First came Battleships of the Bismarck Class by Gerhard Koop and Klaus-Peter Schmolke and now comes Battleships of the Scharnhorst Class – the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau: The Backbone of the German Surface Forces at the Outbreak of War.
(And we are working on another book, to be announced for publication in the year 2000.)
The Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau were a key part of Germany's struggle to wrest control of the sea at the outbreak of World War II. Each was superbly equipped and armed, and designed to use high-speed and good gunnery for maximum disruption to Allied shipping.
This superb, illustrated reference book, in the same format as Battleships of the Bismarck Class, traces the development of the two ships from inception, on the eve of World War II, to the scuttling of the Gneisenau in 1945 and the loss of the Scharnhorst (and 1,932 officers and men) to allied destroyers on 26 December 1943. Making use of outstanding technical drawings, Battleships of the Scharnhorst Class provides detailed specifications for the ships with extensive notes on design and layout.
The ships' service histories are also detailed, the authors drawing on extracts from official reports and the ships' logs to emphasise particular actions – such as the sinking of HMS Glorious, Acasta and Ardent off Norway in 1940, and the famous 'Channel Dash' of February 1942 – make this fully illustrated book a comprehensive guide to two formidable ships.
Reviews of Battleships of the Bismark Class (which has just been reprinted) include:
'The authors deserve considerable praise for the very large number of photographs which they have brought together.' – Journal of Naval Engineering reviewing
'... I read this book at a single sitting, and found it fascinating ... I had seen very few of these photographs before, and they were all accompanied by helpful captions ... I can recommend it heartily to all readers who find a fascination in battleships.' – Warship World
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