Admiral Scheer (German pronunciation: [atmiˈʁaːl ˈʃeːɐ̯]) was a Deutschland-class heavy cruiser (often termed a pocket battleship) which served with the Kriegsmarine (Navy) of Nazi Germany during World War II.

[a] The ship was nominally under the 10,160-tonne (10,000-long-ton) limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of 15,420 tonnes (15,180 long tons), she significantly exceeded it.

[2] Admiral Scheer saw heavy service with the German Navy, including a deployment to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, where she bombarded the port of Almería.

[3] Naval rearmament was not popular with the Social Democrats and the Communists in the German Reichstag, so it was not until 1931 that a bill was passed to build a second Panzerschiff.

[14] Admiral Scheer's first overseas deployment began in July 1936 when she was sent to Spain to evacuate German civilians caught in the midst of the Spanish Civil War.

[17] After Deutschland was attacked on 29 May 1937 by Spanish Republican Air Force aircraft off Ibiza, Admiral Scheer was ordered to bombard the Republican-held port of Almería in reprisal.

[16] On 31 May 1937, the anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, Admiral Scheer, flying the Imperial War Flag, arrived off Almería at 07:29 and opened fire on shore batteries, naval installations and ships in the harbor.

[23] Admiral Scheer's first salvo scored hits on Jervis Bay, disabling her wireless equipment and steering gear.

[24] Admiral Scheer sank Jervis Bay within 22 minutes, but the engagement delayed the German ship long enough for most of the convoy to escape.

[27] Krancke wanted to lure British warships to the area to draw attention away from Admiral Hipper, which had just exited the Denmark Strait.

[27] Between 26 December and 7 January, Admiral Scheer rendezvoused with the supply ships Nordmark and Eurofeld, the auxiliary cruiser Thor, and the prizes Duquesa and Storstad.

[29] Between 18 and 20 January Admiral Scheer captured three Allied merchant ships totalling 18,738 GRT,[30] including the Norwegian oil tanker Sandefjord.

She spent Christmas 1940 at sea in the mid-Atlantic, several hundred miles from Tristan da Cunha, before making a foray into the Indian Ocean in February 1941.

[31] On 14 February, Admiral Scheer rendezvoused with the auxiliary cruiser Atlantis and the supply ship Tannenfels about 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) east of Madagascar.

The raiders resupplied from Tannenfels and exchanged information on Allied merchant traffic in the area, parting company on 17 February.

A third ship, the 7,178 GRT Canadian Cruiser, managed to send a distress signal before Admiral Scheer sank her on 21 February.

Vice Admiral Ralph Leatham, the commander of the East Indies Station, deployed the carrier Hermes and cruisers Capetown, Emerald, Hawkins, Shropshire, and the Australian HMAS Canberra to join the hunt.

[32] Admiral Scheer then sailed northwards, breaking through the Denmark Strait on 26–27 March and evading the cruisers Fiji and Nigeria.

[36] On 21 February 1942, Admiral Scheer, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, and the destroyers Z4 Richard Beitzen, Z5 Paul Jakobi, Z25, Z7 Hermann Schoemann, and Z14 Friedrich Ihn steamed to Norway.

While en route to the rendezvous point, Lützow and three destroyers ran aground, forcing the entire group to abandon the operation.

[40] In August 1942, she conducted Operation Wunderland, a sortie into the Kara Sea to interdict Soviet shipping and attack targets of opportunity.

The Germans originally intended to send Admiral Scheer with her sister ship Lützow, but since the latter had run aground the previous month, she was unavailable for the operation.

Meendsen-Bohlken considered sending a landing party ashore, but firing from Soviet shore batteries convinced him to abandon the plan.

[44] On 23 October Admiral Scheer, Tirpitz and the destroyers Z4 Richard Beitzen, Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt, Z23, Z28, and Z29 left Bogen Bay and proceeded to Trondheim.

[13] In December 1942, Admiral Scheer returned to Wilhelmshaven for major overhaul, where she was attacked and slightly damaged by RAF bombers.

[48] In early February 1945, Admiral Scheer stood off Samland with several torpedo boats in support of German forces fighting Soviet advances.

Between 18 and 24 February, German forces launched a local counterattack; Admiral Scheer and the torpedo boats provided artillery support, targeting Soviet positions near Peyse and Gross-Heydekrug.

On 8 March, Admiral Scheer departed the eastern Baltic to have her guns relined in Kiel; she carried 800 civilian refugees and 200 wounded soldiers.

She was partially broken up for scrap after the end of the war, though part of the hull was left in place and buried with rubble from the attack when the inner harbors were filled in post-war.

[12][51] In 2024, an industrial archeologist and a geophysicist, along with a team of researchers using reflection seismology, examined a parking lot of a navy arsenal in Kiel where they suspected the wreck was buried.