Word: scharnhorst
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From Brest, the Nazi battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, with attendan' ships and planes, suddenly cut through the English Channel to home bases in the North Sea (see p. 27). Nightmarishly the U.S. looked at two new and fearful words: GERMAN FLEET...
...little German Fleet-the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen, their destroyers and minesweepers-got proudly through the Channel, 700-odd miles from Brest to their home base in Germany...
Worse than the humiliation was the new fear. Now the Germans could assemble a pretty formidable fleet-the battleship Tirpitz, the pocket battleships Lützow and Admiral Scheer, the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin (and perhaps another, the Deutschland), the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, four heavy and perhaps eight light cruisers, about 25 destroyers. This was probably more than the British could quickly assemble at any one pressure point. Such a striking force could be used with overwhelming effect against convoys. It could sever British lines to Archangel and the Mediterranean. It might raid Iceland, as the U.S. Fleet...
...Scharnhorst had skedaddled. Orders flashed out to reconnaissance. Within a few hours messages came back: Scharnhorst in La Pallice, 240 miles south of Brest...
Immediately the R.A.F. organized giant raids to put not only the Scharnhorst but the Gneisenau back on the casualty list. For the first time the R.A.F. reported using U.S.-built Flying Fortresses, which are easily capable of bombing from 30,000 ft. When the raiders left Brest the Gneisenau had received seven direct hits. Smaller bombers tackled and hit the Scharnhorst at La Pallice...