The Scharnhorst was the pride of the German navy, considered unsinkable by her crew. A witness describes how she was trapped and sunk by the Royal Navy in 1943.

Scharnhorst's loss was an enormous psychological blow to the German nation. Equally important to the Allied war effort, the routes of the Murmansk convoys were now much more secure.

Scharnhorst disengaged, while the British escorts withdrew to screen the convoy as Force 2 raced to support them. But Bey circled Scharnhorst around and at noon bumped into Force 1 a second time.

The Scharnhorst was the first to sink, after suffering heavy damage from the guns of the Invincible and the Inflexible. More than 2,200 German sailors died during the battle, ...

Scharnhorst remained at Brest for the rest of 1941, but increased RAF bombing attacks made the German naval presence untenable. The German ships could not sortie, and could not remain in Brest.