Battlecruisers were big warships of the first half of the 20th century. It evolved from either armored cruisers and in terms of ship classification it occupy the gray area between cruisers and battleships. Different nations built to widely different designs. Occasionally battlecruisers were little than heavily cruisers when others were big than contemporaneous battlewagon. A main similarity was a role specification. It were supposed to run & outgun little war vessel (or even bottom in the out break of the pocket battleships), and outrun big war vessel that it may not outgun. Originally, to achieve this, it deviated from either the standard practice of providing a ship by having sufficient armour to protect against its have guns. A weight saving from either a decreased armour allowed further mighty engines to exist as fitted. This idea was principally conceived by British Admiral Jackie Fisher who believed "speed is the best protection". All the same, when technology developed project philosophy changed & led to the creation of extra heavy armoured ships sustaining less right guns. It run different labels, however basically performed a equivalent project.

First Battlecruisers

A 1st battlecruisers were a Royal Navy's Inflexible, Invincible and Indomitable, all completed in 1908. It experienced armour Hexad or even even Septet inches (150 to 180 mm) heavy along the side of a hull & on top the gunhouses, whereas a corresponding battlewagon of the time got armour Eleven or Dozen inches (280 to 300 mm) heavy. Originally thought of when just the recently nature and severity of armored cruiser (their armour wwhen the equivalent as that of the older panoplied cruisers'), it were so intended "dreadnought cruisers," & eventually battle cruisers. These early ships got the top speed of Twenty-six knots (48 kilometers per hour) in comparison 20 to 21 knots (37 to 39 km/h) for contemporary battlewagon. It were armed by owning Eleven in (German) or even even 12 in (British) (281 or 305 mm) guns, good rather battlewagon. Shortly fallowing a British, a Germans began building their have battlecruisers, a foremost was Von der Tann of 1911. Von 500 Tann & virtually all late German battlecruisers got simply 11 in (280 mm) guns, however it were better armoured than British battlecruisers of the instance.

First World War
Battle of the Falklands

A original battlecruiser construct proved successful at a Battle of the Falkland Islands during World War I when the British battlecruisers Inflexible & Invincible did precisely the job it were arranged for while it annihilated a German cruiser squadron commanded by Admiral Maximilian Graf Von Spee in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Battle of Dogger Bank

A vulnerability of a battlecruiser began to be apparent at the Battle of Dogger Bank, during which a British flagship Lion escaped destruction only by emergency flooding of her magazines. a similar touching-disaster occurred on a opposing side, however a Germans learned from either a condition & instituted improved protections, patch the British did does'nt, to their wonderful misfortune at the Battle of Jutland.

Battle of Jutland

At a Battle of Jutland 18 months later, nonetheless, a few of a British battlecruisers were listed when swift units & engaged German battlecruisers & battlewagon prior to the arrival of the battlewagon of the British Grand Fleet. the effect 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 The German battlecruisers were better armoured, although Lützow was damaged and had to be scuttled, and Seydlitz was heavily damaged. There are no British or even German battlewagon was sunk when you took a battle apart from either a old German pre-dreadnought Pommern.

Inter-war years
Post-war developments

Charted a prevent of the war numerous navies re-evaluated their ship designs. This led to a total of changes when numerous nations chose to reduce their battlecruiser fleet charted the Washington Naval Arms Limitation Treaty rather than scrap worthful battlewagon.

British designs

Fallowing a war a Royal Navy de-emphasized battlecruisers in the orginal sense of the word & just about triad were scrapped per mid-1930s. inside a Royal Navy, the term was applied to ships by having heavily armour, however were however capable of speeds in excess of Twenty-five knots. HMS Hood, launched in 1918, was the last British battlecruiser to be completed - however, she was completed with armour that was thought to be capable of resisting her own weapons, the classic measure of a "balanced" battleship. 2 battlecruiser hulls were converted into a Glorious-class aircraft carriers. Renown was modernised significantly between 1936 and 1939.

Japanese Designs

A Imperial Japanese Navy improved the 4 battlecruisers of the Kongo class by increasing the elevation of the guns to 40 degrees, adding anti-torpedo bulges and additional armour, and building on a "pagoda" mast. A 3,800 all about of extra armour slowed their speed, however between 1933 & 1940 replacement of heavily devices & an increase in the length of the hull by 26ft (8m) allowed the two for as much as Xxx knots over again. It were reclassified when "fast battleships".

A Imperial Japanese Navy scrapped three of the 4 Amagi class battlecruisers (which were under construction), & converted a for, Akagi, into an aircraft carrier in 1927.

US Designs

A United States Navy retasked two battlecruiser hulls when flattop: 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). A Lexington class battlecruisers whenever completed would st& been nigher around construct to the later on convenient battlewagon, existence each swift and easily-armored while forgoing sacrificing firepower. It were planned to become armed using Xvi" guns and armored against light battleship-caliber weapons; the engines required to propel these vessels at 33 knots (their design speed) made them into fast, flexible and tough aircraft carriers with large growth margins. The heavy use of Saratoga during World War II, however (at one point she and Enterprise were the only carriers in the Pacific), precluded her from having a postwar career.

Rearmament

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.

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 battlecruiser-like concept. Rather than construct a lightweight battleship which sacrificed protection in order to attain high speed, the pocket battleships were relatively small vessels with only six 11 inch (279 mm) guns — essentially large heavy cruisers. They attained fairly high speeds of 26 knots (52 km/h), and reasonable protection, while 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. They were later called "heavily cruisers".

Two more ships were built later in the 1930s, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which were considerably more powerful. At 38,900 tons full load they were somewhat larger than the French Dunkerque class. They were designed to carry six 15 inch (380mm) guns, but for various reasons they were stuck with nine 11 inch (283mm) guns instead. The Royal Navy categorised them as battlecruisers while the German Navy categorised them as battleships, but effectively they carried the firepower of a heavy cruiser.

French designs

As a response to the German pocket battleships the French decided to built the Dunkerque class in the 1930s. They were labelled "convenient battlewagon" and were armed with 13 inch (330mm) guns arranged in two quadruple turrets located forward. They were considerably larger, faster and more powerfully armed than the ships they were designed to hunt. 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 armor slowed World War II battleships by only a couple of knots (4 km/h) over their more lightly armored brethren. Heavy guns mounted on fast and well armoured ships invalidated the concept of the battlecruiser as a ship class in its own right, although the development of the aircraft carrier overshadowed this.

Second World War
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. 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. 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. The exception was when the Bismarck was sent out as a raider and was intercepted by HMS Hood in May 1941. However, the modern German battleship was not suitable prey for the elderly British battlecruiser and the Bismarck’s 15 inch shells caused a magazine explosion reminiscent of the Battle of Jutland. Only three men survived.

The Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst hunted together and were initially successful at commerce raiding, sinking the British armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi in 1939. Following repairs from damage during the Norwegian campaign, the two battlecruisers set out commerce raiding once again in 1941 and sank 22 merchant ships. 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. They did so in the Channel Dash, a daring and successful run up the English Channel. However, they were both damaged 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. However, she was cornered by the battleship HMS Duke of York at the Battle of North Cape and sunk on 26 December 1943.

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. It persuaded the British Admiralty that convoys had to be guarded by battleships (or battlecruisers) and subsequently the smaller German ships were forced away from their quarry. 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. 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.

Norwegian campaign

The Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine both deployed battlecruisers during the Norwegian Campaign in April 1940. The Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst both engaged HMS Renown and although they had stronger armour than their counterpart, the British ship could hit them harder and at a longer range. They disengaged after Gneisenau sustained damage.

Later in the campaign they returned and sunk the light aircraft carrier HMS Glorious (a converted battlecruiser herself) and her destroyer escort. One of the destroyers 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. The pocket battleship Lutzow was similarly damaged by HMS Spearfish during the campaign.

Mediterranean

The French battlecruisers had fled to North Africa following the fall of France. In July 1940 Force H under Admiral James Somerville was ordered to force their surrender or destroy them. The Dunkerque was damaged by shells from HMS Hood at Mers-el-Kebir but escaped to join the Strasbourg at Toulon. 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.

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. She had not been modified between the wars, and, despite her agility, without aerial protection she was unable to dodge the continuous waves of Japanese torpedo bombers indefinitely.

The Japanese Kongo-class "convenient battlewagon" were used extensively as carrier escorts for most of their wartime career. However, in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 12 November the Hiei was sent out to bombard US positions. She was badly damaged by gunfire from US cruisers and destroyers. She was attacked by US aircraft from Guadacanal’s American held airfield the next day and left to sink north of Savo Island. A few days later on 15 November 1942 Kirishima, engaged the U.S. battleships South Dakota and Washington, and was scuttled following damage from 75 hits inflicted by the Washington. In contrast South Dakota survived 42 hits and was back in operation four months later. The Kongo survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but was eventually sunk on 21 November 1944 in the Formosa Strait by three torpedoes from the U.S. submarine Sealion. Haruna was involved in bombardment operations at Guadacanal, the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 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.

New US designs

Part way through the war the US built the two Alaska class "large cruisers", Alaska and Guam. They were designed to hunt down the Japanese heavy cruisers. Like the German and French designs they were balanced ships, being armed with and armoured against 12 in guns. As with the never-completed Lexington-class battlecruisers, the Alaska-class ships were an outgrowth of contemporary American cruiser design, rather than a modification of contemporary American battleships.

Like the contemporary Iowa-class battleships, their speed made them ultimately more useful as carrier escorts and bombardment ships than as the sea combatants they were developed to be (as well as the early and ignominious defeat of the fleets of Japanese heavy cruisers that were their ''raison d'être). A planned additional four ships of the Alaska class were cancelled after the war.

Along with Renown, the two Alaskas were the only "battlecruisers" to survive the war.

Cold War Designs

The Soviet Kirov class of Raketny Kreyser (Rocket 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. There were four members of the class completed, Kirov, Frunze, Kalinin, and Yuri Andropov. 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''.

Problems with the idea

In practice, battlecruisers rarely saw the type of independent action for which they were designed. In most cases, the temptation to add extra big guns to the main fleet proved hard to resist, and battlecruiser squadrons were added to the line of battle — a role for which they were not designed and which exposed them to great risk. It was found that their speed wasn't sufficient to protect them from the battleships' guns. The increase in gunnery technology was so swift in the years following 1905, that there was a blurring of the distiction between the battleship and battlecruiser. At Jutland the guns on Beatty's flagship, HMS Lion were 13.5 inch, larger than most German and many British battleships. However, the armour on a battlecruiser remained that of (or slightly more than) a normal cruiser. Thus the ships could give a lot more than they could take. As a result, during World War II, they were almost all destroyed.

Science fiction

In science fiction, the use of the word "battlecruiser" became considerably corrupted: It came to represent a vessel more comparable in firepower and stature to the fast battleships of World War II: A large, fast and tough vessel with both high firepower and enough protection in the form of armor and energy shielding to both dish out and take considerable pounding. The iconic sci-fi battlecruiser is the Klingon D-7 or ''K't'inga-class battlecruiser, which menaced the Starship Enterprise'' - herself a "heavy cruiser" - on many occasions.