The German battleship Scharnhorst, one of the most famous warships of the Second World War, was the lead ship of her class and was named after the Prussian general and army reformer "Gerhard von Scharnhorst" and to commemorate the First World War armoured cruiser SMS Scharnhorst that was sunk in the Battle at the Falkland Islands in December 1914.

The Scharnhorst usually sailed into battle accompanied by her sistership, the equally famous Gneisenau. She was sunk at the Battle of North Cape in December 1943.

Next to the Bismarck, the Scharnhorst was the second largest battleship of the German Kriegsmarine.

As a sideline to Operation Juno, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her escorting destroyers Acasta and Ardent on 8th June 1940 at around 64 degrees North of Norway.

Scharnhorsts salvos hit Glorious at 16:32, before her torpedo-bombers could be launched. Scharnhorst's second salvo at 16:38 struck Glorious at the extreme range of 26.300 yards, one of the longest range direct hits ever recorded.