was ordered by the
Reichsmarine from the shipyard in
Wilhelmshaven. Naval rearmament was not popular with the
Social Democrats and the
Communists in the German , so it was not until 1931 that a bill was passed to build a second . The money for , which was ordered as , was secured after the Social Democrats abstained to prevent a political crisis. Her keel was laid on 25 June 1931, under construction number 123. The ship was launched on 1 April 1933; at her launching, she was christened by Marianne Besserer, the daughter of Admiral
Reinhard Scheer, the ship's namesake. She was completed slightly over a year and a half later on 12 November 1934, the day she was commissioned into the German fleet. The old
pre-dreadnought battleship was removed from service and her crew transferred to the newly commissioned . At her commissioning in November 1934, was placed under the command of (
KzS)
Wilhelm Marschall. The ship spent the remainder of 1934 conducting
sea trials and training her crew. In 1935, she had a new
catapult and landing sail system to operate her Heinkel HE 60 seaplanes on heavy seas installed. From 1 October 1935 to 26 July 1937 her first officer was
Leopold Bürkner, later to become head of foreign intelligence in the
Third Reich. By October 1935, the ship was ready for her first major cruise, when on 25–28 October she visited
Madeira, returning to Kiel on 8 November. The following summer, she cruised out through the
Skagerrak and the
English Channel into the
Irish Sea, before visiting
Stockholm on the return voyage.
Spanish Civil War s first overseas deployment began in July 1936 when she was sent to Spain to evacuate German civilians caught in the midst of the
Spanish Civil War. From 8 August 1936 she served together with her sister ship on
non-intervention patrols off the
Republican-held coast of Spain. She served four tours of duty with the non-intervention patrol through June 1937. Her official objective was to control the influx of war
materiel into Spain, though she also recorded Soviet ships carrying supplies to the Republicans and protected ships delivering German weapons to
Nationalist forces. During the deployment to Spain,
Ernst Lindemann served as the ship's first gunnery officer. After was attacked on 29 May 1937 by
Spanish Republican Air Force aircraft off
Ibiza, was ordered to bombard the Republican-held port of
Almería in reprisal. On 31 May 1937, the anniversary of the
Battle of Jutland, , flying the
Imperial War Flag, arrived off Almería at 07:29 and opened fire on shore batteries, naval installations and ships in the harbor. On 26 June 1937, she was relieved by her sister ship , allowing her to return to Wilhelmshaven on 1 July. She returned to the Mediterranean between August and October, however. In September 1936
KzS Otto Ciliax had replaced Marschall as the ship's commanding officer.
World War II At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, remained at anchor in the
Schillig roadstead outside Wilhelmshaven, with the heavy cruiser . On 4 September, two groups of five
Bristol Blenheim bombers attacked the ships. The first group surprised the anti-aircraft gunners aboard , who nevertheless managed to shoot down one of the five Blenheims. One bomb struck the ship's deck and failed to explode, and two detonated in the water near the ship. The remaining bombs also failed to explode. The second group of five Blenheims were confronted by the alerted German defenses, which shot down four of the five bombers. emerged from the attack undamaged. In November 1939,
KzS Theodor Krancke became the ship's commanding officer. underwent a refit while her sister ships set out on
commerce raiding operations in the Atlantic. Around this time the ship received two of its Arado Ar 196 floatplanes. was modified during the early months of 1940, including the installation of a new, raked
clipper bow. The heavy command tower was replaced with a lighter structure, and she was reclassified as a
heavy cruiser. Additional anti-aircraft guns were also installed, along with updated radar equipment. On 19–20 July
RAF bombers attacked and the battleship , though they failed to score any hits. On 27 July, the ship was pronounced ready for service.
Atlantic sortie sailed in October 1940 on her first combat sortie. On the night of 31 October she slipped through the
Denmark Strait and broke into the open Atlantic. Her radio intercept equipment identified the
convoy HX 84, sailing from
Halifax,
Nova Scotia. s Arado seaplane located the convoy on 5 November 1940. The
armed merchant cruiser , the sole escort for the convoy, issued a report of the German raider and attempted to prevent her from attacking the convoy, which was ordered to scatter under cover of a smoke screen. s first salvo scored hits on
Jervis Bay, disabling her wireless equipment and steering gear. Shells from her second salvo struck the bridge and killed her commander,
Edward Fegen. sank
Jervis Bay within 22 minutes, but the engagement delayed the German ship long enough for most of the convoy to escape. sank only 5 of the convoy's 37 ships, though a 6th was sunk by the Luftwaffe following the convoy's dispersal. On 18 December, encountered the refrigerator ship
Duquesa, . The ship sent off a distress signal, which the German raider deliberately allowed, to draw British naval forces to the area. Krancke wanted to lure British warships to the area to draw attention away from , which had just exited the Denmark Strait. The
aircraft carriers and , the cruisers , , and , and the armed merchant cruiser converged to hunt down the German raider, but she eluded the British. . After the war was rebuilt as the British
bulk carrier Cedar Trader, shown here. Between 26 December and 7 January, rendezvoused with the supply ships
Nordmark and , the auxiliary cruiser , and the prizes
Duquesa and
Storstad. The raiders transferred some 600 prisoners to
Storstad while they refueled from and . Between 18 and 20 January captured three Allied merchant ships totalling , including the Norwegian
oil tanker . She spent Christmas 1940 at sea in the mid-Atlantic, several hundred miles from
Tristan da Cunha, before making a foray into the Indian Ocean in February 1941. On 14 February, rendezvoused with the auxiliary cruiser and the supply ship about east of
Madagascar. The raiders resupplied from and exchanged information on Allied merchant traffic in the area, parting company on 17 February. then steamed to the
Seychelles north of Madagascar, where she found two merchant vessels with her Arado floatplanes. She took the oil tanker
British Advocate as a prize and sank the Greek-flagged
Grigorios. A third ship, the
Canadian Cruiser, managed to send a distress signal before sank her on 21 February. The raider encountered and sank a fourth ship the following day, the Dutch steamer
Rantaupandjang, though she too was able to send a distress signal before she sank. The British cruiser , which was patrolling in the area, received both messages from s victims.
Glasgow launched reconnaissance aircraft that spotted on 22 February. Vice Admiral
Ralph Leatham, the commander of the
East Indies Station, deployed the carrier
Hermes and cruisers , , , , and the Australian to join the hunt. Krancke turned to the south-east to evade his pursuers, reaching the South Atlantic by 3 March. The British, meanwhile, had abandoned the hunt on 25 February when it became clear that had withdrawn from the area. then sailed northwards, breaking through the Denmark Strait on 26–27 March and evading the cruisers and . She reached
Bergen, Norway on 30 March, where she spent a day in the
Grimstadfjord. A destroyer escort joined the ship for the voyage to Kiel, which they reached on 1 April. In the course of her raiding operation, she had steamed over and sunk seventeen merchant ships for a total of . She was by far the most successful German
capital ship commerce raider of the entire war. After returning to Germany, Krancke left the ship and was replaced by
KzS Wilhelm Meendsen-Bohlken in June 1941. The loss of the battleship in May 1941, and more importantly, the Royal Navy's destruction of the German supply ship network in the aftermath of the operation forced a planned Atlantic raiding operation for and her sister at the end of 1941 to be abandoned. From 4 to 8 September, was briefly moved to
Oslo. There, on 5 and 8 September,
No. 90 Squadron RAF, equipped with
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, mounted a pair of unsuccessful attacks on the ship. On 8 September, the ship left Oslo and returned to
Swinemünde.
Deployment to Norway On 21 February 1942, , the heavy cruiser , and the destroyers , , , , and steamed to Norway. After stopping briefly in Grimstadfjord, the ships proceeded on to Trondheim. On 23 February, the British submarine torpedoed , causing serious damage. The first operation in Norway in which took part was
Operation Rösselsprung, in July 1942. On 2 July, the ship sortied as part of the attempt to intercept
Arctic convoy PQ-17. and formed one group while and composed another. While en route to the rendezvous point, and three destroyers ran aground, forcing the entire group to abandon the operation. was detached to join and in
Altafjord. The British detected the German departure and ordered the convoy to scatter. Aware that surprise had been lost, the Germans broke off the surface attack and turned the destruction of PQ-17 over to the
U-boats and
Luftwaffe. Twenty-four of the convoy's thirty-five transports were sunk. In August 1942, she conducted
Operation Wunderland, a sortie into the
Kara Sea to interdict Soviet shipping and attack targets of opportunity. The length of the mission and the distances involved precluded a destroyer escort for the operation; three destroyers would escort until they reached
Novaya Zemlya, at which point they would return to Norway. Two U-boats — and — patrolled the
Kara Gate and the
Yugorsky Strait. The Germans originally intended to send with her sister ship , but since the latter had run aground the previous month, she was unavailable for the operation. The operational plan called for strict radio silence to ensure surprise could be maintained. This required Meendsen-Bohlken to have total tactical and operational control of his ship; shore-based commands would be unable to direct the mission. On 16 August, and her destroyer escort left
Narvik on a course to pass to the north of Novaya Zemlya. Upon entering the Kara Sea, she encountered heavy ice; in addition to searching for merchant shipping, the Arado floatplane was used to scout paths through the ice fields. On 25 August, she encountered the Soviet
icebreaker . sank the icebreaker, but not before she sent a distress signal. The German ship then turned south, and two days later, arrived off the port of
Dikson. damaged two ships in the port and shelled harbor facilities. Meendsen-Bohlken considered sending a landing party ashore, but firing from Soviet shore batteries convinced him to abandon the plan. After breaking off the bombardment, Meendsen-Bohlken decided to return to Narvik. She reached port on 30 August without having achieved any significant successes. On 23 October , and the destroyers , , , , and left
Bogen Bay and proceeded to
Trondheim. There, stopped for repairs, while and
Z28 continued on to Germany.
Ernst Gruber served as the ship's acting commander at the end of November. In December 1942, returned to Wilhelmshaven for major overhaul, where she was attacked and slightly damaged by RAF bombers. Consequently, moved to the less exposed port of Swinemünde. In February 1943,
KzS took command of the ship. Until the end of 1944, was part of the Fleet Training Group.
Return to the Baltic KzS , the ship's final commander, took command of in April 1944. On 22 November 1944, , the destroyers
Z25 and , and the 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla relieved the cruiser and several destroyers supporting German forces
fighting the Soviets on the Estonian island of
Saaremaa (Ösel) in the Baltic. The
Soviet Air Force launched several air attacks on the German forces, all of which were successfully repelled by heavy anti-aircraft fire. The ship's Arado floatplane was shot down, however. On the night of 23–24 November, the German naval forces completed the evacuation of the island. In all, 4,694 troops were evacuated from the island. In early February 1945, stood off
Samland with several torpedo boats in support of German forces fighting Soviet advances. On 9 February, the ships began shelling Soviet positions. Between 18 and 24 February, German forces launched a local counterattack; and the torpedo boats provided artillery support, targeting Soviet positions near
Peyse and
Gross-Heydekrug. The German attack temporarily restored the land connection to
Königsberg. The ship's guns were badly worn out by March and in need of repair. On 8 March, departed the eastern Baltic to have her guns relined in Kiel; she carried 800 civilian refugees and 200 wounded soldiers. An uncleared minefield prevented her from reaching Kiel, and so she unloaded her passengers in Swinemünde. Despite her worn-out gun barrels, the ship then shelled Soviet forces outside
Kolberg until she used up her remaining ammunition. The ship then loaded refugees and left Swinemünde; she successfully navigated the minefields on the way to Kiel, arriving on 18 March. Her stern turret had its guns replaced at the
Deutsche Werke shipyard by early April. During the repair process, most of the ship's crew went ashore. On the night of 9 April 1945, a general RAF bombing raid by over 300 aircraft struck the harbor in Kiel. was hit by bombs and capsized. She was partially broken up for scrap after the end of the war, though part of the hull was left in place and buried with rubble from the attack when the inner harbors were filled in post-war. The number of casualties from her loss is unknown. In 2024, an
industrial archeologist and a
geophysicist, along with a team of researchers using
reflection seismology, examined a parking lot of a navy arsenal in Kiel where they suspected the wreck was buried. Some 70 percent of was located, including the main guns and superstructure. ==Footnotes==