HMS Invincible Battlecruiser [1907]
HMS Invincible was an amazing creation of the British naval genius. She became the first battlecruiser in the world and the ancestor of a new class of warships. His appearance had a tremendous impact on the naval doctrines of other countries of the world, including the strategy and tactics of using cruisers. The Invincible certainly became just as mucha landmark among the cruisers as the Dreadnought among the battleships.
But it is very difficult to understand how all this was possible for the ship so unsuccessful in every respect. “Invincible” and sisterships “Inflexible” and “Indomiteble” are subject to numerous and, in general, fair criticism: their defense is considered ridiculous, the location of the main guns is not optimal, and the speed, although very high, was still insufficient for battle cruiser of the First World War. This begs the natural question: how did a country that until recently was the technical leader of the era, the "mistress of the seas" and possessed the world's most powerful fleet, manage to create such a failed ship?
In 1903, Great Britain began the construction of two series of large armored cruisers, the Duke of Edinburgh (12,595 tons) and the Warrior (13,240 tons). The ships were very fast, developing 22.5-23 knots and had very powerful weapons from six 234-mm guns placed in single-gun turrets, installed in such a way as to have 4 barrels in the side salvo and 3 when firing in the bow and stern. At the same time, ships of the Duke of Edinburgh type also had 10 152 mm guns in low-lying casemates, and the Warriors had four 190 mm guns in single-gun towers.
In life, it turned out that British ships suffer from a number of unobvious vices. But on paper, the British received excellent cruisers, trade defenders. They could catch up with almost any armored or armored raider, except that the liners converted into auxiliary cruisers had a chance to leave them in fresh weather. At the same time, their 234 mm guns were significantly more powerful than the 194 mm - 210 mm guns of the French, German, Russian and American cruisers. The level of protection was comparable, but, naturally, possessing the strongest artillery, the British had an advantage over any armored cruiser in the world. After the development and approval of the new and in every respect revolutionary Dreadnought project, the British thought about an armored cruiser that could correspond to the latest battleship. In order to ensure the best qualities of the latest British ships, a special committee was created in England on December 22, 1904.
Lord Fisher was appointed at the British Admiralty in 1905-10. Formally, he himself did not decide anything, since he was just an advisory body in the management of military shipbuilding. But practically there the characteristics of British ships were determined, because it was chaired by John Arbuthnot Fisher himself, who had just taken the post of the First Sea Lord, and the head of the military shipbuilding department was only one of the members of this committee. In addition to him, the committee included the most qualified British artillery and mine specialists, leading shipbuilding engineers, industry representatives and, interestingly, the head of naval intelligence. In general, Fisher tried to bring together all the best specialists in this committee.
Lord Fisher suggested to abandon armour, using only big guns and large horsepower for high speed and with such a fleet he promised to be victorious. The French Admiral Guepratte has said that speed is an invisible armour.
As has long been known, the most correct way to create a ship includes determining the range of tasks that it will have to perform and determining the technical characteristics that will provide a solution to the intended tasks. This process is called the development of technical specifications, but in the future, the outline design of the ship begins. Unfortunately, in the case of Invincible, this process was turned upside down.
The first problem of the future battlecruiser was the lack of intelligible tasks for the solution of which this ship was created. Members of the committee saw this and, obviously, tried to improve the situation, considering the projects submitted by him for compliance with the functionality of armored cruisers. Such an approach is logical, and it could be considered correct ... if the British had any idea what they needed ships of this class for.
When designing the world's first battlecruiser, the British immediately made two key mistakes:
- Firstly, they simply did not understand that they were creating a ship of a new class and, accordingly, did not formulate tasks for it. In fact, the British were engaged in designing another armored cruiser and evaluated various versions of the Invincible projects from the perspective of the tasks posed to the Royal Navy armored cruisers.
- Secondly, the tasks for armored cruisers were set incorrectly, because they assumed the use of cruisers designed to fight on communications, not only for their intended purpose, but also as squadrons. In other words, the British completely unreasonably posed universal tasks for specialized ships.
Until 1916 the British public and naval establishment found little fault with the battle cruiser. The victories at Heligoland and the Falklands appeared to justify the type, and few criticisms were heard. It was the Battle of Jutland that first brought the charge that the battle cruiser was poorly designed, vulnerable in combat, and a poor investment.
Despite the excellent example of effective battle cruiser action which they had observed at the Falklands, the British still envisioned the battle cruiser as an integral part of the battle fleet rather than a special purpose vessel. Their battle orders indicated no reluctance to use battle cruisers against enemy dreadnoughts.
Designed to overtake and destroy any enemy cruiser that might threaten Britain's trade routes, she served well at the Battle of the Falklands in 1914 and saw most of her service as a fast scout and screen for the Grand Fleet. Her fatal flaw was revealed at the Battle of Jutland when German fire penetrated her thin deck armor and exploded the magazine that ran cross-ship, serving both port and starboard gun turrets. She blew in half and sank in 30 seconds, taking with her Rear Admiral Horace Hood. On that same day, the keel was being laid for HMS Hood, named for the Admiral's forebearers.
What is generally recognized as the greatest naval battle in history, though not the most decisive, was fought on the North sea May 31, 1916, between the Grand Fleet of the British and German High Seas Fleet. The British call it the battle of Jutland because the main area of the conflict was some fifty miles west of Jutland, Denmark. The Germans call it the battle of the Skager-Rak because it was fought near the southern entrance to the arm of the North sea lying between Norway and Denmark. Both sides claimed the victory, but whichever side won it Was a costly triumph in ships and men. Most commentators are agreed in calling it an indecisive fight, for both fleets were ready in a few weeks to renew the struggle.
In late May of 1916 Scheer made a sortie with the High Seas Fleet, hoping to draw the Grand Fleet out of its base at Scapa Flow, where there were submarines waiting, or to catch a single squadron alone. Unknown to him the Grand Fleet was already at sea, and its battle cruisers and fast superdreadnoughts were separated from the rest of the fleet by a distance of 69 miles. Contact was made between the British and German battle cruisers, and the firing began at 15,000 yards.
The third battle cruiser squadron under Rear-Admiral Hood swung into line in advance of the first battle cruiser squadron, but a few minutes later the Invincible went down and the Admiral was killed. The Invincible was struck by long-range plunging fire and exploded, apparently having received a hit in the magazine. Only six of the crew survived. The otber British battle squadrons then came up and continued the battle until darkness put an end to the contest.
The partisan of speed observes that Admiral Beatty deserved his glory pushing his battlecruiser squadrons between the coast and the German fleet and occupying it until Jellicoe's battleship squadrons could arrive. Admiral Beatty had such possibility, thanks to the high speed of his fast cruisers. To obtain his brilliant object he sacrificed two obsolete cruisers (Defense and Black Prince) and three modern battlecruisers, Queen Mary, Indefatigable, and Invincible. These three battlecruisers blew up and sank in a few minutes; three ships of the Furious class could perhaps reach earlier the battlefield, but they could not be sunk more suddenly. The advocates of speed say that fast ships must be armed with superguns and that they must be used only at a long range.
The basic problem was the employment of a weapons system in a mission for which it was not designed. The battle cruiser was not designed to fight it out with ships that were more heavily armored than itself. It was designed to overhaul its opponents and outrange them, thus staying clear of enemy fire. In this type of action it would have no need of armor protection. It was a tactical error, therefore, to expose a battle cruiser to the fire of a heavily armored vessel, and as the German battle cruisers had sacrified radius of action for additional armor protection, it was a mistake to match them with ships of the Invincible or Queen Mary class.
The Invincible class had only one mission, and that mission had been effectively illustrated at the Falkland Islands. Their proper deployment was not opposite the High Seas Fleet, but in the cruising squadrons which protected the British shipping lanes. The German “battle-cruisers” were, in fact, fast dreadnoughts of limited range, and the only type of vessel the British had which could counter them were the superdreadnoughts of the Queen Elizabeth class. It was these ships that should have met Hipper, not Beatty's Invincibles. These arguments were not appreciated at the time, however. It was concluded that the battle cruiser needed more armor, and additional deck armor was added to the Repulse and Renown, still under construction. As a result these two ships were reduced in speed, making them less capable of catching commerce raiders and yet still incapable of fighting in the line.
The officers of the battle cruiser fleet, chagrined at the unfavorable publicity their ships were receiving, felt that they had been used as the bait for a trap which had not been sprung due to Jellicoe's timidity. The results of Jutland doomed, in the minds of the Admiralty, Fisher's designs for the Courageous, Glorious, and Furious. The admiralty judged that these ships, almost totally unprotected, would be even more likely to suffer the fate of the Invincible.
That was quite true, provided anyone was so stupid as to commit them to the line of battle. As corsair hunters, however, they possessed all the virtues of the Invincible class, plus 5 knots additional speed and bigger guns. Despite these increments they weighed and cost no more, due to an almost total lack of armor. If the spotting problem could have been solved, they could have given excellent service in British shipping lanes against armored cruisers, light cruisers, and converted merchant vessels.
