Battle of the North Cape

Battle context

The Battle of the North Cape eliminated the German battleship Scharnhorst, which had sortied to execute Operation Ostfront, an attack on Allied Arctic convoys supplying the Soviet Union. HMS Duke of York, together with cruisers, destroyers, and the Norwegian destroyer HNoMS Stord, brought Scharnhorst to battle and sank her, resulting in the loss of 1,932 German personnel. The destruction of Scharnhorst increased the British advantage in major surface units and ended the threat that the ship posed to Arctic convoy routes. The engagement marked the last action between British and German big-gun capital ships, and stands as the penultimate battleship-versus-battleship engagement in history, preceded only by the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944.