The first armoured cruisers had been built in the 1870s, as an attempt to give armour protection to ships fulfilling the typical cruiser roles of patrol, trade protection and power projection.
In the period 1889–1896, the Royal Navy spent £7.3 million on new large cruisers.
As a result, navies preferred to build protected cruisers with an armoured deck protecting their engines, or simply no armour at all. In the 1890s, technology began to change this balance.
Even before this, the Royal Navy had begun to consider a shift away from the mixed-calibre armament of the 1890s pre-dreadnought to an "all-big-gun" design, and preliminary designs circulated for battleships with all 12-inch or all 10-inch guns and armoured cruisers with all 9.2-inch guns.
In the event of a war between Britain and France or Russia, or both, these cruisers threatened to cause serious difficulties for the British Empire's worldwide trade. Britain, which had concluded in 1892 that it needed twice as many cruisers as any potential enemy to adequately protect its empire's sea lanes, responded to the perceived threat by laying down its own large armoured cruisers.
In 1896–97 France and Russia, who were regarded as likely allies in the event of war, started to build large, fast armoured cruisers taking advantage of this.
The Imperial German Navy began to build large armoured cruisers for use on their overseas stations, laying down eight between 1897 and 1906. The cost of this cruiser arms race was significant.
From 1897 to 1904, it spent £26.9 million.
Between 1899 and 1905, it completed or laid down seven classes of this type, a total of 35 ships.
However, for a few years after 1900 it seemed that those advantages were of little practical value.
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.
Jane wrote in June 1902,Is there anything outside of 2,000 yards that the big gun in its hundreds of tons of medieval castle can effect, that its weight in 6-inch guns without the castle could not effect equally well? And inside 2,000, what, in these days of gyros, is there that the torpedo cannot effect with far more certainty? In 1904, Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher became First Sea Lord, the senior officer of the Royal Navy.
However, mainstream British naval thinking between 1902 and 1904 was clearly in favour of heavily armoured battleships, rather than the fast ships that Fisher favoured. The Battle of Tsushima proved conclusively the effectiveness of heavy guns over intermediate ones and the need for a uniform main caliber on a ship for fire control.
The terms of reference for the committee were for a battleship capable of with 12-inch guns and no intermediate calibres, capable of docking in existing drydocks; and a cruiser capable of , also with 12-inch guns and no intermediate armament, armoured like , the most recent armoured cruiser, and also capable of using existing docks. ==First battlecruisers== Under the Selborne plan of 1902, the Royal Navy intended to start three new battleships and four armoured cruisers each year.
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 US.
From 1897 to 1904, it spent £26.9 million.
Jane wrote in June 1902,Is there anything outside of 2,000 yards that the big gun in its hundreds of tons of medieval castle can effect, that its weight in 6-inch guns without the castle could not effect equally well? And inside 2,000, what, in these days of gyros, is there that the torpedo cannot effect with far more certainty? In 1904, Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher became First Sea Lord, the senior officer of the Royal Navy.
However, mainstream British naval thinking between 1902 and 1904 was clearly in favour of heavily armoured battleships, rather than the fast ships that Fisher favoured. The Battle of Tsushima proved conclusively the effectiveness of heavy guns over intermediate ones and the need for a uniform main caliber on a ship for fire control.
In late 1904, not long after the Royal Navy had decided to use 12-inch guns for its next generation of battleships because of their superior performance at long range, Fisher began to argue that big-gun cruisers could replace battleships altogether.
However, in late 1904 it became clear that the 1905–1906 programme would have to be considerably smaller, because of lower than expected tax revenue and the need to buy out two Chilean battleships under construction in British yards, lest they be purchased by the Russians for use against the Japanese, Britain's ally.
Diplomatically, Britain had entered the Entente cordiale in 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Entente.
Neither France nor Russia posed a particular naval threat; the Russian navy had largely been sunk or captured in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, while the French were in no hurry to adopt the new dreadnought-type design.
Between 1899 and 1905, it completed or laid down seven classes of this type, a total of 35 ships.
However, in late 1904 it became clear that the 1905–1906 programme would have to be considerably smaller, because of lower than expected tax revenue and the need to buy out two Chilean battleships under construction in British yards, lest they be purchased by the Russians for use against the Japanese, Britain's ally.
These economies meant that the 1905–1906 programme consisted only of one battleship, but three armoured cruisers.
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.
Complicating matters further was that many naval authorities, including Lord Fisher, had made overoptimistic assessments from the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 about the armoured cruiser's ability to survive in a battle line against enemy capital ships due to their superior speed.
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 US.
This was particularly true for cruisers, because the details of the Invincible class were kept secret for longer; this meant that the last German armoured cruiser, , was armed with only guns, and was no match for the new battlecruisers. The Royal Navy's early superiority in capital ships led to the rejection of a 1905–1906 design that would, essentially, have fused the battlecruiser and battleship concepts into what would eventually become the fast battleship.
The Imperial German Navy began to build large armoured cruisers for use on their overseas stations, laying down eight between 1897 and 1906. The cost of this cruiser arms race was significant.
Fisher later claimed, however, that he had argued during the committee for the cancellation of the remaining battleship. The construction of the new class was begun in 1906 and completed in 1908, delayed perhaps to allow their designers to learn from any problems with Dreadnought.
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.
Fisher later claimed, however, that he had argued during the committee for the cancellation of the remaining battleship. The construction of the new class was begun in 1906 and completed in 1908, delayed perhaps to allow their designers to learn from any problems with Dreadnought.
At the same time, the Invincible class themselves were referred to as "cruiser-battleships", "dreadnought cruisers"; the term "battlecruiser" was first used by Fisher in 1908.
Von der Tann, begun in 1908 and completed in 1910, carried eight 11.1-inch guns, but with 11.1-inch (283 mm) armour she was far better protected than the Invincibles.
By 1909–1910 a sense of national crisis about rivalry with Germany outweighed cost-cutting, and a naval panic resulted in the approval of a total of eight capital ships in 1909–1910.
, designed in 1909 and finished in 1913, was a modified Moltke; speed increased by one knot to , while her armour had a maximum thickness of 12 inches, equivalent to the s of a few years earlier.
The Imperial Japanese Navy had been planning the ships from 1909, and was determined that, since the Japanese economy could support relatively few ships, each would be more powerful than its likely competitors.
Von der Tann, begun in 1908 and completed in 1910, carried eight 11.1-inch guns, but with 11.1-inch (283 mm) armour she was far better protected than the Invincibles.
Finally, on 24 November 1911, Admiralty Weekly Order No.
The two Lions were followed by the very similar . By 1911 Germany had built battlecruisers of her own, and the superiority of the British ships could no longer be assured.
, designed in 1909 and finished in 1913, was a modified Moltke; speed increased by one knot to , while her armour had a maximum thickness of 12 inches, equivalent to the s of a few years earlier.
In 1913, the Russian Empire also began the construction of the four-ship , which were designed for service in the Baltic Sea.
The United States Navy, which had worked on its battlecruiser designs since 1913 and watched the latest developments in this class with great care, responded with the .
The Mackensens were a development of the Derfflinger class, with 13.8-inch guns and a broadly similar armour scheme, designed for . In Britain, Jackie Fisher returned to the office of First Sea Lord in October 1914.
Fisher finally received approval for this project on 28 December 1914 and they became the .
They were finally cancelled in February 1919. ===Battlecruisers in action=== The first combat involving battlecruisers during World War I was the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914.
Goeben herself, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, fought engagements against the Imperial Russian Navy in the Black Sea before being knocked out of the action for the remainder of the war after the Battle of Imbros against British forces in the Aegean Sea in January 1918. The original battlecruiser concept proved successful in December 1914 at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
The project began at the end of 1915, after Fisher's final departure from the Admiralty.
Prior to the battle, the Australian battlecruiser had unsuccessfully searched for the German ships in the Pacific. During the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915, the aftermost barbette of the German flagship Seydlitz was struck by a British 13.5-inch shell from HMS Lion.
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. The Admiral class would have been the only British ships capable of taking on the German Mackensen class; nevertheless, German shipbuilding was drastically slowed by the war, and while two Mackensens were launched, none were ever completed.
The British blamed their failure to win a decisive victory on their poor gunnery and attempted to increase their rate of fire by stockpiling unprotected cordite charges in their ammunition hoists and barbettes. At the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, both British and German battlecruisers were employed as fleet units.
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. The Admiral class would have been the only British ships capable of taking on the German Mackensen class; nevertheless, 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.
Goeben herself, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, fought engagements against the Imperial Russian Navy in the Black Sea before being knocked out of the action for the remainder of the war after the Battle of Imbros against British forces in the Aegean Sea in January 1918. The original battlecruiser concept proved successful in December 1914 at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
The line between the battlecruiser and the modern fast battleship became blurred; indeed, the Japanese Kongōs were formally redesignated as battleships after their very comprehensive reconstruction in the 1930s. ===Plans in the aftermath of World War I=== Hood, launched in 1918, was the last World War I battlecruiser to be completed.
They were finally cancelled in February 1919. ===Battlecruisers in action=== The first combat involving battlecruisers during World War I was the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914.
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. Through the 1920s and 1930s only Britain and Japan retained battlecruisers, often modified and rebuilt from their original designs.
and were modernized significantly in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Washington Naval Treaty, which limited capital ship construction from 1922 onwards, treated battleships and battlecruisers identically, and the new generation of battlecruisers planned was scrapped under the terms of the treaty. Improvements in armor design and propulsion created the 1930s "fast battleship" with the speed of a battlecruiser and armor of a battleship, making the battlecruiser in the traditional sense effectively an obsolete concept.
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.
Amagi was damaged beyond repair by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and was broken up for scrap; the hull of one of the proposed Tosa-class battleships, , was converted in her stead.
The Washington Naval Treaty, which limited capital ship construction from 1922 onwards, treated battleships and battlecruisers identically, and the new generation of battlecruisers planned was scrapped under the terms of the treaty. Improvements in armor design and propulsion created the 1930s "fast battleship" with the speed of a battlecruiser and armor of a battleship, making the battlecruiser in the traditional sense effectively an obsolete concept.
Thus from the 1930s on, only the Royal Navy continued to use "battlecruiser" as a classification for the World War I–era capital ships that remained in the fleet; while Japan's battlecruisers remained in service, they had been significantly reconstructed and were re-rated as full-fledged fast battleships. Battlecruisers were put into action again during World War II, and only one survived to the end.
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. Through the 1920s and 1930s only Britain and Japan retained battlecruisers, often modified and rebuilt from their original designs.
The line between the battlecruiser and the modern fast battleship became blurred; indeed, the Japanese Kongōs were formally redesignated as battleships after their very comprehensive reconstruction in the 1930s. ===Plans in the aftermath of World War I=== Hood, launched in 1918, was the last World War I battlecruiser to be completed.
Furious had already been partially converted during the war and Glorious and Courageous were similarly converted. ===Rebuilding programmes=== In total, nine battlecruisers survived the Washington Naval Treaty, although HMS Tiger later became a victim of the London Naval Conference 1930 and was scrapped.
and were modernized significantly in the 1920s and 1930s.
Between 1934 and 1936, Repulse was partially modernized and had her bridge modified, an aircraft
Between 1934 and 1936, Repulse was partially modernized and had her bridge modified, an aircraft
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