ADMIRAL SHERNHORST - US 7TH FLEET

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Commander John Storm just wants to be left alone to complete his DNA collection, and explore the uncharted regions on planet earth. But he always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Admiral Maximillian Shernhorst is the old school brains behind the US 7th Seventh Fleet Navy tied to SSNs Aircraft Carriers, with little thought for autonomous naval warfare, and very fond of white uniform parades, to demonstrate marine power. In effect, encouraging China and Russia to make their move. Where their conventional fleets were significantly larger.

Background 

A "black shoe" carrier aviator who rose through the ranks commanding Carrier Battle Groups (CVBGs). He represents the old guard of the US Navy, believing that nothing can replace the power of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and its 75-plane air wing. 

The Institutional Paralysis: Schernhorst's career and identity are tied to the very assets (carriers and SSNs) that have been exposed as crippled or outdated by CRINK's massive numerical and technological surge. He is terrified of losing one of his few remaining high-value assets to what he perceives as a 'third-rate' PLAN.

Name

Fictionally, 'Shernhorst' is the Americanized version of 'Scharnhorst,' the famous Prussian General.

Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst (12 November 1755 – 28 June 1813) was a Hanoverian-born general in Prussian service from 1801. As the first Chief of the Prussian General Staff, he was noted for his military theories, his reforms of the Prussian army, and his leadership during the Napoleonic Wars. Scharnhorst limited the use of corporal punishments, established promotion for merit, abolished the enrollment of foreigners, began the organization of a reserve army, and organized and simplified the military administration.

Two battleships were named after General Scharnhorst, one in each world war.

BATTLESHIPS

WWI

SMS Scharnhorst was an armored cruiser of the Imperial German Navy, built at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany. She was the lead ship of her class, which included SMS Gneisenau. Scharnhorst and her sister were enlarged versions of the preceding Roon class; they were equipped with a greater number of main guns and were capable of a higher top speed. The ship was named after the Prussian military reformer General Gerhard von Scharnhorst and commissioned into service on 24 October 1907.

Scharnhorst served briefly with the High Seas Fleet in Germany in 1908, though most of this time was spent conducting sea trials. She was assigned to the East Asia Squadron based in Qingdao, China, in 1909. After arriving, she replaced the cruiser Fürst Bismarck as the squadron flagship, a position she would hold for the rest of her career. Over the next five years, she went on several tours of various Asian ports to show the flag for Germany. She frequently carried the squadron commanders to meet Asian heads of state and was present in Japan for the coronation of the Taishō Emperor in 1912.

After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, accompanied by three light cruisers and several colliers, sailed across the Pacific Ocean to the southern coast of South America. On 1 November 1914, Scharnhorst and the rest of the East Asia Squadron encountered and overpowered a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel. The defeat prompted the British Admiralty to dispatch two battlecruisers to hunt down and destroy the German squadron, which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. The discovery of the wreck was announced in December 2019 by Mensun Bound.

WWII

Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included her sister ship Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15 June 1935 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1936. Completed in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation in November 1939, Scharnhorst sank the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway, from April to June 1940. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. In that engagement Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history.

In early 1942, after British bombing raids, the two ships made the Channel Dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the Bismarck-class battleship Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy but British naval patrols intercepted the German force. During the Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943), the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst. Only 36 men survived, out of a crew of 1,968.


Current Stance 

He views John Storm and the Elizabeth Swann as a civilian toy and a catastrophic operational risk. He fiercely argues against any military intervention, using NATO bureaucracy as a shield for his operational cowardice. Key Conflict Point: He is the chief antagonist within the NATO structure, potentially interfering with John Storm's mission out of pride or fear of mission failure.

CYBER WW3III CAST:

  ADMIRAL MAXIMILLIAN NIMITZ SCHERHORST IS THE US COMMANDER OF THE 7TH FLEET - IN THIS FICTIONAL POLITICAL THRILLER WHERE EXTREMIST PLOT TO EXTERMINATE ALL LIFE ON EARTH VIA A NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST - THE RISE AGAIN FROM THE ASHES TO RULE THE PLANET

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