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I'm definitely no expert on naval gunnery interaction, but I don't think they had radar-directed gunfire. I think the USN was the first to deploy that on capital ships. If I'm completely wrong, someone kindly correct me.
The heavy cruiser Scharnhorst was equipped with radar gun control. However in late December 1943, it unexpectedly met fierce resistance as it attacked a heavily protected convoy. In the ensuing battle, Scharnhorst's radar was disabled and the ship was virtually operating blind. In a bid to make it to their Norwegian port, the Scharnhorst encountered the battleship HMS Duke of York and several other British warships. Starshells were fired, which illuminated the damaged Scharnhorst. Several broadsides from the Duke of York took it down with a loss of 1932 lives. Only about 36 seamen from the ship were saved. Some writers have described the Scharnhorst as one of the best-looking ships of WWII.
1. Scharnhorst and her sister ship Gneisenau were classified as battlecruisers, not battleships. Their main battery consisted of nine 11-inch guns in three triple turrets, two forward and one aft. They had a top speed of 32 knots.
2. By contrast, battleships of the era packed main batteries of from nine to twelve 14-inch through 18-inch guns. Generally, they had top speeds of from 27 through 30 knots. Therefore, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were the embodiment of the battlecruiser's dictum: "Overwhelm anything you can fight, and outrun anything you cannot."
3. The "radomes" to which you are referring were for her secondary (AAA) armament.
4. The main batteries were radar-directed, though not from the "radomes" to which your refer.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were decidely undergunned,and their turbine engines were extremely tempermental.The naval version of "Hangar Queens"
The turbine problems were not with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but with the heavy cruisers Prinz Eugen and Admiral Hipper. The third ship in the class, Blucher, was sunk by shore-based torpedoes and artillery during the invasion of Norway.
The plan was to re-arm both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with six of the same 15-inch guns carried by Bismarck and Tirpitz. In fact, this was begun with Gneisenau, though it was never completed.
Had it been completed, Gneisenau would have been a major force to contend with. She was a bit faster and a good bit more maneuverable than Tirpitz, you see...
The turbine problems were not with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but with the heavy cruisers Prinz Eugen and Admiral Hipper. The third ship in the class, Blucher, was sunk by shore-based torpedoes and artillery during the invasion of Norway.
The plan was to re-arm both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with six of the same 15-inch guns carried by Bismarck and Tirpitz. In fact, this was begun with Gneisenau, though it was never completed.
Had it been completed, Gneisenau would have been a major force to contend with. She was a bit faster and a good bit more maneuverable than Tirpitz, you see...
From Late March until July of 1941,Scharnhorst was in a Brest,France drydock having her engines repaired.Thats five months in the middle of a war,sure sounds like a problem to me.
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