Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Various views of the SCHEER before and during WW2. When her bow was modified and the funnel cap added plus forward "tower" replaced, her "look" became sleeker and more aggressive........DFO

More views of the SHEER............early and late. Probably the most useful thing she did was provide NGFS against the on rushing Red Army in the Baltic, late war. DFO

Two more photos of ADM SCHEER, before and after her updating...........DFO

Various views of ADM. SCHEER........... DFO

Here is a nice, color partial view of her in Norway, 1942............DFO

Two WW 2 views of the ADM. SCHEER; best looking of the 3 unit class with her mods........ DFO

Deutschland Class Heavy Cruiser Admiral Scheer pictured in 1939.

Here is the ADM. SCHEER in Gotenhafen. 1943.............. DFO

A narrative of SCHEERs' last days:

"On December 1944 the German Fleet lost the old battleship Schleswig Holstein, which sank after being bombed in front of Gotenhafen; but, from January 1945 onwards, the cruisers went back into action bombarding the Baltic shores again. Now it was needed to save the troops at Memel, which were doing anything possible to get to Samland through Kurische Nehrung —the sand hills between the Baltic and Courland Bay. Despite the Russians attacked towards the sea at Cranz, the ships stopped them and held the line open, thus allowing thousands of men and refugees to get to Samland.

They were heading to Pillau, where they expected to get to the sea, further west. But the small port was completely inadequate for the innumerable amount of soldiers and refugees and there were terrible scenes. The merchant and war ships made amazing efforts to manage the situation; but when refugees were boarding the ships had to sail off because the Russians had already surrounded the town. The Red Army had reached Frische Haff and cut the liaison between Königsberg and Pillau. The Admiral Scheer and the Lützow threw their artillery’s weight upon the Soviet lines north of Pillau. The German Army made a second try and re-established contact with the capital of Eastern Prussia. Once more, thousands of refugees resumed their escape from Königsberg to the port at Pillau in their last chance of salvation.

Through the Admiral Scheer’s artillery optics, her crew could see the long and black lines of civilians marching through the freezing Haff: people, vehicles and animals marched on the ice. Russian artillery soon started to fall upon the refugees on open ground and the German mariners only could stare. They were desperate to get fuel and ammunition enough to allow their guns to ‘talk’ again. By early February, the naval guns were able to give a breath to the Army, which could now withdraw to the Gulf at Elbing, Tolkemit and Frauenburg.
During this action, the Admiral Scheer opened fire within a range of twenty-two miles; the longest range she had ever used. The Soviet shooting stopped but the ship had to flee for Kiel to make repairs. She sailed from Gotenhafen to Kiel on early March, carrying eight-hundred refugees and two-hundred wounded, plus her crew. Even with her passenger overload, she kept her guns ‘talking’ between Kolberg and Dievenow, when a long refugee-column marching along the shore was subjected to Russian artillery fire. The ship open fire in three different occasions and blew all Russian batteries up.
By this time, the British air-reconnaissance had become so effective that they found the ‘pocket battleship’ very soon at Kiel’s shipyards. The RAF then started ‘visiting’ her, day and night. The Admiral Scheer was lucky until April 9th and even during the first stages of the raid on the night of the 10th; after twenty minutes of heavy bombardment no bomb had hit her; but then some bombs exploded in the water very near and broke the plates in the sides. She then rise her keel to the air and sank in a few minutes.

Most of the crew had taken shelter in land. The maintenance and guarding crew, as well as the commander managed to flee, but thirty-two sailors lost their lives.

That was the end of the last big ship of the Kriegsmarine."

From a website devoted to all things German in WW2. Here is a photo of SCHEER providing ngfs against the sov army....... DFO

Deutschland Class Heavy Cruiser Admiral Scheer pictured at Kiel during Navy Week in June 1935.