Kriegsmarine Warship silhouette help

[Colin Davie]

I'm fiddling around with a nice old B&W postcard of this ship, I want to use a high res toned copy for my display, can anyone help me with a recognition? Here is a low res copy of where I'm at just now.

Any help much appreciated.

C

[Gordon Williamson]

Hi Colin,

Its the Gneisenau.

On first glance Scharmhorst and Gneisenau were near identical twins. Indeed when first built the spec of each ship was just about identical. However when they were rebuilt and got thier rakish "clipper" bows instead of the straight stem various changes were made.

The most obvious tell-tale on photos is the position of the mainmast. On Gneisenau it remained attached to the rear of the funnel. On Scharnhorst it was moved further aft.

Here is a snap of Gneisenau from a similar view to yours

[Gordon Williamson]

And Scharnhorst - note the position of the mainmast.

[Colin Davie]

Thanks Gordon, now you mention it I'm sure you've made that point about the refit before, maybe in one of the model kit topics.

Guess that solvs this one too

Cheers for that.

C