By May 1941, the Kriegsmarine battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were at Brest, on the western coast of France, posing a serious threat to the Atlantic convoys, and were heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force. The original plan was to have both ships involved in the operation, but Scharnhorst was undergoing heavy repairs to her engines, and Gneisenau had just suffered a damaging torpedo hit days before which put her out of action for 6 months. This left just two new warships available to the Germans: the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen (while the Kriegsmarine had three serviceable light cruisers, none had the endurance necessary for a long Atlantic operation), both initially stationed in the Baltic Sea.