Battlecruisers were large warships in the first half of the 20th century that were first introduced by the British Royal Navy. A warship is a Ship that is built and primarily intended for Combat. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) The battlecruiser was developed as the successor to the armoured cruisers, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleships. The armored cruiser, or armoured cruiser (see spelling differences) is a type of Cruiser, a naval warship. The dreadnought was the predominant type of Battleship of the 20th century A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were The first such ship, the Invincible, was originally designated a "dreadnought cruiser". General Design In 1904 the Royal Navy was at a crossroads Since 1887 successive governments most notably that of Lord Salisbury in its second and third iteration
Battlecruisers shared the very large main armament of battleships, and were generally as large and costly as battleships of the same generation. They traded off armour or firepower for higher speed, which was made possible by their powerful engines and slender hulls. Armour (or armor) is protective covering most commonly manufactured from metals to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact The earliest battlecruisers carried significantly less armour than the equivalent battleship, meaning they were not intended to stand up against the guns they themselves carried.
The relationship between the battlecruiser to the battleship was never entirely clear-cut. The invention of the battlecruiser in the Royal Navy, was driven by Admiral Jackie Fisher, who envisaged them as a revolutionary new type of armoured cruiser which could replace the battleship as Britain's principal weapon at sea. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot "Jackie" Fisher 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, GCB, OM, GCVO ( 25 January 1841 Fisher's idea centred on battlecruisers operating for imperial defence, vectored in by a global information grid and central plotting in the Admiralty to destroy weaker vessels that would prey on merchant shipping in international waters, while engaging more powerful warships with accurate gunnery at greater ranges.
However, the battleship continued to dominate naval warfare through the First World War, and the battlecruiser was principally used to provide a fast and hard-hitting addition to a battleship fleet. Battlecruisers formed part of the navies of Britain, Germany and Japan in World War I and took part in many naval battles between Britain and Germany, including the Battle of Jutland. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) For Combined Fleet, please see that article For Carrier Striking Task Force, please see that article World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All fix various bugs per WikipediaHow to fix bunched-up edit links --> By the end of World War I, there were very few differences between the design of a battlecruiser and that of a fast battleship. Historically a fast battleship was a Battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual compared to the normal practice of the time Britain, Japan and the United States all designed battlecruisers after the end of World War I which were as heavily armoured as a battleship, though faster and not so heavily armed. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Washington Naval Treaty, which limited capital ship construction from 1922 onward, treated battleships and battlecruisers identically. The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, limited the naval armaments of its five signatories the United States of America, the The capital ships of a Navy are its "important" warships the ones with the heaviest Firepower and Armor. Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The new generation of battlecruisers planned was scrapped under the terms of the treaty.
From the 1930s, only the Royal Navy continued to use 'battlecruiser' as a classification for warships [1]. Nevertheless, the fast, light, capital ships developed by Germany and France of the Scharnhorst and Dunkerque classes were and are often referred to as battlecruisers. Design and classification Like the " Pocket battleships quot of the ''Deutschland'' class Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were political These ships were armoured as well as many battleships but carried a lighter calibre of armament.
World War II saw battlecruisers in action again. However, no battlecruisers were begun during the war; battleship construction was cut back to provide resources for extra aircraft and aircraft carriers. Since the start of World War II, no battlecruisers have been built. However, a number of ships have been described as battlecruisers.
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First battlecruisers
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The battlecruiser was a dramatic evolution of the armoured cruiser and 'second-class battleship' designs of the 1890s, principally due to the British Admiral Jackie Fisher. General Design In 1904 the Royal Navy was at a crossroads Since 1887 successive governments most notably that of Lord Salisbury in its second and third iteration The armored cruiser, or armoured cruiser (see spelling differences) is a type of Cruiser, a naval warship. A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot "Jackie" Fisher 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, GCB, OM, GCVO ( 25 January 1841 [2] At the turn of the century, the modern armoured cruiser was a fast and powerful vessel which was capable of threatening trade routes worldwide, or of working closely with a battleship fleet. [3] The Royal Navy, and Fisher in particular, was concerned with the damage armoured cruisers (particularly those of the French Navy) might inflict on British trade worldwide in the event of war. [4] Fisher envisaged British armoured cruisers becoming faster and more heavily-armed to deal with this threat. He was also very fond of the "second-class battleship" HMS Renown, a lighter, faster battleship. Technical Characteristics HMS Renown was designed by Sir William White and laid down at Pembroke Dockyard on 1 February 1893 and launched on [5] As early as 1901, there is confusion in Fisher's writing about whether he saw the battleship or the cruiser as the model for future developments.
In the period 1902-1904 the mainstream of British naval thinking was clearly in favour of heavily-armoured battleships, rather than the fast ships which Fisher favoured. However, a shift away from the mixed-calibre armament of the 1890s pre-dreadnought to an "all-big-gun" design was already on the cards. Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea going Battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905 Preliminary designs circulated for battleships with all 12-inch or all 10-inch guns and armoured cruisers with all 9. 2-inch guns. [6]
In summer 1904, after Fisher's appointment as First Sea Lord, the decision was taken to use 12-inch guns for the next generation of battleships, because of their superior performance at long range. The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service. The armament of the next armoured cruiser was much more controversial. The size and cost of the next generation of armoured cruisers meant that it was very desirable that they should be able to play a role in a battleship action, and this meant 12-inch guns. [7] This was the same logic which had led the Japanese to arm their latest cruisers with two 12-inch guns as their main armament. [8] However, it is also quite possible that Fisher pushed for the cruiser to have the same armament as the battleship because he held out hope that the cruiser design would be the replacement for the battleship. The decision to give the next generation of armoured cruisers an 'all-big-gun' armament was the crucial moment in the development of the battlecruiser. If the ships had been armed with only 10-inch or 9. 2-inch guns, they would merely have been better armoured cruisers. [9]
The radical changes to shipbuilding policy which Fisher was making across the board meant that he appointed a Committee on Designs in December 1904. While the stated purpose of the Committee was to investigate and report on the requirements of future ships, the key decisions had already been taken by Fisher and his associates. [10]. The terms of reference for the Committee were for a battleship capable of 21 knots with 12-inch guns and no intermediate calibres, capable of operating from existing docks[11]; and a cruiser capable of 25. 5 knots, also with 12inch guns and no intermediate armament, armoured like HMS Minotaur, the most recent armoured cruiser, and also capable or working from the existing docks[10]. Career She served in the First World War with her sisters taking part in convoy duties from Australia to the Mediterranean. The battleship became the revolutionary battleship HMS Dreadnought, and the cruiser became the three ships of the Invincible class. Several ships and one submarine of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dreadnought in the expectation that they would "dread nought" i Design In early 1906 three ships were laid down to the final specifications of Admiral Fisher's vision -, and.
The three Invincibles were Inflexible, Invincible and Indomitable. Career Upon commissioning Inflexible was assigned to the Nore Division of the British Home Fleet General Design In 1904 the Royal Navy was at a crossroads Since 1887 successive governments most notably that of Lord Salisbury in its second and third iteration See also More Ships Built in Govan Their construction was begun in 1906 and completed in 1908, delayed perhaps to allow their designs to learn from any problems with Dreadnought[12]. The ships fulfilled the design requirement quite closely. The Invincibles had a displacement similar to that of the Dreadnought but twice the power to give a speed of 25 knots (46 km/h). They had eight12-inch (305 mm) guns, compared to ten on Dreadnought. Their was armour 6 or 7 inches (150 to 180 mm) thick along the side of the hull and over the gunhouses, whereas Dreadnought's was armour 11 inches (280 to 300 mm) at its thickest. [13] The class had a very marked increase in speed, displacement and firepower compared to the most recent armoured cruisers, but no more armour.
The Invincibles were to have the same role as the armoured cruisers they succeeded, but the new ships were expected to be more effective all-round. Specifically their roles were:
- Heavy Reconnaissance. Because of their power, the Invincibles could sweep away the screen of enemy cruisers to close with and observe an enemy battlefleet, before using their superior speed to retire.
- Close support for the battlefleet. They could be stationed at the ends of the battle line to stop enemy cruisers harassing the battleships, and to harass the enemy's battleships if they were busy fighting battleships. Also, the Invincibles could operate as the fast wing of the battlefleet and try to outmanouevre the enemy.
- Pursuit. If an enemy fleet ran, then the Invincibles would use their speed to pursue, and their guns to damage or slow enemy ships.
- Commerce protection. The new ships would hunt down enemy cruisers and commerce raiders. [9]
Confusion about how to refer to these new battleship-size armoured cruisers set in almost immediately. Even in late 1905, before work was begun on the Invincibles, a Royal Navy memorandum refers to "large armoured ships" meaning both battleships and large cruisers. In October 1906, the Admiralty began to classify all post-Dreadnought battleships and armoured cruisers as "capital ships", while Fisher used the term "dreadnought" to refer either to his new battleships or the battleships and armoured cruisers together. The capital ships of a Navy are its "important" warships the ones with the heaviest Firepower and Armor. [14] At the same time, the Invincible class themselves were referred to as "cruiser-battleship", "dreadnought cruiser"; the term "battlecruiser" was first used by Fisher in 1908. Finally, in November 1911, Admiralty Weekly Order No. 351 laid down the decision that "All cruisers of the Invincible and later type are, for the future, to be described and classified as battlecruisers in order to distinguish them from armoured cruisers of the older type. "[15]
Battlecruisers in the Dreadnought arms race
In the period from the launching of the Invincibles to just after the outbreak of the First World War, the battlecruiser played a junior role in the developing dreadnought arms race. The battlecruiser was never wholeheartedly adopted as the key weapon in British imperial defence, as Fisher had perhaps wished.
Britain's strategic circumstances had changed markedly between the conception of the battlecruiser and the commissioning of the first ships. While the prospective enemy for Britain had previously been a Franco-Russian alliance with many armoured cruisers, it was now clearly Germany. Diplomatically, Britain had entered the Entente cordiale in 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Entente. Flag of the United Kingdomsvg|right|70px]] The Entente cordiale is a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom The Anglo-Russian Entente or the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 was an accord signed on 31 August 1907 in St Furthermore neither France nor Russia posed a particular naval threat; the Russian navy had largely been sunk or captured in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, while the French were in no hurry to adopt the new dreadnought battleship technology. The Russo-Japanese War (日露戦争 Romaji: Nichi-Ro Sensō Русско-японская война Russko-Yaponskaya Voyna;, 10 February 1904 – 5 September The dreadnought was the predominant type of Battleship of the 20th century [16] Britain also boasted very cordial relations with two of the significant new naval powers; Japan (bolstered by the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, signed in 1902 and renewed in 1905), and the USA. The first was signed in London at what is now the Lansdowne Club on January 30 1902, by Lord Lansdowne (British foreign secretary) and
These changed strategic circumstances, and the great success of the Dreadnought, ensured that she rather than the Invincible became the new model capital ship. Nevertheless, battlecruiser construction played a major part in the renewed naval arms-race sparked by the Dreadnought.
For the first few years after their completion, the Invincibles entirely fulfilled Fisher's vision of being able to sink any ship fast enough to catch them, and run from any ship capable of sinking them. An Invincible would also in many circumstances, be able to take on an enemy pre-dreadnought battleship. Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea going Battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905 The Invincibles were so far ahead of any enemy armoured cruiser that it was difficult to justify building more or bigger cruisers. [17] This lead was extended by the surprise both Dreadnought and Invincible produced, which prompted most other navies to delay their building programmes while radically revising their designs. This was particularly true for cruisers, because the details of the Invincible class were kept secret for longer; this meant that the next German armoured cruiser, Blücher was armed with only 8. See German cruiser Blücher for World War II ship Design The design for the ship was influenced by early reports of a new British class of 2-inch guns, and was obsolete before she was even launched.
The Royal Navy's early superiority in capital ships led to the rejection of a design of 1905-6 which would essentially have fused the battlecruiser and battleship concepts. The 'X4' design combined the full armour and armament of Dreadnought with the 25-knot speed of Invincible. However, the additional cost could not be justified given the existing British lead and the new Liberal government's need for economy; the slower and cheaper Bellerophon, a relatively close copy of Dreadnought, was adopted instead. Design While revolutionary HMS ''Dreadnought'' had been revealed to have certain shortcomings [18]
However, by 1911 Germany had built battlecruisers of her own, and the superiority of the British ships could no longer be assured. Von der Tann, begun in 1908 and completed in 1910, carried eight 11. Development The preceding German large cruiser design ''Blücher'', was an incremental increase over previous armoured cruisers 1-inch guns but with 11. 1-inch (280mm) armour was far better protected than the Invincibles. The two Moltkes were quite similar but carried ten 11. Development In May 1907 the Germany Navy Office decided to follow up the Von der Tann with an enlarged design 1-inch guns of an improved design. [19] The German Navy did not share Fisher's view of what a battlecruiser should be; however, it was entitled to build armoured cruisers under the terms of the Navy Laws, and used this authority to match or better the British battlecruisers. [20]
The next British battlecruisers were three of the Indefatigable class. Building Programme The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Indefatigable class These ships were slightly improved Invincibles, which corrected some flaws in the earlier ships but were built to fundamentally the same specification. The British were hampered on this occasion by the secrecy surrounding German battlecruiser construction and particularly about the heavy armour of Von der Tann. Political pressure to reduce costs also played a role in the selection of the Indefatigable design[21], and this class is widely seen as a mistake. [22]
The next generation of British battlecruisers were markedly more powerful. By 1909-10 the political climate had changed; the desire for cost-cutting was now outweighed by a sense of national crisis about rivalry with Germany. A brief political crisis an naval panic resulted in the approval of a total of eight capital ships in 1909-10. [23] Fisher pressed for all of them to be battlecruisers[24], but was unable to force his way, and had to settle for six battleships as well as two battlecruisers of the Lion class. See also Lion class battleship Design The class was adapted from the design of the first "super-dreadnought" (or 13 These carried eight 13. 5-inch guns; the standard armament of the British "super-dreadnought" battleships of the same period was ten 13. 5-inch. Speed increased, to 27 knots. Lion also carried better armour than previous British battleships, with 9 inches on the armour belt and barbettes; nevertheless, protection was not as good as in German designs. The two Lions were followed by the very similar Queen Mary [25]
In contrast to the British focus on increasing speed and firepower, Germany further improved the armour and staying power of their next battlecruiser. Seydlitz, designed in 1909 and finished in 1913, was a modified Moltke; speed increased by one knot to 26. Design The Seydlitz was a unique vessel being a modified version of the previous ''Moltke'' class battlecruisers 5 knots, while armour was up to 12 inches thick, equivalent for the Helgoland class battleships of just one or two years earlier. Design Laid down in 1909-10 the Helgoland class was the second type of German Dreadnoughts as a response to the introduction of the 'all-big-gun' British. Seydlitz was Germayn's last battlecruiser to be completed before World War I. . [26]
The next step in the battlecruiser design came from Japan. The Imperial Japanese Navy had been planning the Kongō class ships from 1909. For Combined Fleet, please see that article For Carrier Striking Task Force, please see that article The ships: launched on 18 May 1912, sunk 21 November 1944 by a US submarine with heavy loss of life when a magazine detonated The Japanese navy was determined that, since the Japanese economy could support relatively few ships, each ship would be more powerful than its likely competitors. Initially the class was planned with the Invincibles as the benchmark. However, on learning of the British plans for Lion, and the likelihood that new U.S. Navy battleships would be armed with 14-inch guns, the Japanese decided to radically revise their plans and go one better. A new plan was drawn up, carrying eight 14-inch guns, and capable of 27. 5 knots, thus marginally having the edge over the British Lions in speed and firepower. The heavy guns were also better-positioned, being superfiring both fore and aft with no turret amidships. The armour scheme was also marginally improved over the Lions with 9 inches of armour on the turrets and 8 inches on the barbettes. The first ship in the class was built in Britain, and a further three constructed in Japan. [27]
The next British battlecruiser, Tiger, was broadly on the model of Lion but also influenced by the design of the Japanese ships. Genesis Tiger was originally intended to be a sister ship of HMS ''Lion'', along with Princess Royal and Queen Mary. [28] She retained the eight 13. 5-inch guns of her predecessors, though these were positioned for better fields of fire. She was faster (making 29 knots on trials), and carried a heavier secondary armament. Tiger was also more heavily-armoured on the whole; while the maximum thickness of armour was the same at 9 inches, the height of the main armour belt was increased. [29]
1912 saw work begin on three more German battlecruisers of the Derfflinger class, the first German battlecruisers to mount 12-inch guns. Design The SMS ''Derfflinger'' and her sisters the SMS ''Lützow'' and the SMS ''Hindenburg'' were designed to complement the König class battleships These ships, like the Tiger and the Kongō, had their guns arranged in superfiring turrets for greater efficiency. Their armour and speed was similar to the previous Seydlitz class. [30]
In 1913, the Russian Empire also began the construction of the four-ship Borodino class, which were designed for service in the Baltic Sea. Ships The ships were named after victorious battles Borodino (Бородино Built by Admiralty Yard, St The Baltic Sea is a Brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N Latitude and from 20°E to 26°E Longitude. These ships were designed to carry twelve 14-inch guns, with armour up to 12 inches thick, and a speed of 26. 6 knots. The heavy armour and relatively slow speed of these ships makes them more similar to German designs than to British ships; however, construction of the Borodinos was halted by the First World War and all were scrapped during the Russian Revolution. [31]
By 1914, only Britain, Germany and Japan had battlecruisers, with Russia building some. On several occasions, it had already been possible to point to moments where the concepts of battlecruiser and battleship might be seen in the same vessel. This was true of the 1906 'X4' design[32], and the Russian Borodinos[31]. However, it was even more true of the most recent British battleship design. The Queen Elizabeth class was designed to make 25 knots, as much as the first battlecruisers had achieved, while carrying eight 15-inch guns and armour up to 15 inches thick. Origins Following the success of the {{convert|135|in|mm|0|adj=on}} gun, the Admiralty decided to develop a {{convert|15|in|mm|0|adj=on}} gun to equip the battleships [33]. The Queen Elizabeths were the first true fast battleships, and could have brought the end of the development of the battlecruiser as an independent line. Historically a fast battleship was a Battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual compared to the normal practice of the time It was principally due to the influence of Jacky Fisher that the battlecruiser continued. [34]
World War I
The First World War saw British and German battlecruisers used in several theatres. Battlecruisers formed part of the dreadnought fleets which faced each other down in the North Sea, taking part in several raids and skirmishes as well as the Battle of Jutland. fix various bugs per WikipediaHow to fix bunched-up edit links --> Battlecruisers also played an important role at the start of the War as the British fleet hunted down German commerce raiders, for instance at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, and also took part in the Mediterranean campaign. The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a British naval victory over the Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 during the First World War
Construction
For most of the combatants, capital ship construction was very limited during the War. Germany finished the Derfflinger class and began work on the Mackensen class. Ships There were supposed to be four ships in the class ''Mackensen'' - (named after Field Marshal August von Mackensen) was laid The Mackensens were a development of the Derfflinger class, with 14-inch guns and a broadly similar armour scheme, deigned for 27 knots. [35]
In Britain, Jackie Fisher returned to the office of First Sea Lord in October 1914. His enthusiasm for big, fast ships was unabated, and he set design staff to producing a design for a battlecruiser with 15-inch guns. Because Fisher expected the next German battlecruiser to steam at 28 knots, he required the new British design to be capable of 32 knots. He planned to convert two Royal Sovereign class battleships, which were at an early stage of construction and on which work had been suspended because it was felt that the war would be over before the ships were finished. Design The ships of the class were slower and smaller than the preceding ''Queen Elizabeth''-class battleships Fisher finally received approval for this project on 28 December 1914 and they became the Renown class. Building Programme The following table shows the cost of the Renown class With six 15-inch guns but only 6-inch armour they were a further step forward from Tiger in firepower and speed but were even less well-protected. [36]
At the same time, Fisher resorted to subterfuge to obtain another three fast, lightly-armoured ships which could make use of the several spare 15-inch gun turrets left over from battleship construction. These ships were essentially light battlecruisers, and Fisher can occasionally be found referring to them as such, but were officially classified as "large light cruisers". This unusual designation was required because construction of new capital ships had been placed on hold, while there were no limits on light cruiser construction. They became the Courageous class, and there was a bizarre imbalance between their main armament of 15-inch (or 18-inch in Glorious) guns and their armour, which at 3 inches thickness was on the scale of a light cruiser. Original designs The class originally consisted of three ships, and. The design was generally regarded as a bizarre failure, though the later conversion of the ships to aircraft carriers was very successful. [37] Fisher also speculated about a new mammoth but lightly-built battlecruiser which would carry 20-inch guns, which he termed HMS Incomparable; however, this never got beyond the concept stage.
It is often held that the Renown and Courageous classes were designed for Fisher's plan to land troops (possibly Russian) on the German Baltic coast. Specifically, they were designed with a shallow draught, which might be important in the shallow Baltic. Howevever, this is not clear-cut evidence that the ships were designed for the Baltic: it was considered that earlier ships had too much draught and not enough freeboard under operational conditions. Freeboard or FREEBOARD may refer to Sporting Goods. The six-wheeled skateboard which acts like a snowboard (on pavement Roberts argues that the focus on the Baltic was probably unimportant at the time the ships were designed, but was inflated later, after the disastrous Dardanelles Campaign. [38]
The final British battlecruiser design of the war was the Admiral class, which was born from a requirement for an improved version of the Queen Elizabeth battleship. History In 1915 the Admiralty were considering the next generation of warship to follow the ''Queen Elizabeth''-class. The project began at the end of 1915, after Fisher's final departure from the Admiralty. While initially envisaged as a battleship, senior sea officers felt that Britain had enough battleships, but that new battlecruisers might be required to combat German ships being built (the British overestimated German progress on the Mackensen class as well as their likely capabilities). A battlecruiser design with eight 15-inch guns, 8 inches of armour and capable of 32 knots was decided on. However, the experience of battlecruisers at the Battle of Jutland meant that the design was radically revised and transformed again into a fast battleship concept with armour up to 12 inches thick but still capable of 31. fix various bugs per WikipediaHow to fix bunched-up edit links --> 5 knots. The first ship in the class, Hood, went ahead according to this design. History Construction Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, on 1 September The plans for her three sisters, on which little work had been done, were revised once more later in 1916 and in 1917 to improve protection. [39].
The Admiral class would have been the only British ships capable of taking on the German Mackensen type; however, German shipbuilding was drastically slowed by the war, and while two Mackensens were launched, none were ever completed. Work on the three additional Admirals was suspended in March 1917 to enable more escorts and merchant ships to be built to deal with the new threat from U-boats to trade. They were finally cancelled in February 1919. [40]
Operations
The German battlecruiser Goeben was perhaps the ship which made the most impact early in the War. The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau See also Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau In 1912 the German navy's Mittelmeerdivision (Mediterranean Stationed in the Mediterranean, she and her escorting cruiser evaded British and French ships on the outbreak of war, and steamed to Constantinople with two British battlecruisers in hot pursuit. The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS Goeben was handed over to the Turkish Navy, and this was instrumental in bringing Turkey into the war on the German side. Goeben herself, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, saw engagements against the Russian Navy in the Black Sea and against the British in the Aegean.
The original battlecruiser concept proved successful in December 1914 at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. The British battlecruisers Inflexible and Invincible did precisely the job they were intended for when they chased down and annihilated a German cruiser squadron, centered on the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, along with three light cruisers, commanded by Admiral Maximilian Graf Von Spee in the South Atlantic Ocean. Career Upon commissioning Inflexible was assigned to the Nore Division of the British Home Fleet General Design In 1904 the Royal Navy was at a crossroads Since 1887 successive governments most notably that of Lord Salisbury in its second and third iteration Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. This article is about the World War I Armored cruiser Scharnhorst for the World War II Battlecruiser of the same name see German This article is about the WWI armoured cruiser 'Gneisenau' for other ships of this name see Gneisenau. Maximilian Graf (Count von Spee ( 22 June 1861 - 8 December 1914) was a German Admiral, born in Copenhagen Prior to the battle the Australian battlecruiser HMAS Australia had unsuccessfully searched for the German ships in the Pacific.
Battle of Heligoland Bight
A force of British light cruisers and destroyers entered the Heligoland Bight to attack German shipping in August 1914, the first month of World War I. The First Battle of Heligoland Bight was the first Naval battle of the First World War, fought on 28 August 1914 after the British planned to attack World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All When they met opposition from German cruisers, Admiral Beatty took his squadron of four battlecruisers into the Bight and turned the battle, ultimately sinking three German light cruisers and killing a German commander, Rear Admiral Leberecht Maass. Admiral of the Fleet David Beatty 1st Earl Beatty GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO (17 January 1871 – 11 March 1936 was an Admiral Leberecht Maass (or Maaß) ( 24 November 1863 &ndash 28 August 1914) was the Rear admiral who commanded the German naval
Battle of the Falklands
Battle of Dogger Bank
During the Battle of Dogger Bank, the after turret of the German flagship Seydlitz was pierced by a British 13. The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a British naval victory over the Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 during the First World War The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval battle fought near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea on 24 January 1915, during the First World War Design The Seydlitz was a unique vessel being a modified version of the previous ''Moltke'' class battlecruisers 5 inch shell from HMS Lion which detonated in the working chamber. The charges being hoisted upwards were detonated, and the explosion flashed up into the turret and down into the magazine, setting fire to charges in the process of being handled. The gun crew tried to escape into the next turret, allowing the flash to spread, destroying both turrets internally. Seydlitz was saved from near-certain destruction only by emergency flooding of her after magazines. This near-disaster was due to the way that ammunition handling was arranged and was common to both German and British battleships and battlecruisers, but the lighter protection on the latter made them more vulnerable to the turret or barbette being pierced. The "working chamber" had been introduced in HMS Formidable (1898) and was intended to prevent such a dangerous flash, but instead made such an event more likely. Technical characteristics HMS Formidable was laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard on 21 March 1898 and launched on 17 November 1898 The Germans learned from investigating the damaged Seydlitz and instituted improved measures to ensure ammunition handling was flash tight. The British remained unaware of the weakness, to their great misfortune at the Battle of Jutland. [41]
Apart from the cordite handling, the battle was mostly inconclusive, though both Lion and Seydlitz were severely damaged. Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom from 1889 to replace Gunpowder as a military propellant The British flagship Lion's lost speed causing her to fall behind the rest of the battleline and Admiral Beatty was unable to effectively command for the remainder of the engagement. A British signalling error allowed the German battlecruisers to withdraw, as most of Beatty's squadron mistakenly concentrated on the crippled armoured cruiser Blücher, sinking her with great loss of life. Blücher herself was obsolete, out of all the ships in the battle, and so she had proved to be a liability to the rest of the German squadron, which was otherwise an all battlecruiser squadron.
Battle of Jutland
At the Battle of Jutland 18 months later, both British and German battlecruisers were employed as fleet units. fix various bugs per WikipediaHow to fix bunched-up edit links --> The British battlecruisers became engaged with both their German counterparts, the battlecruisers, and then German battleships before the arrival of the battleships of the British Grand Fleet. The Grand Fleet was a Fleet of the British Royal Navy during the First World War. The result was a disaster for the Royal Navy's battlecruiser squadrons: Invincible, Queen Mary and Indefatigable exploded with the loss of all but a handful of their crews. General Design In 1904 the Royal Navy was at a crossroads Since 1887 successive governments most notably that of Lord Salisbury in its second and third iteration This was due to the vulnerability of the working chamber which the Germans had discovered after the near-loss of Seydlitz at Dogger Bank and had taken preventative measures against. The British ships not only had lighter armour but also lacked flash tight ammunition handling arrangements, due in part to lack of awareness and experience, and also as it would improve their rate of fire to compensate for poor accuracy. Each was lost to a single salvo penetrating the turret and detonating in the working chamber. Beatty's flagship Lion herself was almost lost in a similar manner, save for the heroic actions of Major Harvey. Major Francis John William Harvey VC (29 April 1873 – 31 May 1916 was an officer of the British Royal Marine Light Infantry during the First World War
The better armoured and flash tight German battlecruisers fared better, in part due to poor performance of British fuzes (their shells exploded on impact with the ships armour instead of penetrating the armour before exploding thus causing more damage). Lützow for instance only had 117 killed despite receiving more than thirty hits, though she had sufficient flooding that she was scuttled. Construction Built by Schichau-Werft in Danzig, her keel was laid down in May 1912 and she was launched on 29 November 1913 The other German battlecruisers, Moltke, Von der Tann, Seydlitz, Derfflinger were all heavily damaged and required extensive repairs after the battle, Seydlitz barely making it home, for they had been in the very centre of enemy fire for much of the battle. Development The preceding German large cruiser design ''Blücher'', was an incremental increase over previous armoured cruisers Design The Seydlitz was a unique vessel being a modified version of the previous ''Moltke'' class battlecruisers Construction by Blohm und Voss at their yard in Hamburg, Derfflinger's keel was laid in January 1912 No British or German battleship was sunk during the battle with the exception of the old German pre-dreadnought Pommern, the victim of torpedoes from British destroyers. Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea going Battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905 Design Dimensions and machinery Pommern was at the waterline and overall
Post-war developments
In the years immediately after World War I, Britain, Japan and the USA all began design work on a new generation of ever more powerful battleships and battlecruisers. The new burst of shipbuilding which each nation's navy desired was politically controversial and potentially economically crippling. This nascent arms race was prevented by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, where the major naval powers agreed to limits on capital ship numbers. The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, limited the naval armaments of its five signatories the United States of America, the The German navy was not represented at the talks; under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was not allowed any modern capital ships at all. The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I.
Through the 1920s and early 1930s only Britain and Japan retained battlecruisers, often modified and rebuilt from their original World War I designs. The line between the battlecruiser and the modern fast battleship became blurred; indeed, the Japanese Kongō class were formally redesignated as battleships. Historically a fast battleship was a Battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual compared to the normal practice of the time The ships: launched on 18 May 1912, sunk 21 November 1944 by a US submarine with heavy loss of life when a magazine detonated
1918-1923
HMS Hood, launched in 1918, was the last First World War battlecruiser to be completed. History Construction Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, on 1 September Hood was modified during construction to feature belt armour that was thought to be capable of resisting her own weapons - the classic measure of a "balanced" battleship - and her armour weaknesses were recognized and tackled to some extent during refits.
Hood was the largest ship in the Royal Navy when completed; thanks to her great displacement, she seemed to combine the firepower and armour of a battleship with the speed of a battlecruiser, causing some to refer to her as a fast battleship. Historically a fast battleship was a Battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual compared to the normal practice of the time
The navies of Japan and the USA, seeing a threat from Hood, laid down battlecruisers to rival her. The Imperial Japanese Navy began four Amagi class battlecruisers. For Combined Fleet, please see that article For Carrier Striking Task Force, please see that article These vessels would have been of unprecedented size and power, being as fast and well armoured as HMS Hood whilst carrying a main battery of ten 16" guns - the most powerful armament ever proposed for a battlecruiser. The United States Navy responded with the Lexington class battlecruisers, which if completed as planned would have been exceptionally fast and well armed, but would have carried armour little better than that of the very first battlecruisers. Design as Battlecruisers The large ships had a protracted development The final stage in the post-war battlecruiser race came with the British response to the Amagi and Lexington types: four 48,000 ton G3 battlecruisers, vessels of comparable size, power and speed to the Second World War Iowa class battleships. Background In 1916 the US had declared its intention to create a Navy "second to none" Congress had authorized the building of a large number of battleships and battlecruisers History The Iowa -class battleships were shaped by the Battle of Jutland, by naval treaties signed by various countries during the 1920s and 1930s and by the
The Washington Naval Treaty meant that none of these designs came to fruition. Those ships which had been started were either broken up on the slipway or converted into aircraft carriers.
In Japan, Amagi and Akagi were taken in hand for conversion into aircraft carriers. Description Akagi was laid down as an ''Amagi'' class Battlecruiser at Kure Japan. An aircraft carrier is a Warship designed with In 1923 the Amagi was damaged beyond repair by an earthquake and was broken up on the slips, the hull of one of the proposed Tosa class battleships, Kaga, being converted in her stead. Commanding Officers Chief Equipping Officer - Capt Seizaburo Kobayashi - 10 March 1927 - 1 December 1927 Chief Equipping Officer - Capt
In Britain, Fisher's "large light cruisers" were converted to carriers. Furious had already been converted to an aircraft carrier during the war and Glorious and Courageous, which had no place in the post-Treaty navy, were similarly converted. Genesis She was designed as one of Jackie Fisher 's "large light cruisers" to participate in an amphibious landing on the Baltic coast of Germany Genesis Glorious was built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast. The design was for a light Battlecruiser; while having guns she was actually Genesis The design was for a light Battlecruiser; while having 15 inch guns she was actually classed by the British Navy as a Light cruiser because of her
The United States Navy also re-tasked two battlecruiser hulls as aircraft carriers in the wake of the Washington Treaty: USS Lexington and Saratoga were both designed as battlecruisers (the hull designations were originally CC-1 and CC-3) but converted part-way through construction, although this was only considered marginally preferable to scrapping the hulls outright (the remaining four: Constellation, Ranger, Constitution and United States were indeed scrapped). Construction The Lexington is named after the battle of Lexington that took place in Lexington Massachusetts in 1775 Pre-War Years 1928 – 1940 Saratoga, the first fast carrier in the Navy quickly proved the value of her type
1924-35
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In total, nine battlecruisers survived the Washington Naval Treaty. Most of these ships were significantly updated before World War II, although the Royal Navy sold HMS Tiger for scrap in 1932 on the grounds that she was worn out and the Turks did not have the means to upgrade the Sultan Yavuz Selim (ex Goeben of the Imperial German Navy).
The other two Royal Navy WWI battlecruisers retained, HMS Renown and Repulse were modernized significantly in a series of refits between 1920 and 1939. Service in World War I Repulse first saw action on 17 November 1917 at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. Like several other elderly British capital ships, Renown underwent a total reconstruction between 1937 and 1939, to make her suitable for acting as a fast consort for aircraft carriers. Similar rebuilds planned for Repulse and Hood were cancelled by the events of WWII.
Unable to pursue new construction, the Imperial Japanese Navy also chose to improve their existing battlecruisers of the Kongō class (Hiei, Haruna, Kirishima and Kongō) by increasing the elevation of the guns to 40 degrees, adding anti-torpedo bulges and additional armour, and building on a "pagoda" mast. Design and build In 1908 the commissioning of the battlecruiser armed with eight guns into the Royal Navy rendered all of the Imperial Japanese Navy 's warships Historically a fast battleship was a Battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual compared to the normal practice of the time For Combined Fleet, please see that article For Carrier Striking Task Force, please see that article Design and build In 1908 the commissioning of the battlecruiser armed with eight guns into the Royal Navy rendered all of the Imperial Japanese Navy 's warships Pre-war service Following World War I, her Boilers were upgraded for speed and bulges were added for better defense against Torpedoes Kongō Commanding Officers Chief Equipping Officer - Capt Kajihiro Funakoshi - 15 December 1914 - 19 April 1915 Capt Service Her initial captain in World War II was Yamaguchi Jihei formerly the commander of the heavy cruiser ''Takao'', later promoted to Rear Admiral and still later Design and build In 1908 the commissioning of the battlecruiser armed with eight guns into the Royal Navy rendered all of the Imperial Japanese Navy 's warships The 3,800 tons of additional armour slowed their speed, but between 1933 and 1940 replacement of heavy equipment and an increase in the length of the hull by 26 ft (8 m) allowed them to reach up to 30 knots (60 km/h) once again. They were reclassified as "fast battleships" and their high speed made them suitable as carrier escorts, although their armour and guns still fell short compared to surviving World War I-era battleships in American or British navies.
Re-armament
As war became more likely nations began to rebuild their forces. At first lip-service was paid to the Treaty of Versailles and the Washington Naval Treaty, but as war became more likely the designs became more ambitious. The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, limited the naval armaments of its five signatories the United States of America, the Most nations preferred to build fast battleships but Germany, Italy, France and Russia all designed new battlecruisers. Even so, most of these vessels were considerably better protected than their First World War counterparts and several were arguably genuine fast battleships. Historically a fast battleship was a Battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual compared to the normal practice of the time Ultimately the Italians chose to upgrade their old battleships rather than build new battlecruisers, whereas the Russians laid down the 35,000 ton Kronshtadt Class, but were unable to launch them before the Germans invaded in 1941 and captured one of the hulls. Ships Kronshtadt - built by Baltic Shipyard Leningrad - laid down 15 July 1939 - Scrapped 1950's Sevastopol - built by The other Soviet ship was launched and scrapped after the war. Only Germany and France actually completed any vessels.
German designs
The German pocket battleships (German:Panzerschiffe - armored ship: Deutschland, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graf Spee), built to meet the 10,000 ton displacement limit of the Treaty of Versailles, were another attempt at a cruiser-battleship concept. Description German capital ships were restricted by the Treaty of Versailles to a displacement of 10000 tons for "armoured ships" Description Their size and characteristics were severely limited by the Treaty of Versailles, which limited Germany to ships of no more than 10000 tons displacement History During World War II Admiral Scheer, under Captain Theodor Krancke, was by far the most successful capital ship Commerce raider of the war Description Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland class cruiser. In Fluid mechanics, displacement occurs when an object is immersed in a Fluid, pushing it out of the way and taking its The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. The pocket battleships, despite their name which implied a scaled-down battleship, were relatively small vessels with only six 280 mm (11 inch) guns — essentially large heavy cruisers. The heavy cruiser was a type of Cruiser, a naval Warship designed for long range high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 8in in calibre Superficially, their distinctive battleship-like masts (especially in Scheer and Graf Spee) and larger scaled armament, compared to contemporary cruisers, earned them the name "pocket battleships" by friend and foe alike. They attained fairly high speeds of 26 knots (52 km/h), and reasonable protection, while (allegedly!) staying close to the displacement limit, by using welded rather than riveted construction, triple main armament turrets, and replacing the normal steam turbine power with a pair of massive 9 cylinder diesel engines driving each propeller shaft (an ironic reversion from turbine to reciprocating engines). A gun turret is a device that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts Thermal energy from pressurized Steam, and converts it into useful mechanical work A diesel engine is an Internal combustion engine which operates using the Diesel cycle (named after Dr After Graf Spee's loss, the remaining ships were reclassified as "heavy cruisers", having heavier guns and armour than regular heavy cruisers at the cost of speed (they in fact had basic cruiser armour, except for the turrets). The heavy cruiser was a type of Cruiser, a naval Warship designed for long range high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 8in in calibre When they were commissioned, they were already outclassed by British WW1-era true battlecruisers in speed, weaponry, and protection, but the Germans hoped for a temporary advantage.
Two more ships were built later in the 1930s, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which were considerably more powerful and classified as true capital ships. For the German armoured cruiser commissioned in 1907 see SMS Scharnhorst The sisters - Scharnhorst and Gneisenau The Construction She was laid down in February 1934 at Deutsche Werke Kiel. The capital ships of a Navy are its "important" warships the ones with the heaviest Firepower and Armor. At 38,900 tons full load they were somewhat larger than the French Dunkerque class. The Gneisenau class was fast and well armoured, though their armament was relatively lightweight, consisting of three triple 280 mm (11 inch) gun turrets. At the time, guns that were 305 mm (12 inches) or larger could only be produced at the rate of one per year as per treaty restrictions, and because the Germans did not want to alarm the Allies, this led to the ships being fitted with 280 mm guns. The barbettes, nonetheless, were designed to accept twin 380 mm (15 inch) turrets (six guns total) when enough became available. However, circumstances and the fates of the two ships - Scharnhorst badly damaged by shellfire and sunk by torpedo, Gneisenau heavily damaged by bombs and her repair sacrificed to higher priorities - meant that this plan was abandoned. In the World War II naval Battle of the North Cape, ships of the Royal Navy sank the German Battlecruiser ''Scharnhorst'' off Norway The Royal Navy categorized them as battlecruisers since they followed the Imperial German Navy design lineage of trading off gun size for protection and speed. The German Navy nonetheless categorised them as battleships. The follow-up to the Gneisenaus was not a battlecruiser, but the Bismarck, which had an additional barbette and was armed with eight 380 mm guns installed at the onset, making her a full fast battleship. Background Design of the ship started in the early 1930s following on from Germany's development of the ''Deutschland'' class cruisers and the ''Scharnhorst'' class Historically a fast battleship was a Battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual compared to the normal practice of the time
French designs
As a response to the German pocket battleships the French decided to build the Dunkerque class in the 1930s. They were labelled "fast battleships", being considered scaled down but still balanced versions of that type of ship, and were armed with 330 mm (13 inch) guns arranged in two quadruple turrets located forward. Considered to be true capital ships, they were considerably larger, faster and more powerfully armed than the German pocket battleships they were designed to hunt. The capital ships of a Navy are its "important" warships the ones with the heaviest Firepower and Armor. This last design illustrated inter-war technological developments. The ultimate limit on ship speed was drag from the water displaced (which increases as a cube of speed) rather than weight, so heavier armour slowed World War II battleships by only a couple of knots (4 km/h) over their more lightly armoured brethren. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Heavy guns mounted on fast and well armoured fast battleships invalidated the concept of the battlecruiser as a ship class in its own right.
World War II
Commerce raiding
In the early years of the war the German ships each had a measure of success hunting merchant ships in the Atlantic. The pocket battleships were deployed alone and sank a number of vessels, causing disruption to the trade routes which supplied the UK. Description German capital ships were restricted by the Treaty of Versailles to a displacement of 10000 tons for "armoured ships" The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located They were pursued by the Royal Navy and on one occasion, at the Battle of the River Plate in 1939, the hunter became the hunted. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) The Battle of the River Plate ( December 13, 1939) was the first major naval battle in World War II.
Admiral Graf Spee had been at sea at the start of WWII and engaged in a successful commerce raiding spree. Off the coast of South America, Admiral Graf Spee encountered the British heavy cruiser Exeter and light cruisers Achilles and Ajax. Design Exeter was ordered two years after her sister ''York'' and therefore her design incorporated improvements in the light of experience with the latter Service Achilles was originally built for the Royal Navy, and was commissioned as HMS Achilles on October 10 1933 Before the War Built at Vickers shipyard Barrow-in-Furness, England, she was laid down on 7 February 1933 launched on 1 March 1934 and completed on 12 April Admiral Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage on Exeter but in turn suffered considerable topside damage from the light cruisers. The pocket battleship's armour mostly held, but she sustained several critical hits which would have made the ship unseaworthy for returning to Germany, and she was forced to retire to neutral Uruguay. Uruguay.(official full name in República Oriental del Uruguay;, Oriental Republic of Uruguay) is a country located in the southeastern part of South America Unable to stay in port any longer without internment, and led to believe by the nature of British radio transmissions that aircraft carriers and 15-inch (381 mm) gunned battlecruisers were too close to evade, her captain elected to scuttle his ship, and then accepted responsibility for its destruction by committing suicide.
Allied battlecruisers such as Renown, Repulse, Dunkerque and Strasbourg were employed on operations to hunt down the commerce raiding German battlecruisers, but they rarely got close to their targets, Renown enjoying a brief clash against the German 11-inch battlecruisers, scoring three non-critical hits on Gniesenau but being unable to keep up in bad weather. Service in World War I Repulse first saw action on 17 November 1917 at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. See also List of ship launches in 1936 List of ship commissionings in 1939 List of shipwrecks in 1940 The one stand-up fight was when the Bismarck was sent out as a raider and was intercepted by HMS Hood and the battleship Prince of Wales in May 1941. Background Design of the ship started in the early 1930s following on from Germany's development of the ''Deutschland'' class cruisers and the ''Scharnhorst'' class History Construction Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, on 1 September Naming The Admiralty ordered construction of two new ''King George V''-class Battleships on 29 July 1936 (the other became HMS ''King George V'') However, the elderly British battlecruiser was not match for the brand new German battleship and the Bismarck's 15 inch shells caused a magazine explosion in Hood reminiscent of the Battle of Jutland. fix various bugs per WikipediaHow to fix bunched-up edit links --> Only three men survived.
Gneisenau and Scharnhorst hunted together and were initially successful at commerce raiding, sinking the British armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi in 1939. Construction She was laid down in February 1934 at Deutsche Werke Kiel. For the German armoured cruiser commissioned in 1907 see SMS Scharnhorst The sisters - Scharnhorst and Gneisenau The Armed Merchantmen has come to mean merchant ships equipped with guns usually for defensive purposes either by design or after the fact Sinking While patrolling north of the Faroe Islands on 23 November 1939 she investigated a possible enemy sighting only to find that she had encountered two of the most Following repairs from damage during the Norwegian campaign, the two battlecruisers set out commerce raiding once again in 1941 and sank 22 merchant ships. The Norwegian Campaign, lasting from 9 April to 10 June 1940, led to the first direct land confrontation between the military forces of the Allies They returned to Brest in northern France but found this port was vulnerable to Royal Air Force attacks and were obliged to return to Germany. Brest (bʁɛst in French, in Breton) is a city in the Finistère department in Bretagne in northwestern France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. They did so in the Channel Dash, a daring and successful run up the English Channel. However, they were both damaged by mines and although Scharnhorst was repaired, Gneisenau was damaged again in RAF bombing raids and was eventually disarmed and sunk as a blockship. Scharnhorst was employed once more to attack commerce and attempted to raid the Arctic convoys in December 1943. The Arctic Convoys of World War II travelled from the United Kingdom and the United States to the northern ports of the Soviet However, she was surprised by the battleship HMS Duke of York with the cruisers Jamaica, Norfolk and Belfast at the Battle of North Cape and sunk on 26 December 1943. The Arctic Convoys Battle of the Barents Sea In September 1942 Jamaica was employed as a close support for convoys in the Arctic Battle honours Atlantic 1941 ''Bismarck'' 1941 Arctic 1941–1943 North Africa 1942 North Cape 1943 Norway 1945 Early history The Town class cruisers were constrained to less than 10000 tons by the Washington Naval Treaty. In the World War II naval Battle of the North Cape, ships of the Royal Navy sank the German Battlecruiser ''Scharnhorst'' off Norway Events 1481 - Battle of Westbrook - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht. Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 14-inch (356 mm) gunfire from Duke of York crippled her turrets and engine room, then the attendant British cruisers and destroyers closed in and finished her off with torpedoes.
The use of battlecruisers as commerce raiders was curtailed following an attack by the Admiral Scheer on a convoy guarded by the HMS Jervis Bay, an armed merchant cruiser. History During World War II Admiral Scheer, under Captain Theodor Krancke, was by far the most successful capital ship Commerce raider of the war See also List of shipwrecks in 1940 Armed Merchantmen has come to mean merchant ships equipped with guns usually for defensive purposes either by design or after the fact It persuaded the British Admiralty that convoys had to be guarded by battleships or battlecruisers. The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. The older R-class battleships and the un-upgraded Queen Elizabeths (Malaya and Barham) were used for this task, for which they were quite adequate despite their age, and subsequently the smaller German ships were forced away from their quarry. Service In World War I, she collided with her sister-ship in 1915 Additionally, the air gap over the North Atlantic closed, Huff-Duff (radio triangulation equipment) improved, airborne centimetric radar was introduced and convoys received escort carrier protection. High frequency direction finder is usually known by its Acronym HF/DF, pronounced Huff-Duff. The history of radar began in the 1900s when engineers invented simple uni-directional ranging devices The escort aircraft carrier or escort carrier (popularly known as the jeep carrier) was a small Aircraft carrier utilized by the Royal Navy The results of some of these developments were illustrated by the successful defence of convoys at the Battle of the Barents Sea and the Battle of the North Cape. The Battle of the Barents Sea took place on December 31, 1942 between British ships escorting Convoy JW 51B to Kola In the World War II naval Battle of the North Cape, ships of the Royal Navy sank the German Battlecruiser ''Scharnhorst'' off Norway
Norwegian campaign
The Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine both deployed battlecruisers during the Norwegian campaign in April 1940. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) The Kriegsmarine (English "War navy" was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945 during the Nazi regime superseding the The Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst both engaged HMS Renown in appalling weather and although they had stronger armour than their counterpart, the British ship could hit them harder and at a longer range due to the German ships having difficulty with their radar. Construction She was laid down in February 1934 at Deutsche Werke Kiel. For the German armoured cruiser commissioned in 1907 see SMS Scharnhorst The sisters - Scharnhorst and Gneisenau The They disengaged after Gneisenau sustained damage. One of Renown's 15-inch shells passed clean through Gneisenau's director tower without exploding, severing electrical and communication cables as it went. The debris caused by the passing shell killed one officer and five ratings, and destroyed the optical rangefinder for the forward 150mm turrets. Main battery fire control had to be shifted aft due to the loss of electrical power to the director tower. Renown's second shell struck Gneisenau's aft turret, knocking it out of action.
Later in the campaign they returned and sank the light aircraft carrier HMS Glorious (a converted battlecruiser herself) and her destroyer escort. Genesis Glorious was built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast. The design was for a light Battlecruiser; while having guns she was actually One of the destroyers (HMS Acasta) succeeded in damaging the Scharnhorst with a torpedo, and later a submarine did the same to Gneisenau, forcing both ships to spend several months in repair. Footnotes See also List of shipwrecks in 1940 The pocket battleship Lützow was similarly damaged by HMS Spearfish during the campaign. Description German capital ships were restricted by the Treaty of Versailles to a displacement of 10000 tons for "armoured ships" Description Their size and characteristics were severely limited by the Treaty of Versailles, which limited Germany to ships of no more than 10000 tons displacement
Mediterranean
The French battlecruisers had fled to North Africa following the fall of France. In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries In July 1940 Force H under Admiral James Somerville was ordered to force their surrender or destroy them. Force H was a British naval task force (though that term was not used during World War II. Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville GCB, GBE, DSO ( 17 July 1882 &ndash 19 March 1949 The Dunkerque was damaged by shells from HMS Hood at Mers-el-Kebir but escaped to join the Strasbourg at Toulon. History Construction Construction of Hood began at the John Brown & Company shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland, on 1 September Mers-el-Kébir (المرسى الكبير “the Great Harbor” is a port town in northwestern Algeria, located by the Mediterranean Sea near Oran See also List of ship launches in 1936 List of ship commissionings in 1939 List of shipwrecks in 1940 Toulon ( Provençal Occitan: Tolon in classical norm or Touloun in Mistralian norm is a city in southern France and a large Both ships were scuttled on 27 November 1942, although Strasbourg was raised and used by the Italian navy before being sunk again in an air attack on 18 August 1944. Events 1095 - Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 293 BC - The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
Pacific War
The first battlecruiser to see action in the Pacific War was Repulse when she was sunk near Singapore on December 10, 1941 whilst in company with HMS Prince of Wales. Service in World War I Repulse first saw action on 17 November 1917 at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. Singapore Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Naming The Admiralty ordered construction of two new ''King George V''-class Battleships on 29 July 1936 (the other became HMS ''King George V'') She had received a refit to give extra anti-aircraft protection and extra armour between the wars. Unlike her sister Renown, Repulse did not receive a full rebuild as planned, which would have added anti-torpedo blisters. The anti-torpedo bulge (also known as an anti-torpedo blister) is a form of passive defence against naval torpedoes that featured in Warship construction During the Sea Battle off Malaya, her speed and agility enabled her to hold her own and dodge nineteen torpedoes. The Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a World War II naval engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks However, without aerial cover she eventually succumbed to the continuous waves of Japanese bombers, and without enhanced underwater protection she went down quickly after a few torpedo hits.
The Japanese Kongō class battlecruisers were significantly upgraded and re-rated as "fast battleships", and they were used extensively as carrier escorts for most of their wartime career due to their high speed. However their WWI-era armament was weaker and their upgraded armour scheme was still not up to contemporary dreadnought standards. During the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 12 November the Hiei was sent out to bombard US positions. The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, sometimes referred to as the Third and Fourth Battles of Savo Island, the Battle of the Solomons or in Japanese sources as Events 764 - Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days Pre-war service Following World War I, her Boilers were upgraded for speed and bulges were added for better defense against Torpedoes Kongō She suffered extensive topside damage from gunfire of US cruisers and destroyers, with her engine room being penetrated at close range by an 8-inch shell from San Francisco. The next day, Hiei was attacked by waves of aircraft from Guadalcanal’s American held airfield (Henderson Field), which eventually made salvage impossible, and so she was left to sink north of Savo Island. Honiara International Airport, formerly known as Henderson Field, is an Airport located on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands. For the United States Navy escort carrier see USS Savo Island (CVE-78. A few days later on 15 November 1942 Kirishima, engaged the U. Events 655 - Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Service Her initial captain in World War II was Yamaguchi Jihei formerly the commander of the heavy cruiser ''Takao'', later promoted to Rear Admiral and still later S. battleships South Dakota and Washington, and was scuttled following mortal damage from nine 16-inch hits inflicted by the Washington, which disabled her turrets and holed her below the waterline. Birth of the Ship Her keel was laid down on 5 July 1939 at Camden New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. Service in the Atlantic March – July 1942 Her shakedown and underway training ranged along the eastern seaboard and into the Gulf of Mexico and lasted through American In contrast South Dakota survived 42 hits (including only one 14-inch hit), all to her superstructure, and was back in operation four months later. The Kongō survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but was eventually sunk on 21 November 1944 in the Formosa Strait by three torpedoes from the U. Design and build In 1908 the commissioning of the battlecruiser armed with eight guns into the Royal Navy rendered all of the Imperial Japanese Navy 's warships The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battle for Leyte Gulf" the "Battles for Leyte Gulf" and formerly as the "Second Battle of the Philippine Events 164 BC - Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family restores the Temple in Jerusalem. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide (11185-mile-wide Strait between Mainland China and Taiwan. The modern torpedo (historically called an automotive automobile locomotive or fish torpedo is a self-propelled explosive Projectile weapon launched above or below S. submarine Sealion. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability First Patrol June – July 1944 Sailing with sister ship (SS-306 she stopped off at Midway on 12 June; glanced off a Whale on 15 June Haruna was involved in bombardment operations at Guadalcanal, the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Commanding Officers Chief Equipping Officer - Capt Kajihiro Funakoshi - 15 December 1914 - 19 April 1915 Capt The Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "The Marianas Turkey Shoot" was a decisive naval battle of World War II, and the largest aircraft carrier battle in history The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battle for Leyte Gulf" the "Battles for Leyte Gulf" and formerly as the "Second Battle of the Philippine She was attacked by American carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 and B-24 bombers of the United States Army Air Forces while at Kure on 28 July 1945 and sank at her moorings. The Fast Carrier Task Force, known at different times as Task Force 38 and Task Force 58, was the main striking force of the United States Navy in The United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. is a city located in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan. As of the January 1 2008 the city has an estimated Population of 246118 and a density Events 1540 - Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of Treason. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar
Large Cruisers or "Cruiser Killers"
On the eve of World War II, there was a late renaissance in popularity of ships between battleships and cruisers. Description Ships of the Alaska class had a main battery much heavier than those of normal Heavy cruisers but were lighter and faster than most Battleships World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including While some considered them battlecruisers, they were never classified as capital ships, and they were variously described as "super-cruisers," "large cruisers" or even "unrestricted cruisers. The capital ships of a Navy are its "important" warships the ones with the heaviest Firepower and Armor. " They were optimised as cruiser-killers, fleet scouts and commerce raiders. The Dutch, Japanese, Soviets and Americans all planned new classes specifically to counter the large heavy cruisers being built by their naval rivals - especially the Japanese Mogami class cruisers. Design For the 1931 Fleet Replenishment Program believing themselves understrength in cruisers the IJN chose to build to the maximum allowed by the Washington Naval Treaty The Germans also designed a class of lightly protected battlecruisers.
The first such battlecruisers were of the Dutch "1047" design. Never officially assigned names, the Dutch wanted them to protect their East Indies Colonies. They designed these vessels with the assistance of the Germans and Italians; at the time the Netherlands planned to stay neutral in World War II. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including They broadly resembled the German Scharnhorst Class and had the same main battery, but would have been considerably lighter and only protected against 8-inch (203 mm) gun fire. Although the design was completed, work on the vessels never commenced as the Germans overran the Netherlands in May of 1940, while the first ship would have been laid down in June of that year.
The Germans planned to build three battlecruisers as part of their Z Plan for the expansion of the Navy. With six 15 inch (38 cm) guns, high speed, excellent range but very thin armor, they were intended as commerce raiders. Only one of these was ordered shortly before World War II broke out and no work was ever done on it. No names were assigned, and they were known as O, P, and Q. The new class was not universally welcomed in the Kriegsmarine, their abnormally light protection gaining the class the derogatory nickname Ohne Panzer Quatsch (without armour nonsense) within certain circles of the Navy.
The only class of these late battlecruisers to be laid down were the United States Navy's three Alaska class "large cruisers", Alaska, Guam and Hawaii - of which only Alaska and Guam were completed. Description The Alaska class ships are often referred to as large cruisers;in terms of gunnery and displacement they were midway between a Heavy cruiser Description Ships of the Alaska class had a main battery much heavier than those of normal Heavy cruisers but were lighter and faster than most Battleships History Guam was launched 12 November 1943 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden New Jersey; sponsored by Mrs The Alaskas were classified as "large cruisers" instead of battlecruisers, and their status as non-capital ships is evidenced by the fact that they were named for territories or protectorates (as opposed to battleships, which were named after states, or cruisers, which were commonly named after cities). But with a main armament of nine twelve-inch (305 mm) guns in three triple turrets and a displacement of 27,000 tons, the Alaskas were twice the size of the preceding Baltimore class cruisers and had guns some 50% larger. Ships Baltimore -class cruiser ''Baltimore'' ''Boston'' ''Canberra'' However, they lacked the thick armoured belt and torpedo defense system of true capital ships and, unlike most battlecruisers, they were considered a balanced design (according to cruiser standards) as their protection could withstand fire from their own caliber of gun, albeit only in a very narrow range band. The capital ships of a Navy are its "important" warships the ones with the heaviest Firepower and Armor. They were designed to hunt down Japanese heavy cruisers, though by the time they entered service most Japanese cruisers had been sunk by American aircraft or submarines. The heavy cruiser was a type of Cruiser, a naval Warship designed for long range high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 8in in calibre Like the contemporary Iowa-class fast battleships, their speed ultimately made them more useful as carrier escorts and bombardment ships than as the sea combatants they were developed to be. History The Iowa -class battleships were shaped by the Battle of Jutland, by naval treaties signed by various countries during the 1920s and 1930s and by the Hawaii was approximately 90% complete when hostilities ceased, and was laid up for years while various plans were debated to convert her large hull into a missile ship or a command vessel; she would eventually be scrapped incomplete. Three additional hulls, to be named Philippines, Puerto Rico and Samoa, were cancelled outright.
The Japanese started designing the B64 class, which were similar to the Alaska but with 12. 2-inch (310 mm) guns. News of the Alaskas led them to upgrade the design, creating the B65. Armed with 14-inch (356 mm) guns, the B65's would have been the best armed of the new breed of battlecruisers, but they still would have had only sufficient protection to keep out 8-inch shells. Much like the Dutch battlecruisers, the Japanese got as far as completing the design for the B65s, but never laid them down. By the time the designs were ready the Japanese Navy recognised that they had little use for the vessels and that their priority for construction should lie with aircraft carriers. Like the Alaskas, the Japanese did not call these ships battlecruisers, referring to them instead as supersized heavy cruisers. The heavy cruiser was a type of Cruiser, a naval Warship designed for long range high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 8in in calibre
Cold War designs
In spite of the fact that World War II had demonstrated battleships and battlecruisers to be generally obsolete, Joseph Stalin's fondness for big gun armed warships caused the Soviet Union to plan several large cruiser classes in the late 1940s and early 1950s that would be a response for the Alaska class vessels. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 In the Soviet Union, they were called "heavy cruisers" (thyazholyi kreyser). The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991
The fruits of this program were the project 82 (Stalingrad) cruisers, with 36,500 tons standard load (42,300 tons full load), 9 guns 305 mm and a speed of 35 knots (65 km/h). Ships The programme was delayed by constant design changes by Stalin Three ships were laid in 1951–52, but after Stalin's death they were canceled in April 1953. Apart from high costs, the main reason was that gun-armed ships became obsolete with an advent of guided missiles. Only a central armoured hull section of the first cruiser Stalingrad was launched in 1954 and then used as a target for rockets.
The Soviet Kirov class of Raketny Kreyser (Missile Cruiser), displacing approximately 26,000 tons, is classified as a battlecruiser in the 1996–7 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships, even though in actuality they are very large missile cruisers. Armament This class is equipped with missiles and guns as well as electronics Jane's Fighting Ships is an annual reference Book (also published online on CD and Microfiche) of information on all the world's Warships Their classification as battlecruisers arises from their displacement, which is roughly equal to that of a World War I battleship, and the fact that they possess more firepower than nearly every other surface ship. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All A battleship is a large heavily armored Warship with a main battery consisting of the largest Calibre of Guns Battleships were However, the Kirov-class lacks the heavy armour that distinguishes battlecruisers from regular cruisers and they are classified as "heavy missile cruisers" in Russia. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending There were four members of the class completed, Kirov, Frunze, Kalinin, and Yuri Andropov. History She was laid down in June 1973 or March 27 1974 at the Baltiysky Naval Shipyard in Leningrad, launched on December 26 Differences from lead ship Admiral Lazarev was constructed differently from the lead ship of the class History Kalinin was laid down on May 17 1983 at Baltiysky Naval Shipyard, Leningrad launched on April 25 1986, and History Yuri Andropov (named after the Soviet politician Yuri Andropov) was laid down in 1986 at the Baltic Shipyard (formerly Shipyard-189 As the ships were named after Communist personalities, after the fall of the USSR they were given traditional names of the Imperial Russian Navy, respectively Admiral Ushakov, Admiral Lazarev, Admiral Nakhimov, and Petr Velikiy. Due to budget constraints two members of this class have been decommissioned, although Petr Velikiy and Admiral Nakhimov are in active service and funds are being gathered for possible repair of Admiral Lazarev. Nakhimov was returned to service early, at the beginning of 2006, possibly due to increasing tensions in the Middle East and potential Russian naval involvement therein. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East.
Problems with the idea
In practice, battlecruisers rarely saw the type of independent action for which they were designed. The increase in gunnery technology was so swift in the years following 1905, that there was a blurring of the distinction between the battleship and battlecruiser. At Jutland the guns on Beatty's flagship, HMS Lion were 13. Admiral of the Fleet David Beatty 1st Earl Beatty GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO (17 January 1871 – 11 March 1936 was an Admiral 5-inch, which was larger than most German and many British battleships. The High Seas Fleet (Hochseeflotte was the main battle fleet of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy during World War I. The Grand Fleet was a Fleet of the British Royal Navy during the First World War.
In most cases, the temptation to add extra big guns to the main fleet proved hard to resist. As a result, battlecruiser squadrons were added to the line of battle. In Naval warfare, the line of battle is a tactic in which the ships of the fleet form a line end-to-end — a role for which they were not designed and one that exposed them to great risk. . The armour on a battlecruiser remained that of (or slightly more than) a normal cruiser. Thus the ships could dish out a lot more punishment than they could absorb. Any advantage they had in speed was lost when locked into formation at the speed of the slowest battleship in the line of battle. Heavy shells from opposing capital ships could easily penetrate their thinner armour. During Jutland, both British and German battlecruisers scored hits on each other. The British ships came off poorly, where the German ships' fared better due to better internal protection and poor performance of the British shells.
Some have often cited the weaker armour on British battlecruisers, compared to their German counterparts, as responsible for their loss. The Lion's closest contemporary was perhaps the Seydlitz. See also Lion class battleship Design The class was adapted from the design of the first "super-dreadnought" (or 13 Design The Seydlitz was a unique vessel being a modified version of the previous ''Moltke'' class battlecruisers Both were similar in displacement and speed. German battlecruisers did sacrifice gun calibre for thicker armour but they were not significant such that they made the difference in battle, since both Lion and Seydlitz had their magazine armour penetrated at some point during their careers. Rather, it was the cordite handling procedures; the near destruction of the Seydlitz at the Battle of Dogger Bank had convinced the Germans that they had to take more precautions. After this battle, some of the British battlecruiser force ships began to store too many cordite charges outside the magazine, while leaving open the flash-protection doors, in the pursuit of a tactical doctrine popular in the BCF after Dodger Bank involving rapidity of fire. This practice of taking "rate of fire" ideas to excess was not practiced in the Grand Fleet. [42]
During World War II large-scale close range fleet actions did not occur. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Battlecruisers were paired with battleships in roles such as raiding (German), convoy escort, or as part of task forces. In operations where battlecruisers did fight battleships, such as Hood and Bismarck, Scharnhorst and Duke of York, Kirishima and Washington, the battlecruiser was destroyed by gunfire. They were equally vulnerable to aircraft, as many World War I designs lacked the torpedo protection system developed for World War II capital ships, and during World War II several were lost in this way. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The capital ships of a Navy are its "important" warships the ones with the heaviest Firepower and Armor. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including
See also
- List of sunken battlecruisers
- Protected cruiser
- Armored cruiser
- Light cruiser
- Cruiser
- Heavy cruiser
- List of cruisers
- Crossing the T
Notes
- ^ While Japan's battlecruisers continued in service, they were re-rated as battleships
- ^ Sondhaus, 199. The battlecruisers listed are grouped according to how they came to be sunk Protected cruisers were a type of naval Cruiser of the late 19th century so known because their deck armour offered protection for vital machine spaces from shrapnel caused The armored cruiser, or armoured cruiser (see spelling differences) is a type of Cruiser, a naval warship. A light cruiser is a Warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light Armoured cruiser " describing a small ship that carried armour in the same way A cruiser is a large type of Warship, which had its prime period from the late 19th century to the end of the Cold War. The heavy cruiser was a type of Cruiser, a naval Warship designed for long range high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 8in in calibre This is a so far incomplete list of Cruisers 1860-present It includes protected, light, armoured, battle-, heavy and missile cruisers Crossing the T or Capping the T is a tactic in Naval warfare, in which a line of Warships crosses in front of a line of enemy ships allowing them to Roberts, 13
- ^ Breyer, p. 47
- ^ Breyer, p. 47; Mackay, p. 270. Mackay quotes Fisher: "The fact has been overlooked that no number of unprotected or unarmoured or smaller type of Cruiser can cope successfully with even one thoroughly powerful first-class Armoured Cruiser. An infinite number of ants would not be equal to one armadillo! The armadillo would eat them up one after another wholesale!"
- ^ Roberts, p. 15. Macaky, p. 212-3
- ^ Roberts, 16-17
- ^ Roberts, 17-18; Mackay, 324-5
- ^ Breyer, p. 48
- ^ a b Roberts, p. 18
- ^ a b Roberts, p. 19
- ^ Breyer, p. 115
- ^ Breyer, 115; Roberts, 24-5
- ^ Breyer, 114-7
- ^ Mackay, p. 325-6
- ^ Roberts, p. 24-5
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 200-1
- ^ Roberts, p. 25; Mackay p. 324-5
- ^ Roberts, 26
- ^ Breyer, p. 269-272
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 202-3
- ^ Roberts, p. 28-9
- ^ Brown, p. 57
- ^ Sondhaus, p. 203
- ^ Roberts, p. 32; Brown, p. 58
- ^ Roberts, p. 31-33
- ^ Breyer, p. 267, 272
- ^ Evans and Peattie, p. 161-3
- ^ Breyer, p. 135
- ^ Roberts, p. 37-8
- ^ Breyer, p. 277-8
- ^ a b Breyer, p. 399
- ^ Roberts, p. 26
- ^ Breyer, p. 140-1
- ^ Roberts, p. 38-9
- ^ Breyer, p. 283-4
- ^ Roberts, p. 46-7
- ^ Roberts, p. 50-2 Brown, P. 97-8
- ^ Roberts, p. 51
- ^ Roberts, p. 58-61
- ^ Roberts, p. 60-1
- ^ Naval Battles of the First World War, Geoffrey Bennett, Penguin Books Classic Military History, 2001, ISBN 0-14-139087-5
- ^ Brooks, John, Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland, The Question of Fire Control, Routledge, Abingdon, 2005.
References
- Bonney, George The Battle of Jutland 1916 Sutton Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-0750941785
- Breyer, Siegfried Battleships and Battlecruisers of the World 1905-1970 trans Alfred Kurti. Macdonal and Jane's, London, 1973. ISBN 0-356-04191-3.
- Brooks, John, Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland, The Question of Fire Control,Routledge, Abingdon, 2005.
- Burr, Lawrence British Battlecruisers 1914- 1918 (New Vanguard) Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1846030086
- Hough, Richard Dreadnought: A History of the Modern Battleship MacMillan Publishing Company, 1975. ISBN 978-0025544208
- Ireland, Bernard, and Tony Gibbons Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century New York: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 0-00-470997-7 Also covers battlecruisers
- Lambert, Nicholas. "Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution" (Studies in Maritime History). New Edition. (University of South Carolina Press, 2002). ISBN 978-1570034923. An important account; use with Sumida, below.
- Massie, Robert K, Dreadnought, Jonathan Cape, London, 1992.
- Mackay, Ruddock F. Fisher of Kilverstone. Oxford University Press, London, 1973.
- Miller, David. The Illustrated Directory of Warships: from 1860 to the Present Day. London: Salamander, 2001 ISBN 0-86288-677-5
- Roberts, John Battlecruisers, Chatham Publishing, London, 1997.
- Staff, Gary German Battlecruisers 1914-18 (New Vanguard) Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1846030093
- Sondhaus, Lawrence Naval Warfare 1815-1914. Routledge, London, 2001. ISBN 0-415-21478-5
- Sumida, Jon T. "In Defense of Naval Supremacy: Financial Limitation, Technological Innovation and British Naval Policy, 1889-1914. " (Routledge, 1993).
- Van Der Vat, Dan The ship that changed the world: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914 Adler & Adler, 1986. ASIN B000JN9QC6
External links
- All the worlds battlecruisers
- Maritimequest Battleships & Battlecruisers of the 20th century
- British and German Battlecruisers of the First World War
- Navsource Online
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