On Christmas Day 1943 the Linear cruiser Scharnhorst and several destroyers (Z-29, Z-30, Z-33, Z-34 and Z-38), under the command of Rear Admiral Erich Bay, sailed from Langfjord, Norway, to attack the northern JW - 55B and R - 55A convoys north of Norway. Unfortunately for the Germans, their orders were decrypted by English cryptographers and the British Admiralty managed to send considerable forces to intercept the battle group.The next day, on December 26, due to difficult weather conditions, Bay was unable to find anything and sent destroyers south to search the convoys, leaving Scharnhorst alone. Less than two hours later, the ship encounters cruisers guarding convoys Belfast, Norfolk, and Sheffield. Belfast detects Scharnhorst at 8.40am at 35,000 yards (~ 32,000 meters) using its radar, and at 09,41 hours Sheffield makes visual contact. Under the cover of snow, English cruisers open fire.
To direct his cannon, Belfast tries to illuminate Sharnhorst with the help of light rockets, but fails. Norfolk decides to use the radar readings for firing and gives two successful shots. One breaks the main antenna of Scharnhorst's radar, preventing it from responding to target fire in poor visibility. Norfolk only sustained minor damage. In an attempt to bypass the cruisers and reach the convoy vessels, Bay steers Sharnhorst southeast, farther from them. In the afternoon, convoy ships, including the British battleship Duke of York, find Scharnhorst and open fire.Despite damage to the radar and failure of one of the turrets, Scharnhorst manages to temporarily increase the distance. But soon Duke of York approaches him and reopens fire - the second volley destroys the gun tower of Anton, its gunpowder ignites, and soon followed by those of the Bruno tower. However, the leak that started was extinguished by the burning flames. None of the British ships received serious damage, although the flagship was not once covered by the bursts of the Germans and one of its masts was broken by a 280mm projectile.At 6.00 pm, Scharnhorst's main battery goes silent, at 18.20 a projectile from Duke of York explodes in the boiler room, reducing its speed to 22 knots, leaving it defenseless from attack by destroyers. However, the badly damaged and slow Scharnhorst still responds with heavy fire from the auxiliary caliber on the Jamaica cruiser. At that time, the musketeers, Machles, Oppertun, and Virago destroys torpedoes on the German ship. Duke of York has already delivered 77 volleys at 19.28 hours, 52 torpedoes have been fired, and the last three fired from Jamaica at 19.37 are lethal to Scharnhorst.The ship overturned and sank at 19.45 on December 26, 1943, with its propellers still rotating. Of his entire 1968 crew, only 36 sailors are rescued - none of them are officers. 30 people board the destroyer Scorpio and 6 - Machles.
Later that evening, Admiral Bruce Fraser gathered the officers aboard Duke of York and told them:
"Gentlemen, the battle with Scharnhorst ended with a victory for us. I hope that each of you, when you have to fight your ship with a much stronger enemy, will command it as valiantly as Scharnhorst commanded today. "
With such high praise, sounded from the mouth of a foe, no more liner ships in the world have been honored.
Ironically, Scharnhorst gets his name in honor of Gerhard Scharnhorst (Prussian general and reformer), who served as a young man on the Duke of York ship in the Netherlands in 1793.
