-1813), Chief of the Prussian General Staff under Blücher; his writings laid the groundwork for the reform of the Prussian army and its evolution into a national army; the master strategist Clausewitz was one of his pupils. Augustus Graf von Gneisenau (1760-1831) was a field marshal and key member of Blücher's staff, indispensible in securing the victory at Waterloo.
Scharnhorst was damaged in a severe grounding episode in 1909 and was never entirely the same mechanically, losing nearly 2 knots of speed (3.9 km/hr) vis-à-vis her sister ship. This mishap did not prevent her from steaming halfway round the world and writing her name in history, as revealed below.
Specifications for the Scharnhorst:
Dimensions: 474'5" x 71' x 27'6" LWL: 449'9" Displacement: 11,400 tons standard; 12,985 tons deep laden. Armament: (8) 8.2"/45 cal. (2x2, 4x1), (6) 5.9"/40, and (20) 3.15"/35 guns; *4) MG; (4) submerged 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: Krupp Cemented type. Belt: 7"/6.3"/4", turrets: 6¾", conning tower: 9.85", barbettes and battery: 6", bulkheads and battery bulkheads: 5", deck: 2.76"/1.98". Fuel capacity: 800 tons of coal normal; 2,000 tons maximum, plus 200 tons bunker oil. Propulsion: (18) coal-fired Schulz-Thornycroft boilers. (3) inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 18,000 SHP, shafted to triple screw: central engine, 4-cyl; wing screw enginess, 3-cyl. Maximum speed: 22.7 kts (S); 24.8 kts (G). Electric plant: (2) 4,000-rpm turbo generators producing 850 amps at load, wired for 115V; 6 searchlights. Crew: 766. Tactical radius: 8,600nm @ 10 kts. Cost: US $9.34 million at 1910 valuation.
Metric Specifications:
Dimensions: 144.6m x 21.6m x 8.37m. LWL: 137m. Displacement: 11,400 tons standard; 12,985 tons deep laden. Armament: (8) 254 mm/45 cal. (2x2, 4x1), (6) 150 mm/40 cal., and (20) 80 mm/35 cal. guns; (4) MG; (4) submerged 45-cm torpedo tubes. Armor: Krupp Cemented type. Belt: 180/160/102 mm; turrets: 171 mm; conning tower: 250mm; barbettes and battery: 152 mm; upper belt: 160 mm; bulkheads and battery bulkheads: 127 mm; deck: 70/50mm. Fuel capacity: 800 tons of coal normal; 2,000 tons maximum, plus 200 tons bunker oil. Propulsion: (18) coal-fired Schulz-Thornycroft boilers. (3) inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 13,423 kW, shafted to triple screw: central engine, 4-cyl; wing screw engines, 3-cyl. Maximum speed: 42 km/hr (S), 45.9 km/hr (G). Electric plant: (2) 4,000-rpm turbo generators producing 850 amps at load, wired for 115V; 6 searchlights. Crew: 766. Tactical radius: 15,927 km @ 18.5 km/hr. Cost: 39,562,000 gold marks at 1910 valuation (equivalent to £1,925,214 in 1910 currency).
Scharnhorst was the flagship of the East Asia Squadron, based in Qingdao (Tsingtao), China, under the command of Count Maximilian von Spee (right). Von Spee was that rarity, a blue-blooded German aristocrat in the predominantly bourgeois naval officer corps; and he was one of the best. A gunnery expert, he had the Scharnhorst and her sister Gneisenau drilled to a superb standard. Both ships could fire 3 rounds a minute, so accurately that they consistently won the Kaiser's Cup for the best target shooting in the Imperial Navy. The two armored cruisers provided most of the gunpower of the squadron, which also included 3 light cruisers. Together these ships were responsible for administering and defending a vast swath of territory extending halfway across the Pacific.
When war came, the Squadron was at Ponape in the Caroline Islands, some 400 miles east of Truk Atoll, where von Spee and Capt. Maerker of the Gneisenau were indulging their passion for science by collecting specimens of species. The ships were on their annual Pacific cruise as news trickled in of the diplomatic crisis in Europe: the ultimatums, the mobilizations and counter-mobilizations, and finally the declarations of war. Knowing that Japan would swoop down and capture the German colony in Shandong, von Spee decided to steam transpacific and rely on the large German communities in Argentina and Chile for support. Early into the voyage, he detached the light cruiser Emden for commerce raiding in the Indian Ocean -- a task at which she proved dazzlingly successful under Capt. Karl von Müller. The light cruiser Dresden joined from the South Atlantic station, replacing Emden. Three colliers and 2 other fleet auxiliaries rounded out the fleet that undertook the great voyage.
A weak British cruiser squadron under Adm. Sir Christopher Cradock was despatched by the Admiralty to hunt for Spee. Intelligence from the German community tipped the German admiral off, and he prepared to meet Cradock off the coast of Chile, near the port of Coronel. The encounter took place at day's end on Nov. 1, 1914. It was a rout. Spee's skillful tactics and superb gunnery overwhelmed Cradock's elderly cruisers, Monmouth and Good Hope (flag); they were unable to work most of their guns because of the rough seas, and were outranged by the German 8" guns. As these two cruisers sank the remainder of the British squadron fled into the gathering darkness. The first British defeat in 100 years, Coronel deflated the myth of the Royal Navy's invincibility and pumped up German patriotic pride.
But the tables were turned on the Germans only a month later. After reprovisioning at Valparaíso and tarrying at Más Afuera rocks nearby for almost three weeks, von Spee's squadron received orders to return to Europe. On the way, von Spee insisted on raiding the little settlement at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. But the British Admiralty was one step ahead of him. Insisting on maximum hustle, Churchill and Fisher had despatched two battlecruisers armed with 12" guns under the command of Sir Frederick Doveton Sturdee. The Invincible and sister Inflexible had rendezvoused with the remnants of Cradock's squadron at Albrohos Rocks, Brazil and had proceeded without delay to Port Stanley only the previous evening. With them went the County class armored cruisers Kent and Cornwall, sisters to the sunken Monmouth, and the Devonshire class Carnarvon. They had just completed the first installment of coaling and piped hands to breakfast when Gneisenau and Dresden were sighted reconnoitring the port at 0745 of Dec. 8, 1914. Foolishly the Germans lingered, refusing to believe their eyes: tripod masts and lots of funnels jamming the harbor. HMS Canopus, the only battleship involved in the action, was immobilized by engine trouble but nonetheless alert. After announcing "Enemy in sight" to the shipping crowded in two anchorages, Canopus got off a few shots from her 12" guns, one of which (actually a practice round) ricocheted off the waves and put a hole in Gneisenau's #3 funnel -- the first battle damage of the day and, as it turned out, Canopus' only blood drawn.
Although the British did not have steam up, they quickly cast off their colliers and lit their boilers. Within half an hour, the old armored cruiser Kent and the fast modern cruiser Glasgow were off to locate von Spee's main force. Meanwhile, Gneisenau's Capt. Maerker reported his encounter to flag. Von Spee raced his squadron away to the southeast at 20 knots, not knowing his enemy was capable of 26 knots to his 22-23. Von Spee now found himself in the same trap that Cradock had succumbed to: outranged by the enemy guns and unable to escape their superior speed. Moreover, the German squadron's hulls were foul and their boiler and condenser tubes were in delicate condition, not up to prolonged high-speed steaming. By 1030 the British ships were scrambling out of the harbor mouth and beginning the pursuit, gradually working their newly cleaned boilers up to pressure for flank speed. The general signal 'Chase!' fluttered up to the spreaders of Sturdee's flagship HMS Invincible (below) and huge battle ensigns were hoisted to the mastheads of all the British ships. So it was that, despite being taken by surprise on that beautiful, austral spring morning, the British battlecruisers were within extreme range shortly after noon. The weather was crystal clear initially; the gunners eager to get to work.
One would think that such overwhelming force would predetermine victory for the British; yet it was not so simple in practice. Hampered by funnel and cordite smoke, the British gunnery was atrocious. Between the smoke and the intense vibration of full speed operation, spotters in the dreadnoughts' tops could not call the fall of shot accurately. Before they found the range, the battlecruisers had nearly emptied their magazines. The German gunnery, by contrast, was impeccable. Von Spee managed several dozen 8.2" hits on the Invincible and four on the Inflexible; although the ships' armor protected them from some of these, both ships suffered serious damage and some wounded personnel. Then into the midst of the fray, like an apparition from another dimension, wandered a full-rigged windjammer flying neutral Norwegian colors. She had every stitch of canvas bent in the light air and proceeded gradually across the field of battle on her course toward the Horn, while both sides respectfully held their fire. But execution was only momentarily delayed.
As the battle developed, however, the Germans' plight became evident. Bit by bit their ships were turned into flaming coffins, their guns put out of action, their machinery disabled. Funnels and masts went by the board. Turrets were jammed. Men worked the guns with bravery and precision amid mounds of corpses, while blood and brains splashed the bulkheads. The Imperial German colors were knocked down; again and again they were replaced, tied to jury-rigged poles. The Germans fought stubbornly on, the accuracy of their fire undiminished though the rate was greatly slowed. Refusing signals inviting him to surrender, von Spee brought Scharnhorst around for a suicide charge, but the ship capsized before it could pick up speed; von Spee and 800 men went to the bottom with the vessel at 4:30 p.m.; there were no survivors. Gneisenau soldiered on, making several well-placed hits on the British flagship; but her cause was hopeless. Down to his last few shells, Capt. Maerker ordered the ship scuttled. She settled and finally sank just before 1800, leaving a scattering of floating heads on the frigid waters.
Meantime, the three German light cruisers had sprinted for safety, pursued by the British armored cruisers. Leipzig and Nürnberg were overtaken and pounded to a pulp by the larger British cruisers; neither surrendered, but both were scuttled by their crews when they could no longer fight. With a good lead and a good turn of speed, Dresden made escaped into rain squalls and mist. The ship was meant to perform commerce raiding but these orders were not pursued energetically. She was finally discovered on March 15, 1915, hiding out at Más Afuera off the Chilean coast; HMS Kent got several shots into her before she surrendered; her captain then detonated his magazines and scuttled the ship. With the defeat of the Dresden, the pursuit of von Spee and the Battle of the Falklands was finally over: one of the few clear-cut victories the British were to have in the war at sea, the penultimate sea battle solely decided by naval guns on surface ships, and a final stand for old-fashioned values of honor, gallantry and chivalry in a war which saw plenty of barbarism on both sides. In all this minor action -- which nevertheless marked the complete removal of German naval commerce raiders -- cost the Germans 1,871 killed, the British 10 killed and 19 wounded. Not a single one of the German warships was captured, though one collier, the Seydlitz, was interned in Brazil. Invincible suffered a 10 x 18' hole below the waterline amidships which demanded attention in drydock but was contained temporarily by the ship's watertight subdivision, and did not impair the ship's operation. Inflexible suffered a shot at the edge of her armor belt which put a hole in the ship's shell plating and separated the armor from the hull, but which did not impair the ship's operation before she could reach a dockyard. Kent suffered numerous hits but her armor kept her from serious damage from the Nürnberg's 4.1" artillery; her wireless was damaged and unable to send, so she was unable to report and for some days anxiety was high in the British fleet, until she turned up with the news of success and negligible damage to ship and crew.
The exemplary gallantry of von Spee made him a national hero in Germany. When the Nazis began to rebuild the German navy in the 1930s, they named one of their pocket battleships for him -- the Admiral Graf Spee (Count Spee), commissioned 1934. And when the Nazis essayed their first new battleships (undergunned with nine 11" per the Washington Treaty), they were named Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Ironically, the Graf Spee ended up scuttled off Montevideo, Uruguay after fighting the Battle of the River Plate in 1939. Her final resting place was only a few hundred miles from her namesake's in the 1907 Scharnhorst. The 1930s Scharnhorst did credit to her namesake, being a lucky ship and partaking in a bold raiding cruise under Adm. Lüjens early in the War; later escaping under the noses of the RAF in the Channel Dash, and sinking the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious off Norway in June 1941. Through it all, her crew fought valorously (albeit in a bad cause). She was sunk off the North Cape of Norway on Dec. 26, 1943 when she snapped at the bait of a Murmansk convoy. Fighting the British battleship Duke of York and a flotilla of destroyers and cruisers in mountainous midwinter seas proved too great a task even for her disciplined crew. As in von Spee's fleet long before, men fought their guns until the power failed, then remained at their posts silently awaiting the end.
The Battle of Coronel was one of the first naval clashes of arms in the War, November 1, 1914. Both in tactics and gunnery the Germans triumphed. Here Sir Christopher Cradock's flagship Good Hope blazes fiercely before the magazine explosion that sent her to the bottom with all hands, blasted apart by deadly accurate fire from the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. German propagandists were quick to point out that this was the Royal Navy's first defeat since the War of 1812; in Whitehall, the Admiralty prepared its revenge.
The Scharnhorst at Valparaiso, coaling and provisioning after the Battle of Coronel. Photo shows detail of midships 6"/8" battery and bridgeworks, ship's cranes at work, whaleback foredeck edge, and unique, swept-back oblique bulkhead below the bridge.
HMS Invincible winding up to 26 knots in pursuit of the Scharnhorst, photographed from the armored cruiser Carnarvon. Note the thick funnel smoke enveloping the ship, characteristic of the high-sulfur coal just loaded at Port Stanley. Poor visibility from funnel and cordite smoke, and strong vibration in the fire control station atop the foremast, all contributed to the battlecruisers' wild shooting that day. Click here to enlarge.
The Gneisenau fights hopelessly on as the Scharnhorst rolls on her beam ends and goes down in sketch by W.L. Wylie.
At the Falklands, Gneisenau battled on for an additional 90 minutes after her sister sank with all hands. When Gneisenau ran low on ammunition, she was ordered scuttled at 1740 and finally rolled over at around 1800 hours. Here the battlecruiser Inflexible sends boats to pick up survivors from her vanquished foe. Of the ship's complement of 850 men, 176 were rescued, including Cmdr. Plochhammer, the ship's second-in-command. Adm. von Spee's two sons serving in the squadron were not among the survivors, nor was the Admiral.
Relevant Weblinks
- An account of the Battle of the Falklands
- Account by Capt J.D. Allen, RN of HMS Kent
- The Fate of Von Spee's Light Cruisers
- The Kaiser's Pirates: Silhouettes of the German Squadron
- The Colonial Architecture of Old Qingdao
- Fate of the Qingdao Colony: The Battle of Qingdao
- Graze Through our Cruiser Section
- Review the Imperial German Navy
- Top of Page
