Scharnhorst battleship

Scharnhorst was a German naval battle cruiser in the Second World War and was considered to be almost invincible. Together with the ships Tirpitz and Gneisenau they posed a constant threat to the Murmansk convoys in the North and Barent seas. On the 26th December 1943, around 60 nautical miles off the North Cape Scharnhorst was sunk by the allied forces of British and Norwegian ships, with the British battleship Duke of York at the helm. The battle of North Cape was the last time that battleships used canons against each other in European waters. The ship had a crew of around 1900 men. But only 36 of them were saved. When the Duke of York returned from Murmansk the crew lowered a wreath into the sea where the Scharnhorst went down. For a long time, the Scharnhorst laid undiscovered on the bottom of the sea before it was found in 2001, 300 meters below sea level. The battle of the Murmansk convoys between 1941 and 1945 caused great losses for both the allies and the Germans. Over 6000 people have their graves at the bottom of the sea as a result of the battle of the convoys.