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    Auberon Waugh

    The Royal Navy's HMS Invincible (1907), who sank at the Battle of Jutland
    Germany's SMS Moltke in 1912, prior to her scuttling at Scapa Flow
    HMAS Australia in 1914, operated by her namesake country

    During the first years of the 20th century, many navies constructed or planned to build battlecruisers: large capital ships with greater speed but less armor than dreadnought battleships. The first battlecruisers, the Invincible class, were championed by the British First Sea Lord John Fisher and appeared in 1908, two years after the revolutionary battleship HMS Dreadnought.[1] In the same year, Germany responded with its own battlecruiser, SMS Von der Tann.[2] Over the next decade, Britain and Germany built an additional twelve and six battlecruisers, respectively.[3] Other nations joined them: HMAS Australia entered service for the Royal Australian Navy in 1913,[4] Japan constructed four ships of the Kongō class from 1911 through 1915,[5] and in late 1912 Russia laid down the four Borodino-class battlecruisers, though they were never completed.[6] Two countries considered acquiring battlecruisers in this time, but chose not to: France looked at several battlecruiser design studies in 1913 and 1914,[7] and the United States ordered six Lexington-class battlecruisers in 1916 that were never built.[8]

    The British and German battlecruisers were used extensively during World War I between 1914 and 1918, including in the Battles of Heligoland Bight and Dogger Bank, and most famously in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916, where one German and three British battlecruisers were sunk.[9] The Japanese battlecruisers did not see action during the war, as the German naval presence in the Pacific was destroyed by the British in the early months of the war. Britain and Germany attempted to build additional battlecruisers during the war—the Admiral class for the former, and the Mackensen and Ersatz Yorck classes for the latter—but changing priorities in favor of smaller warships prevented their completion.[10] At the end of the war, the German High Seas Fleet was interned and subsequently scuttled in Scapa Flow.[11]

    Key

    The list of World War I-era battlecruiser classes includes all battlecruisers listed in chronological order by commission. Classes which did not enter service are listed by the date of cancellation or last work on the project.[N 1]

    Main guns The number and type of the main battery guns
    Armor The maximum thickness of the belt armor
    Displacement Ship displacement at full combat load
    Propulsion Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated
    Service The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate
    Laid down The date the keel began to be assembled
    Commissioned The date the ship was commissioned[N 2]


    List of battlecruisers of World War I
    Ship Operator Class Displacement (tonnes) First commissioned End of service Fate
    Australia  Royal Australian Navy Indefatigable 18,800 21 June 1913 12 December 1921 Scuttled 12 April 1924
    Borodino  Imperial Russian Navy Borodino 33,000 Launched 31 July 1915, sold for scrap 21 August 1923
    Courageous  Royal Navy Courageous 19,490 28 October 1916 17 September 1939 Converted to aircraft carrier 1924–1928, sunk by submarine 17 September 1939
    Derfflinger  Imperial German Navy Derfflinger 26,600 1 September 1914 10 May 1917 Scuttled 21 June 1919, refloated 1939, scrapped 1946–1948
    Ersatz Yorck Ersatz Yorck 33,500 Laid down July 1916, broken up 1918
    Fürst Bismarck Mackensen 31,000 Laid down 3 November 1915, broken up 1922
    Furious  Royal Navy Courageous 19,826 26 June 1917 15 September 1944 Converted to aircraft carrier 1921–1925, paid off April 1945, broken up 1948–1954
    Glorious 19,490 14 October 1916 8 June 1940 Converted to aircraft carrier 1924–1930, sunk 8 June 1940
    Graf Spee  Imperial German Navy Mackensen 31,000 Launched 15 September 1917, stricken 17 November 1919, sold for scrap 28 October 1921
    Haruna  Imperial Japanese Navy Kongō 27,384 19 April 1915 28 July 1945 Sunk 28 July 1945, refloated and scrapped 1946
    Hiei 27,384 4 August 1914 13 November 1942 Sunk 13 November 1942
    Hindenburg  Imperial German Navy Derfflinger 26,947 10 May 1917 21 June 1919 Scuttled 21 June 1919, refloated 23 July 1930, scrapped 1930–1932
    Ibuki  Imperial Japanese Navy Ibuki 14,871 1 November 1909 20 September 1923 Sold for scrap 20 September 1923
    Ikoma Tsukuba 13,970 24 March 1908 20 September 1923 Stricken 20 September 1923 and scrapped
    Indefatigable  Royal Navy Indefatigable 18,800 24 February 1911 31 May 1916 Sunk 31 May 1916
    Indomitable Invincible 17,530 25 June 1908 31 March 1920 Sold for scrap 1 December 1921
    Inflexible 17,530 20 October 1908 31 March 1920 Sold for scrap 1 December 1921
    Invincible 17,530 20 March 1909 31 May 1916 Sunk 31 May 1916
    Izmail  Imperial Russian Navy Borodino 33,000 Launched 22 June 1915, broken up 1931
    Kinburn 33,000 Launched 30 October 1915, sold for scrap 21 August 1923
    Kirishima  Imperial Japanese Navy Kongō 27,384 19 April 1915 15 November 1942 Sunk 15 November 1942
    Kongō 27,384 16 August 1913 21 November 1944 Sunk by submarine 21 November 1944
    Kurama Ibuki 14,871 28 February 1911 20 September 1923 Sold for scrap 20 September 1923
    Lion  Royal Navy Lion 26,690 4 June 1912 30 May 1922 Sold for scrap 31 January 1924
    Lützow  Imperial German Navy Derfflinger 26,600 8 August 1915 1 June 1916 Scuttled 1 June 1916
    Mackensen Mackensen 31,000 Launched 21 April 1917, stricken 17 November 1919, broken up 1922
    Moltke Moltke 22,979 30 August 1911 21 June 1919 Scuttled 21 June 1919, refloated 1927, scrapped 1929
    Navarin  Imperial Russian Navy Borodino 33,000 Launched 9 November 1916, sold for scrap 21 August 1923
    New Zealand  Royal Navy Indefatigable 18,800 19 November 1912 19 December 1922 Sold for scrap 22 January 1923
    Princess Royal Lion 26,690 14 November 1912 19 December 1922 Sold for scrap 22 January 1923
    Prinz Eitel Friedrich  Imperial German Navy Mackensen 31,000 Laid down 1 May 1915, launched 13 March 1920, broken up 1921
    Queen Mary  Royal Navy 27,200 4 September 1913 31 May 1916 Sunk 31 May 1916
    Renown Renown 32,740 20 September 1916 21 January 1948 Scrapped, 3 August 1948
    Repulse 32,740 18 August 1916 10 December 1941 Sunk during the Naval Battle of Malaya, 10 December 1941
    Seydlitz  Imperial German Navy 24,988 22 May 1913 21 June 1919 Scuttled 21 June 1919, refloated 2 November 1928, scrapped 1930
    Tiger  Royal Navy 29,000 3 October 1914 15 May 1931 Sold for scrap February 1932
    Tsukuba  Imperial Japanese Navy Tsukuba 13,970 14 January 1907 14 January 1917 Sunk by magazine explosion 14 January 1917
    Von der Tann  Imperial German Navy 19,370 1 September 1910 21 June 1919 Scuttled 21 June 1919, refloated 7 December 1930, scrapped 1931
    Yavuz Sultan Selim  Ottoman Navy Moltke 23,100 2 July 1912 14 November 1954 Scrapped, 7 June 1973

    See also

    References

    1. ^ Roberts, pp. 19–25
    2. ^ Herwig, p. 60
    3. ^ Gardiner & Gray, pp. 24–41, 151–155
    4. ^ "HMAS Australia (I)". Ship histories. Royal Australian Navy. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
    5. ^ Cite error: The named reference jackson-00-48 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    6. ^ McLaughlin 2003, pp. 332–337
    7. ^ Gardiner & Gray, p. 200
    8. ^ Cite error: The named reference gg9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    9. ^ Staff, pp. 8–37
    10. ^ Gardiner & Gray, pp. 41, 155–156
    11. ^ Herwig, p. 256
    12. ^ Koop & Schmolke, p. 4
    13. ^ Gardiner & Chesneau, p. 259
    14. ^ Bidlingmaier, pp. 73–74
    1. ^ The German Scharnhorst-class battleships and Deutschland-class cruisers and the French Dunkerque-class battleships are all sometimes referred to as battlecruisers. Since neither their operators nor a significant number of naval historians did/do not classify them as such, they are not included in this list.[12][13][14]
    2. ^ The table for Russia gives the date of launching rather than commissioning, since none of its battlecruisers were commissioned. Similarly, the United States' table gives dates of launch and commissioning for those ships that did enter service.

    Bibliography

    • Burr, Lawrence (2006). British Battlecruisers 1914–18. New Vanguard No. 126. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84603-008-0.
    • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
    • Gray, Randal (1985). Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Naval Institute Press. p. 439. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
    • Gibbons, Tony (1983). The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers - A Technical Directory of all the World's Capital Ships from 1860 to the Present Day. London, UK: Salamander Books Ltd. p. 272. ISBN 0-517-37810-8.
    • Ireland, Bernard; Grove, Eric (1997). Jane's War At Sea 1897–1997. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers. p. 256. ISBN 0-00-472065-2.
    • Moore, John (Foreword) (1990). Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. London, UK: Random House Ltd. p. 320. ISBN 1-85170-378-0.
    • "NavSource Naval History".
    • Roberts, John (1997). Battlecruisers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-068-1.
    • Sondhaus, Lawrence (2001). Naval Warfare, 1815–1914. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21478-0.
    • Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2007). "Allied Warships". Uboat.net.
    • "Battleships-Cruisers.co.uk". Cranston Fine Arts. 2001–2007.
    • Lambert, Nicholas A. (January 1998). "'Our Bloody Ships' or 'Our Bloody System'? Jutland and the Loss of the Battle Cruisers, 1916". Journal of Military History. 62 (1). Society for Military History: 29–55. doi:10.2307/120394. ISSN 0899-3718. JSTOR 120394.
    Credit: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battlecruisers_of_World_War_I

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