Gneisenau in 1939571 viewsThe Gneisenau was the second of the two 'Scharnhorst' class battle-cruisers completed in Germany in the late 1930s as highly impressive ships with a full-load displacement of 34,900 tons, length of 754ft Oin (229.8m), armament of nine I I inch (280mm) guns in three triple turrets, twelve 5.6inch (150mm) guns in six twin turrets, fourteen 4.1 inch (105mm) anti-aircraft guns in seven twin mountings and sixteen 37mm anti-aircraft guns in eight twin mountings.
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HMS Norfolk 1928743 viewsHMS Norfolk was a County-class heavy cruiser, which displaced 10,035 tons. She was laid down in July 1927 at Govan by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd and launched on 12th December 1928. She was commissioned on 30th April 1930.
In September 1931, Norfolk was part of a mutiny that later became known as the Invergordon Mutiny. 700 sailors from warships of the Atlantic Fleet, which had converged on Invergordon for fleet manoeuvres, launched a two-day strike. The mutiny came about due to a recommendation by the Commission on National Expenditure, that said that pay cuts upto 10% should be implemented on the Royal Navy. The anger increased when a number of newspapers published widely exaggerated and inaccurate reports on the cuts, some claiming that they would be as high as 25%.
She later served with the Home Fleet until she re-commissioned for service in the East Indies Station in 1937. At the outbreak of war in 1939, Norfolk deployed with the Home Fleet, and was involved in the chase for the German pocket battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, along with the Admiral Scheer. She was soon receiving numerous repairs for damage that she had received, not to mention vital modifications to the ship. Her first repairs were carried out in Belfast, after a near-miss by a torpedo from the German submarine U-47, the submarine responsible for sinking the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak.
In 1949, Norfolk returned to the UK and was placed in Reserve. On 14th February 1950, she proceeded to Newport to be broken up after a long and proud service of 22 years, in which she gained the Norfolk lineage the majority of its battle honours, including it's last.
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German Battlecruiser Scharnhorst844 viewsScharnhorst was a 31,100-ton Gneisenau-class battleship of the German Kriegsmarine, named to commemorate the World War I armoured cruiser SMS Scharnhorst, which was in turn named after the Prussian general Gerhard von Scharnhorst
The ship was built at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, launched in October 1936 under the Hitler regime's massive rearmament program, and commissioned in January 1939.
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