`  ==Comment by Nick Dowling==  A few of the comments above cast doubt over the claim I made a few days ago that the Royal Navy classified these ships as battlecruisers. My source is Volume III Part I of the Official History of the Royal Navy in WWII The War at Sea by Stephen Roskill which covers the period including the sinking of Scharnhorst. See, for instance, the index on page 409 which refers to the ship as `` Scharnhorst, German battle cruiser``. Some other British sources call the ships 'battleships', however (for instance, Corelli Barnett in his excellent Engage the Enemy More Closely). Incidently, I'm somewhat suprised to see the Imperial War Museum labeled an unreliable source!   As a general comment, I'm suprised at how heated this discussion has become. As long as one name redirects to the other it really shouldn't matter. As for my two cents on the name: I've changed my mind after reading the debate, and it seems that battleship is the more common classification.   `