KMS Gneisenau - Atlantic Raider Wrecked in Drydock 

The torpedo damage at 11:25 from HMS Clyde was so massive the crew of Gneisenau actually rode one of the ships boats clean through the hole.

At launch, both ships looked almost WW1-ish. The addition of the Atlantic bow and the funnel cap transformed them.

The Germans and the US had some of the sexiest ships out there

Both the Scharnhorst and Bismarck classes look damn cool 👍

2:50 into the video: the side elevation shown shows the Scharnhorst. YOu can differentiate the 2 from one another by the position of the main mast. Gneisenau had her mast on the backside o the funnel, Scharnhorst has her mast at the back of the hangar.

Its krazy how those old battleships were low to the waterline....Im sure when they were at sea during heavy storms Those sailors an crews were scared an nervious.....those atlantic rogue waves are no joke....🧐🙄 great video by the way...👍

This ship vs an Alaska class heavy cruiser would have been epic!

The fact that these ships can make it out off the German coast into the North Atlantic and back is an achievement in itself……..!!!!!!

Beautiful ship !!

I've read that Gneisenau probably suffered another torpedo hit or two from german S-Boats in 1945 as it was suspected that soviet forces were using her mast as an artillery observation post, but I can't remember the source

Thanks for the episode, Skynea. Take care.

I'm just gonna be chaotic neutral with Scharnhorst & Gneisenau: *They're Light Battleships.*

Regarding the action with HMS Renown off Lofoten in April 1940, it is noteworthy that Gneisenau was fighting well until the hit to her foretop by a 15inch shell. According to her war diary, Gneisenau picked up Renown first on her radar, and while the British ship fired first while being hidden herself in a rainsquall, Gneisenau hit her first with two 11inch shells. Scharnhorst experienced difficulties with her Seetakt radar which prevented her from engaging the British ship. Renown then scored her 15inch hit on Gneisenau's foretop which killed her 1st gunnery officer, Fregattenkapitän Hans-Georg von Buchka. Shrapnel from this hit also damaged her secondary director atop the control tower, thus fire control had to be shifted to the aft station, but due to the low mounting position, visibility was very bad. Gneisenau scored no further hits in the engagement. As a sidenote, the 3rd gunnery officer manning the aft fire control director during this battle was Korvettenkapitän Walter Bredenbreuker, who later served as Scharnhorst's 1st gunnery officer during her sinking at the North Cape.

Interesting and very informative as always! Love your stuff

love the Scharnhorst class alot ! thanks for your information love to see you videos great details and on this 1 its true the Scharnhorst is more popular but still this ship have history aswell . anyway great work as always !

Great video with excellent research. Thank you!

Very interesting video, keep up the great work bro 🎉.

"This is Gary Gnew with no gnews is good gnews"... Now say it again only with 'Gneisenau' Gesundheit

Re the orders at Operation Berlin, this came from sacking the aggressive Admiral Marschall as commander of the Fleet and replacing him by the more cautious Lütjens after Operation Juno (the Harstadt operation resulting in the sinking of Glorious) had resulted in damage to both ships. Lütjens' reluctance to engage capital ships would later come back to haunt him during the Bismarck breakout but in operation Berlin it was justified as any lucky hit on either of the two ships might have resulted in its loss while Britain could easily afford losing a WW1 era battleship

She was a very unlucky ship, getting hit and damaged time and again until the very end.

At 31 knots and 11" guns its a commerce raider battle cruiser

Anyone looking at historic photos of scharnhorst and gneisenau there is a way to easily distinguish them apart is that of thier main masts, gneisenau had hers on her funnel and scharnhorst had hers further back above the aircraft hanger area

Rodney and King George V? Pffft! Like THAT pair will ever accomplish anything.

I've always felt Gneisenau has been unfairly treated in history. Scharhorst's name is generally called first, but in fact when the two were together it was Gneisenau that was the flagship! In the action with Renown, one of the 4.5-inch hits was VERY significant - an incredibly lucky hit! It hit one of the sights for the range finder of turret Anton, ripping it open. In the heavy seas, water poured in through it and that is what disabled the turret. Imagine! A triple 11-inch turret was knocked out because of a 4.5-inch shell! With her fire control compromised and A-turret out of action, Gneisenau turned away, covered by Scharnhorst who steamed between her and Renown before following suit. Gneisenau's hits on Renown - one passed through her stern just above the steering gear without exploding, the other nicked her foremast, damaging communication lines (which were quickly fixed by a crewman who climbed up there in the swirling wind and spray). And as an aside, Renown thought she was fighting Scharnhorst and Hipper. The stepping back of Scharnhorst's mainmast aft of her aircraft hangar made her look like a Hipper-class cruiser at a distance. Seems the British didn't know it at the time.

I'd be interested to see how they transferred the turret to Norway.

It is for sure the first version of the pronounciations. Where did you get the other two from, they are in no way German ways to pronounce the name Gneisenau!

Beautiful Battlecruisers.

Beautiful ships always like german and italian battle ships they had beautiful lines.

Excuse me. I'm a German and there is only one way to pronounce the name Gneisenau and that's the first pronouciation, You used.

Another Kreigsmarine swimmer. Although this one did better than her namesake, from the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

The Germans referred the battleships as "He". Beautiful ships.

IMO similar to Alaska Class so why not Large Cruiser's?

A Jingles shout out nice

In which Skynea History goes "Actually, Jingles..." XD

I find you to be about the least irritating historical commenter around - will done 😄

Great video! You can see two of Gneisenaus secondary turrets at Stevnsfortet in Denmark today. da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevnsfortet

Easily the best and most beautiful battlecruisers ever built. The Germans really knew how to build em to look amazing.

The correct pronounciation is the first one, the 'G' is active ...

Beautiful ships, but unbelievably bad seakeeping for vessels intended to operate primarily in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic, none of which is renowned for flat calms and moderate weather.

Gneisenau is Gneisenau in german. No different pronunciation like in the US, no denglish.

In German the g is always hard....always pronounce the g.....and the p....

People love to loose their minds over pronunciation. I wonder if its a gotcha moment for them?

First

Ok so what is Alaska lmao, nobody seems to know, not even the U.S. Navy

The Germans did such a poor job of deploying their ships, they never should have been built in the first place.

Sadly the Germans (Hitler) had no idea of what to do with a naval capacity. Combined (somehow) with the French and Italian forces in the Med they could have been influential to the outcome of North Africa. Just an opinion. 🌎✌️🌍

"Both Drach and Jingles..." Stop using those not-experts-on-non-UK-ships as sources, please. For example, they BOTH insist on mispronouncing "Yamato," despite there being a plethora of correct pronunciations, to include a damn song. Also, neither are historians; Jingles being an RN veteran means he's only really knowledgeable about RN stuff, and Drach is an engineer with a heavy bias towards "RN is best in all facets, regardless of circumstances." It would be one thing if they disclaimed their videos as being opinion pieces, which they notoriously do not.