Guys, I've had this question on my mind for a very long time, and I've looked on the Internet for the Answer, but try as i may i haven't. so here! Scharnhorst flashed a signal to Rawalpindi to "Heave to!" followed up with a warning shot across her bow! what dose that actually Mean? Also why did she fell like she had to fight, there was and iceberg four mile away? This i one question i been asking other people! Is question is off the twins first Mission of the war in November 23rd, 1939! Also Are Scharnhorst and Gneisenau twin sisters or no? Nikki!
Heave To, and a shot accross the bow means they wanted the Rawalpindi to surrender (I would have thought this was obvious). The captain of the Rawalpindi chose to fight (which was stupid, but whatever). Never heard anything about an iceberg 4 miles away, not sure why it matters. Yes, the Rawalpindi was sunk during the first mission of the war for Scharnhorst & Gneisenau while they were trying to break out into the atlantic. The last part you have asked several times already, yes they were both from the same class of battleship however there were some slight differences so they were not identical twins. http://en.wikipedia.org is your friend, all of the answers to your questions can be found there.
Two things: 1) In layman's terms, 'Heave to' means "Hey! Turn off you engine and stop while we come over." 2) The captain of Rawalpindi was not stupid... he had civilian merchant ships in the area to protect. He sent a signal alerting those ships to scatter, and informing the Admiralty that Scharnie and Gneiss Guy were in the area, so that they could scramble forces to deal with them. He then engages the Scharnhorst in order to buy time for the defenseless merchantmen to escape. To a civlian, charging against overwhelming odds may seem stupid, but in the military, it is sometimes necessary to accomplish the mission. "Cowards die a thousand deaths, the valiant taste death but once."
Given where they were I don't agree your reasoning that he was buying the small merchant ships time. He did his job by alerting the admiralty about Scharnhorst & Gneisenau, they simply wouldn't have had time to waste chasing down small merchant ships after having their wherabouts broadcast.
yeah, just like the IRCWCC shiplist? Its pretty accurate most of the time. I honestly don't get why you have to ask the same question several times, its like you don't believe any of us.
Chase, once in a while, its accurate! but not always! as far as battles gose, yes its accurate, but with out stuff not so much! Nikki
umm, its been proven to be more accurate than other expensive encyclopedias like Britannica for example.
Guys, Did you know that the twin were named after the WW 1 Armored cruisers Scharnhorst · Gneisenau! But they were used to commemorate those two ships! Nikki
Chase, Ya that's right, i forgot about that, if i had the room, i would so love to get those two ships! but that never going to happen! Nikki
Chase, we can agree to disagree. I imagine that he'd rather die fighting than allow the 'ugly sisters' to 1) Capture his ship and men, and 2) continue on into the shipping lanes without a fight. His job was not to run, and in any case, he lacked the speed to do so. Like the obsolete Swordfish torpedo bombers that attacked Bismarck, he had a chance of doing damage that would hinder the battlecruisers' mission. Looking at his message traffic and his actions during the battle, I see a man who knows the outcome and does his duty in spite of it. Like the DEs and DDs of Taffy 3 in the Pacific, or the Greeks at Thermopylae. Below are two sources that are worthy of reading. I urge you to go deeper than Wikipedia. However good it is in some areas, there are reasons that it is not a citable source for papers. www.internet-promotions.co.uk/archi...lpindi.htm www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scharnhors...ttack.html Also, while WWI Scharnie and Gneiss Guy were indeed named after historical figures, WW2 Scharnie and Gneiss Guy were NOT. They were named after the WWI ships. It is a significant difference, which realistically only matters to Navy people, but there it is.
Tug, I have both of thoses! the part i like on the first one is: From his vantage point on the Scharnhorst's foretop, Captain Hoffmann ordered the signal 'Abandon your ship!' to be sent. To his astonishment, the Rawalpindi failed to respond to this message. Was the captain mad? Surely no sane person would pit eight obsolete 6-inch guns against the combined weight of eighteen modern 11-inch monsters, firing at a point-blank range of only 4 miles? and from the other one: On the foretop of the Scharnhorst Captain Kurt Cäsar Hoffmann ordered a third signal to be flashed to the Rawalpindi. This time Scharnhorst flashed the signal to "Abandon your ship". Hoffmann was stunned when this signal was also ignored. He thought the Captain of the Rawalpindi to be mad. Surely he (Kennedy) could not believe that Rawalpindi's eight World War 1 era six inch guns were in any way a match for the eighteen modern eleven inch guns of the two German ships. Hoffmann would get his answer after the signal to abandon your ship was sent twice more. With no response from the Rawalpindi, Hoffmann had no alternative but to order the sinking of the ship. As Hoffmann prepared to give the order to open fire, Captain Kennedy's answer to Hoffmann's earlier signals came in the form of a salvo of six inch shells that rained down on the Gneisenau. A second salvo was directed at Scharnhorst. At 15:45 the Scharnhorst opened fire on the Rawalpindi. both of those, show he did what he had to do! Nikki
hey Clark, I have both of those articles!!! going on Rawalpindi for a moment, Dose anyone know were i can find plans for her? Nikki
