THE GERMAN BATTLESHIP SCHARNHORST, flagship of VIZE-ADMIRAL ERICH BEY, engaged at the BATTLE OF NORTH CAPE, on Boxing Day of 1943.  As told from the German side the engagement took place against impossible odds, amid driving snow and a howling Force-8 gale in the frozen polar dark, some 60 nautical miles North of the Northern most tip of Norway.  Here SCHARNHORST is seen engaged on both broadsides; fighting HIS MAJESTY’S BRITISH BATTLESHIP DUKE OF YORK, the flagship of ADMIRAL SIR BRUCE AUSTIN FRASER GCB KBE, to starboard less than 12,000 yards distant (hence the relatively flat elevation of the German guns), as medium and small calibre shells from British cruisers and British and Norwegian destroyers are still arriving from the obscured murk off her Port Quarter, to Northward.  A medium calibre shell skips off SCHARNHORST’s sloping turret armour and fragments into a hail of shattered metal as the tortured seascape writhes in both heaving Arctic swell, as well as sprays of splinters from all manor of naval ordinance being flung at the German ship.  The first salvoes of radar-laid fourteen-inch shellfire from the British KG5-class battleship told with immediate effect – punching deep into the ship and knocking the forward triple 28cm superfiring turrets, ‘Anton’ and ‘Bruno’ out of action. Turret ‘Bruno’ was later brought to bear, albeit at a lesser rate of fire – however by this stage of the action fire and smoke, as well as emergency flooding carried out in the forward magazines for these turrets had precluded their use.  As par the course for night actions British and German accounts differ significantly in detail; interpolating these however it seems that whilst Turret ‘Anton’ had seized amidships in travel position – barrel elevation was still possible as hydraulic power was presumably still charged.  Turret ‘Bruno’ would likely have been trained to Starboard shortly after the first British heavy-calibre shells arrived, but is seen here silent.  German accounts of this action paint a harrowing tale of hope slowly eroded as it became more obvious with every wound inflicted that they would not be going home.  For lack of flashless propellent charges the incandescent heat of Turret ‘Caesar’ answers defiantly into the night, cheering the hopes of the German crew; but firing furiously throughout the running fight it ultimately fell silent, having expended its last shell.  It was with admirable industry that as the action wore on, the forward magazine was again pumped out so that ammunition could be carried aft to Turret ‘Caesar’ when both forward turrets eventually became unusable.  Basked in the light of the flashes of the guns – and the glow of the fires burning across the ship are observed dancing flurries of snow.  Meanwhile the ship was also constantly lit from stem to stern by British starshell, with what Dr Fritz-Otto Busch would later write to describe as ‘pitiless clarity’.  The contrast of light, warm and cold, echoes the themes of war and peace, and the ebb of defiance into atonement.  The elements would claim many lives that night – with only 36 of 1,968 souls being picked out of the water.  None of the officers of the ship’s company would survive the sinking.  Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser GCB KBE would later debrief his officers following this action, advising them that if ever they found themselves facing a fight of such impossible odds – that he expected them to conduct their ships exactly as per the example set by the crew of SCHARNHORST.  The gallantry of the German officers and men cannot be overstated, notwithstanding sides of history.  Although the German Ensign has been unapologetically hidden in this composition; the placement of the Vize-Admiral’s flag at the fore, rather than the main, where it could feature more prominently, is a deliberate nod to him.