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Gneisenau (German pronunciation: [ˈɡnaɪ̯zənaʊ̯]) was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class, which included her sister ship, Scharnhorst. The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke dockyard in Kiel; she was laid down on 6 May 1935 and launched on 8 December 1936. Her outfitting was completed in May 1938: she was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. At one point after construction had started, a plan had been approved to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets, but when it was realized that this would involve a lot of redesign, that plan was abandoned, and construction continued with the originally planned lower-calibre guns. The upgrade had been intended to be completed in the winter of 1940–41, but instead, due to the outbreak of World War II, that work was stopped.

Gneisenau and Scharnhorst operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, for example making sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant ships. During their first operation, the two ships sank the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short battle. Gneisenau and Scharnhorst also participated in the German invasion of Norway: Operation Weserübung. During operations off the coast of Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious. Gneisenau was damaged in the action with Renown and later torpedoed by a British submarine, HMS Clyde, off the coast of Norway. After a successful raid in the Atlantic in 1941, Gneisenau and her sister ship put in at Brest, France. The two battleships were the object of repeated bombing raids by the RAF, during which Gneisenau was hit several times, though she was ultimately repaired