The German battleship Scharnhorst was built at Wilhelmshaven shipyard. It was initially designed as a heavy cruiser, then battleship, matching up to French Dunkerque-class ships. The ship was laid down on 15 June 1935, launched on 3 October 1936 and commissioned on 7 January 1939.

During her service Scharnhorst underwent numerous rebuildings and modernizations, the most important were: bow reshaping, enlargement of aircraft hangar, relocation of the catapult to the roof of the hangar, removal of the mast from the funnel, construction of new tripod mast situated behind the hangar,...

Douglas SBD Dauntless is one of the most popular American naval bombers of World War II era. The name Dauntless fits well to the aircraft's -personality-. SBD was built with the aim of dive bombing, quickly nicknamed -helldiving-. Interestingly, one of the successors of Dauntless - Curtiss SB2C - was officially named -Helldiver- SBD. During the next year many improvements were added, such as: self-sealing fuel tanks, stronger armament, and better electric installation. The most characteristic element was the airbrakes. They were mounted through almost the full length of the bottom wing and...