Scharnhorst-Class Battleship

The Scharnhorst class comprised two German capital ships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine in the second half of the 1930s and commissioned in 1938 and 1939 respectively as the first new capital ships built for Germany since the First World War, variously classified as fast battleships or battlecruisers because their armor and armament were lighter relative to their size and high speed than a contemporary full battleship. Armed with nine 28cm guns in three triple turrets and capable of roughly 31 knots, both ships conducted commerce-raiding operations against British shipping in the Atlantic, took part in the German invasion of Norway, and together sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in June 1940. Scharnhorst was sunk by British forces at the Battle of North Cape in December 1943, while Gneisenau, damaged and never fully repaired, was ultimately scuttled as a blockship in 1945.