Plastic model of German Scharnhorst Battleship 1:350 scale

The battleship Scharnhorst is the first ship of the Scharnhorst class. Ship types are divided into battleships. The initial design envisioned a battleship equipped with a 380mm main gun, ready to face future wars, but this project was not implemented during World War II. The Scharnhorst was built by the Wilhelmshaven shipyard in Germany and was launched on October 3, 1936. It entered service on January 7, 1939.

In 1938, during trials, the Scharnhorst was found to have insufficient forward freeboard, requiring bow repairs in 1939. After the outbreak of World War II, in 1940, in the North Sea, the Scharnhorst sank two Royal Navy ships, the aircraft carrier Glorious and two destroyers, but was hit by torpedoes fired by a British destroyer and beached for repairs.

In 1941, the Scharnhorst broke into the Atlantic Ocean, where it conducted sea destruction operations. During this two-month operation, it sank 22 merchant ships, totaling 11,500 tons, causing significant damage to the Allied merchant navy.

On December 25, 1943, the Scharnhorst attacked an Allied convoy but was intercepted by the main fleet of the Royal Navy, led by the battleship Duke of York. It attempted to attack the British but was ultimately sunk by the Duke of York.