Admiral Scheer
Laid Down: 25/6/31
Commissioned.- 12/11/34
Full Load Displacement: 15,900 tons
Draft: 24 ft
Speed: 28.3 knots
Range: 19,000/10
Armor: 60mm side, 45mm deck
Armament: 6x 283mm, 8x 150mm, 6x 105mm, 8x 37mm, 10x 20mm, 8x 533mm torpedoes, 2x Arado 196 floatplanes.

The Admiral Scheer first saw action at anchor off Wilhelmshaven when hit by two 500 lb. duds dropped in an attack by five Blenheims on 4/9/39. Despite this early baptism, the ship was withdrawn from action for a lengthy refit that replaced her bulky pyramidal foremast with a more slender tubular one and increased her freeboard with a clipper style bow. Her AA outfit was increased with two army style 20mm mounts. The refit was completed by September of 1940.

After trials in the Baltic, the Admiral Scheer departed from Gdynia on 23/10/40. Topping off her fuel at Brunsbuttel, the Scheer sailed on 27/10/40 to break out into the Atlantic, which she accomplished by passing through the Denmark Strait on 1/11/40. The Scheer sank her first ship on 5/11/40, but her most famous encounter occurred later the same day when she intercepted the convoy HX.84 with 37 ships. After sinking its sole escort, the Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC) Jervis Bay (14,164 tons 7x6"), the Scheer sank five ships and damaged three others. The British delayed the next two convoys, causing an even greater loss of imports than that imposed by the sunken ships, and deployed five battleships and battlecruisers and three light cruisers to block the routes back to Germany and to France. The Scheer, however, was just getting started.

After replenishing at sea 12-16/11/40, the Admiral Scheer sank a ship south of Bermuda on 24/11/40 and sank another ship off Dakar on 1/12/40. She refueled from her tanker, Nordmark, on 14/12/40 and on 18/12/40 captured a refrigerator ship, that loaded with foodstuffs became a supply ship. The Scheer then met up with the armed merchant raiders Thor and Pinguin and various supply ships in a rendezvous deep in the South Atlantic that lasted from 25/12/40 to 2/1/40.

After completing a refit at sea on 511141 and refueling on 8/1/41, the Admiral Scheer captured three ships in the South Atlantic between 17/1/41 and 20/1/41. After replenishing from the Nordmark 24-28/ 1/41, the Scheer then sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean on 3/2/41. There was another mid-ocean rendezvous 14- 17/2/41 a thousand miles east of Madagascar with the raider Atlantis, two captured ships, and the tanker Tannenfels. On 20/2/41 the Scheer captured one ship and sank another. She sank a ship the next day, and another on 22/2/41. She was pressing her luck, however, as on the same day as sinking her last victim, she was spotted by a floatplane from the cruiser Glasgow. With the British pulling eight cruisers and the light carrier Hermes off of convoy duty to hunt for her, the Scheer headed back around the Cape of Good Hope and re-entered the Atlantic on 3/3/41.

The Admiral Scheer refueled from the Nordmark, had a rendezvous with the raiders Kormoran and Pinguin, and most important met the submarine U-124 bringing out some vital parts from Germany. After completing a refit of her engines at sea on 11/3/41, the Admiral Scheer crossed the equator on 15/3/41, passed through the Denmark Strait on 27/3/41, and arrived at Kiel on 1/4/41. The Scheer had sailed 46,419 miles and accounted for one AMC and 16 Allied ships (99,059 tons).

After a complete overhaul and working up in the Baltic, the Admiral Scheer was ordered to Norway. Departing from Kiel on 4/9/41, she was spotted by British reconnaissance before she arrived at Oslo later the same day. There she experienced two attacks by RAF B-17s on 5/9/41 and 8/9/41 before it was decided to return her to Swinemunde.

The next operation for Admiral Scheer was joining the Tirpitz, the light cruisers Koln and Nurnberg, three destroyers, and five torpedo boats off Aaland Island on 23/9/41 to block Soviet ships that the German High Command expected were about to flee for asylum in Sweden. After heavy air attacks the Tirpitz and Scheer were recalled on 24/9/41. Another breakout into the Atlantic was planned for November of 1941, but was canceled after Scheer developed machinery problems.

After repairs the Admiral Scheer departed from Brunsbuttel for Norway with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and five destroyers on 21/2/42. Although spotted by British reconnaissance the same day, the ships were located by only one of the attacking bombers and attacked ineffectually. The ships were again spotted on 22/2/42, but an attack flown the next day from the carrier Victorious was thwarted by the weather. The Scheer and company arrived at Trondheim on 23/2/42.

Scheer departed Trondheim with the tanker Dithmarschen and two torpedo boats on 9/5/42 and arrived at Narvik the next day. On 3/7/42 she sailed from Narvik with the Lutzow and six destroyers for Alta Fjord to join in intercepting the Murmansk convoy PQ17. Although she departed from Alta Fjord with the Tirpitz, the Hipper, seven destroyers, and two torpedo boats on 5/7/42 to intercept the convoy, they all returned to the next day after the convoy had dispersed.

On 16/8/42 Admiral Scheer departed from Narvik and, sailing around the north tip of Novaya Zemlya, entered the Kara Sea on 19/8/42. Sailing at one point as far as 78' North and 100' East, she sank the Soviet icebreaker Sibiryalcov on 25/8/42 and shelled the Soviet port of Dickson, sinking the patrol ship Dexhnev and a merchant ship, on 27/8/42. She returned to Narvik on 30/8/42.

On 10/9/42 the Admiral Scheer departed Narvik with the Hipper, the light cruiser Koln, and five destroyers to move into position to once again threaten the Murmansk convoys. Despite an attack by the British submarine Tigris the ships all arrived safely at Alta Fjord on 11/9/42. The Scheer, however, was ordered to returned to Germany in November of 1942, where she received a needed refit. She was then used as a training ship starting from February of 1943 and into 1944.

However, with Germany's waning fortune on the East Front, the Admiral Scheer became active again. With her AA increased by 6x 40mm and 12x 20mm in November of 1944, she was used to cover the final evacuation of the Sworde Peninsula 22-24/11/44, repelling several Soviet air attacks in the process. Escorted by a destroyer and three torpedo boats, she shelled Soviet units near Frauenburg 9-10/2/45 and, escorted by two destroyers and two torpedo boats, shelled Soviets units along the south coast of Samland 18-19/2/45. On 9/3/45 the Scheer with three destroyers and a torpedo boat provided cover for a German bridgehead near Wollin. Returning to Kiel for a refit, the Admiral Scheer was sunk by bombs in an air raid by 591 RAF bombers on 9/4/45.

More WWII German Pocket Battleships

WWII German Pocket Battleship: Introduction
WWII German Pocket Battleship: Lutzow
WWII German Pocket Battleship: Admiral Scheer
WWII German Pocket Battleship: Admiral Graf Spee