The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle on 26 December 1943, part of the Arctic campaign. The German battleship Scharnhorst sailed to implement Operation Ostfront, an attack on Arctic convoys carrying supplies from the western Allies to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst was brought to battle and sunk by the battleship HMS Duke of York and its cruisers and destroyers. The Norwegian destroyer HNoMS Stord played a notable part in the sinking. The result increased the British advantage in major surface units. The battle was the last between British and German big-gun capital ships. It was also the penultimate engagement between battleships in history, the last being the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944.