Invincible-class battlecruiser
torpedo nets were removed
| |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Invincible-class battlecruiser |
Operators | Royal Navy |
Preceded by | None |
Succeeded by | Indefatigable class |
Cost | £1.7 m |
Built | 1906–1909 |
In service | 1908–1921 |
Completed | 3 |
Lost | 1 |
Scrapped | 2 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Battlecruiser |
Displacement | |
Length | 567 ft (172.8 m) ( o/a ) |
Beam | 78 ft 6 in (23.9 m) |
Draught | 30 ft (9.1 m) (deep load) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 4 shafts; 2 direct-drive steam turbine sets |
Speed | 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) |
Range | 3,090 nmi (5,720 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 784 |
Armament |
|
Armour |
|
The three Invincible-class battlecruisers were built for the
This design philosophy would prove to be most successful when the Invincibles were able to use their speed to run down smaller and weaker ships. The classic example was during World War I at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, where Invincible and Inflexible sank the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau; despite numerous hits by the German ships, Inflexible and Invincible incurred very few casualties among their crews. They were least successful when standing in the main line of battle, where they faced enemy capital ships. An example is the loss of Invincible to a magazine explosion during the Battle of Jutland about eighteen months after her success in the Falklands, although this explosion owed more to flaws in British ammunition-handling practices – that exposed numerous cordite charges to a fire in one of her gun turrets – than any flaws in the design of the ship.[2]
After the loss of Invincible, the two surviving ships had an uneventful time for the rest of the war conducting patrols of the North Sea, as the High Seas Fleet was forbidden to risk any more losses. They were put into reserve in early 1919 and sold for scrap in 1921.
Design
After Admiral Fisher was appointed
General characteristics
The Invincible-class ships were formally known as armoured cruisers until 1911, when they were redesignated as battlecruisers by an Admiralty order of 24 November. Unofficially a number of designations were used until then, including cruiser-battleship, dreadnought cruiser and battle-cruiser.[4]
The Invincibles were significantly larger than their armoured cruiser predecessors of the
Propulsion
Early in the design process the "Committee on Designs" had thought to power these ships with the traditional reciprocating vertical triple-expansion steam engines, but were persuaded to adopt Parsons steam turbines as they required fewer boilers for the same amount of power, were easier to protect from damage as they were more compact than reciprocating engines and could be kept below the waterline. In addition they were significantly lighter and more reliable than the older design. The direct-drive turbines then in use did have one significant drawback in that they ran at a relatively high speed which required small-diameter, fine-pitch propellers of a large blade area which adversely affected manoeuvrability at low speeds. Parsons alleviated this problem by his suggestion of fitting more powerful astern turbines on all four shafts, which could increase manoeuvrability by reversing the turbines as needed.[6]
An additional solution was to fit twin balanced rudders behind each inner shaft, in contrast to the single central rudder used on earlier ships. This greatly increased the effectiveness of the rudder and substantially decreased the turning circle of the Invincibles in comparison to earlier ships of their size.[7]
The Invincibles had two paired sets of Parsons turbines housed in separate engine-rooms. Each set consisted of a high-pressure ahead and astern turbine driving an outboard shaft, and a low-pressure ahead and astern turbine driving an inner shaft. A cruising turbine was also coupled to each inner shaft, although these were not used often and were eventually disconnected. Each shaft drove a propeller 11 feet (3.4 m) in diameter. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 41,000
The steam plant consisted of 31 Yarrow (Invincible and Inflexible) or Babcock & Wilcox (Indomitable) large-tube boilers, arranged in four boiler rooms.[10] Maximum bunkerage was approximately 3,000 long tons (3,050 t) of coal, with an additional 725 long tons (737 t) of fuel oil to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate.[11] At full fuel capacity, the ships could steam for 3,090 nautical miles (5,720 km; 3,560 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[12]
Armament
Each carried eight
The guns could initially be depressed to −3° and elevated to 13.5°, although the turrets were modified to allow 16° of elevation during
The ships'
The originally intended 12-pounder guns were exchanged for sixteen
The guns on their PI* mounts had a maximum depression of 10° and a maximum elevation of 20°. They fired 25-pound (11 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,300–2,370 ft/s (700–720 m/s); at 20°, this provided a maximum range of 9,600 yd (8,800 m) using
These guns were replaced by twelve
The QF Mk III guns were replaced by twelve
Earlier anti-aircraft guns included a 3-pounder Hotchkiss gun on a high-angle Mk Ic mounting with a maximum elevation of 60°. Both Invincible and Indomitable carried theirs from November 1914 to August 1917.[15] It fired 3.3-pound (1.5 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 1,873 ft/s (571 m/s) at a rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute. This provided a maximum range of 7,600 yd (6,900 m) at 45°, but the maximum effective anti-aircraft range was only 1,200 yd (1,100 m).[20]
Each of the Invincibles was also fitted with a single QF 3-inch 20 cwt AA gun on a high-angle MKII mount at the aft end of the superstructure.[15] This had a maximum depression of 10° and a maximum elevation of 90°. It fired a 12.5-pound (5.7 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,500 ft/s (760 m/s) at a rate of fire of 12–14 rounds per minute. They had a maximum effective ceiling of 23,500 ft (7,200 m).[21]
Gardiner and Gray quote an additional seven
Fire control
The spotting tops at the head of the fore and main masts controlled the fire of the Invincibles' main guns. Data from a 9-foot (2.7 m)
Fire control technology advanced quickly during the years immediately preceding World War I and the development of the Dreyer Fire Control Table was one such advance. It combined the functions of the Dumaresq and the range clock and a simplified version, the Mk I, was fitted to the Invincibles during refits in 1915–16. The more important development was the director firing system. This consisted of a fire control director mounted high in the ship which electrically provided gun data to the turrets via pointers, which the turret crewmen only had to follow. The director officer fired the guns simultaneously, which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimised the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells. Invincible was the first battlecruiser to receive this system during her refit from April to August 1914, but its installation was interrupted by the outbreak of the war and it was not fully working until after the Battle of the Falkland Islands in November. Indomitable and Inflexible didn't receive their systems until May 1916, immediately before the Battle of Jutland.[23]
Protection
The armour protection given to the Invincibles the waterline
Aircraft
By 1918 the two surviving Invincibles carried a Sopwith Pup and a Sopwith 1½ Strutter on flying-off ramps fitted on top of 'P' and 'Q' turrets.[12] Each platform had a canvas hangar to protect the aircraft during inclement weather.[25]
Ships
The three Invincibles were ordered at the same time as Dreadnought as part of the 1905–06 Naval Programme. The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the members of the Invincible class. Whilst standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores, for some reason the cost quoted in
Ship | Builder | Laid down
|
Launched | Commissioned | Cost according to | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BNA 1914
(estimated cost, including guns)[26] |
Parkes[27] | |||||
Invincible | Elswick
|
2 April 1906 | 13 April 1907 | 20 March 1909[28] | £1,768,995 | £1,635,739 armament £90,000 |
Inflexible | John Brown & Co., Clydebank
|
5 February 1906 | 26 June 1907 | 20 October 1908 | £1,728,229 | £1,677,515 armament £90,000 |
Indomitable | Fairfield, Govan | 1 March 1906 | 16 March 1907 | 25 June 1908 | £1,761,080 | £1,662,337 armament £90,000 |
Service history
All three ships entered service from the second half of 1908. Initially, Invincible and Inflexible were assigned to the
In 1914, Invincible was refitting in England, while Inflexible and Indomitable, together with the newer
upon the outbreak of war.World War I
Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau
Indomitable, accompanied by Indefatigable, under the command of
The Germans sortied from Messina on 6 August and headed east, towards
On 3 November 1914, Churchill ordered the first British attack on the Dardanelles following the opening of hostilities between Turkey and Russia. The attack was carried out by Indomitable and Indefatigable, as well as the French pre-dreadnought battleships Suffren and Vérité. The intention of the attack was to test the fortifications and measure the Turkish response. The results were deceptively encouraging. In a twenty-minute bombardment, a single shell struck the magazine of the fort at Sedd el Bahr at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, displacing (but not destroying) 10 guns and killing 86 Turkish soldiers. The most significant consequence was that the attention of the Turks was drawn to strengthening their defences, and they set about expanding the mine field.[33] This attack actually took place before a formal declaration of war had been made by Britain against the Ottoman Empire which happened on 6 November. Indomitable was ordered to return to England in December where she joined the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS).[34]
Battle of Heligoland Bight
Invincible's first action was as part of the battlecruiser force under the command of
Battle of the Falklands
The West Indies Squadron of
Spee, making a leisurely voyage back to the Atlantic, decided to destroy the radio station at Port Stanley and sent the armoured cruiser SMS Gneisenau and the light cruiser Nürnberg on the morning of 8 December to see if the harbour was clear of British warships. They were spotted at 07:30 although the pre-dreadnought Canopus, grounded in Stanley Harbour to defend the town and its wireless station, did not receive the signal until 07:45. It mattered little because Sturdee was not expecting an engagement and most of his ships were coaling. Furthermore, the armoured cruiser Cornwall and the light cruiser Bristol had one or both of their engines under repair. The armed merchant cruiser Macedonian was patrolling the outer harbour entrance while the armoured cruiser Kent was anchored in the outer harbour, scheduled to relieve the Macedonian at 08:00. The Germans were not expecting any resistance and the first salvo from Canopus's guns at 09:20 caused them to sheer off from their planned bombardment of the wireless station and fall back on Spee's main body.[38]
Sturdee's ships did not sortie from the harbour until 9:50, but they could see the retreating German ships on the southwest horizon. The Invincibles, fresh out of dry dock, had a 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) advantage over Spee's ships which all had
Spee turned to the south in the hope of disengaging while the British had their vision obscured, but only opened the range to 17,000 yards (16,000 m) before the British saw his course change. This was futile as the British battlecruisers gave chase at 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). Forty minutes later the British opened fire again at 15,000 yards (14,000 m). Eight minutes later Spee turned again to the east to give battle. This time his strategy was to close the range on the British ships so he could bring his 15 cm (5.9 in) secondary armament into play. In this he was successful and the 15 cm guns were able to open fire at 15:00 at maximum elevation. On this course the smoke bothered both sides, but multiple hits were made regardless. Those made by the Germans either failed to detonate or hit in some insignificant area. On the contrary Gneisenau had her starboard engine room put out of action. Sturdee ordered his ships at 15:15 back across their own wakes to gain the windward advantage. Spee turned to the northwest, as if to attempt to cross the British T, but actually to bring Scharnhorst's undamaged starboard guns to bear as most of those on his port side were out of action. The British continued to hit Scharnhorst and Gneisenau regularly during this time and Scharnhorst ceased fire at 4:00 before capsizing at 16:17 with no survivors. Gneisenau had been slowed by earlier damage and was battered for another hour and a half by Inflexible and Invincible at ranges down to 4,000 yards (3,700 m). Despite the damage her crew continued to fire back until she ceased firing at 16:47. Sturdee was ready to order 'Cease fire' at 17:15 when an ammunition hoist was freed up and she made her last shot. The British continued to pound her until 17:50, after her captain had given the order to scuttle her at 17:40. She slowly capsized at 18:00 and the British were able to rescue 176 men.[41] Invincible and Inflexible fired 513 and 661 twelve-inch shells respectively during the battle,[32] but Inflexible had been hit only three times and Invincible had been hit twenty-two times. Two of her bow compartments were flooded and one hit on her waterline abreast 'P' turret had flooded a coal bunker and temporarily given her a 15° list. Only one man was killed and five wounded aboard the battlecruisers during the battle.[42]
Battle of Dogger Bank
On 23 January 1915, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Franz von Hipper sortied to clear the Dogger Bank of any British fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements. But the British were reading their coded messages and sailed to intercept them with a larger force of British battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Beatty, which included Indomitable. Contact was initiated at 07:20 on the 24th when the British light cruiser Arethusa spotted the German light cruiser SMS Kolberg. By 07:35 the Germans had spotted Beatty's force and Hipper ordered a turn to the south at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), believing that this would suffice if the ships that he saw to his northwest were British battleships and that he could always increase speed to Blücher's maximum speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) if they were British battlecruisers.[43]
Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to make all practicable speed to catch the Germans before they could escape. Indomitable managed to exceed 26 knots and Beatty recognised her performance with a signal at 08:55 "Well done, Indomitable"[44] Despite this achievement Indomitable was the slowest of Beatty's ships and gradually fell behind the newer and faster battlecruisers. By 10:48 Blücher had been heavily damaged by fire from all the other battlecruisers and her speed had dropped to 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) and her steering gear had been jammed; Beatty ordered Indomitable to attack her. But due to a combination of a mistake by Beatty's flag lieutenant in signalling, and heavy damage to Beatty's flagship Lion which had knocked out her radio and caused enough smoke to obscure her signal halyards so that Beatty couldn't communicate with his ships, the rest of the battlecruisers turned away from Hipper's main body and engaged Blücher.[45] Indomitable fired 134 shells at Blücher before she capsized and sank at 12:07.[32] After the end of the battle Indomitable was ordered to tow Lion back to port as one of her engines had been knocked out, the other was failing and she'd been holed a number of times beneath the waterline. It took over a day and a half at speeds of 7–10 knots (13–19 km/h; 8.1–11.5 mph).[46]
Dardanelles Campaign
After the Battle of the Falklands Invincible and Inflexible were repaired and refitted at
Towards the end of the year, the British battlecruiser force was organised into three
Battle of Jutland
At the end of May 1916, the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron was temporarily assigned to the Grand Fleet for gunnery practice. On 30 May, the entire Grand Fleet, along with Admiral Beatty's battlecruisers, had been ordered to sea to prepare for an excursion by the German High Seas Fleet. To support Beatty, Rear Admiral Hood took his three battlecruisers ahead of the Grand Fleet. At about 14:30 Invincible intercepted a radio message from the British light cruiser Galatea, attached to Beatty's Battlecruiser Force, reporting the sighting of two enemy cruisers. This was amplified by other reports of seven enemy ships steering north. Hood interpreted this as an attempt to escape through the Skagerrak and ordered an increase in speed to 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) at 15:11 and steered East-Southeast to cut off the fleeing ships. Twenty minutes later Invincible intercepted a message from Beatty reporting five enemy battlecruisers in sight and later signals reporting that he was engaging the enemy on a south-easterly course. At 16:06 Hood ordered full speed and a course of south-southeast in an attempt to converge on Beatty. At 16:56, with no British ships in sight, Hood requested Beatty's course, position and speed, but never received a reply.[49]
Hood continued on course until 17:40 when gunfire was spotted in the direction to which his light cruiser Chester had been dispatched to investigate other gunfire flashes. Chester encountered four light cruisers of Hipper's 2nd Scouting Group and was badly damaged before Hood turned to investigate and was able to drive the German cruisers away from Chester. At 17:53 Invincible opened fire on Wiesbaden and the other two Invincibles followed two minutes later. The German ships turned for the south after fruitlessly firing torpedoes at 18:00 and attempted to find shelter in the mist. As they turned Invincible hit Wiesbaden in the engine room and knocked out her engines while Inflexible hit Pillau once. The 2nd Scouting Group was escorted by the light cruiser Regensburg and 31 destroyers of the 2nd and 9th Flotillas and the 12th Half-Flotilla which attacked the 3rd BCS in succession. They were driven off by Hood's remaining light cruiser Canterbury and the five destroyers of his escort. In a confused action the Germans only launched 12 torpedoes and disabled the destroyer Shark with gunfire. Having turned due west to close on Beatty's ships, the Invincibles were broadside to the oncoming torpedoes, but Invincible turned north, while Inflexible and Indomitable turned south to present their narrowest profile to the torpedoes. All the torpedoes missed although one passed underneath Inflexible without detonating. As Invincible turned north, her helm jammed and she had to come to a stop to fix the problem, but this was quickly done and the squadron reformed heading west.[50]
At 18:21, with both Beatty and the Grand Fleet converging on him, Hood turned south to lead Beatty's battlecruisers. Hipper's battlecruisers were 9,000 yards (8,200 m) away and the Invincibles almost immediately opened fire on Hipper's flagship Lützow and Derfflinger. Indomitable hit Derfflinger three times and Seydlitz once,[51] while the Lützow quickly took 10 hits from Lion, Inflexible and Invincible, including two hits below the waterline forward by Invincible that would ultimately doom her.[52] But at 18:30 Invincible abruptly appeared as a clear target before Lützow and Derfflinger. The two German ships then fired three salvoes each at Invincible, and sank her in 90 seconds. A 305 mm (12-inch) shell from the third salvo struck Invincible's midships 'Q' turret, flash detonated the magazines below, and the ship blew up and broke in half, killing all but 6 of her crew of 1,032 officers and men, including Hood.[53]
Inflexible and Indomitable remained in company with Beatty for the rest of the battle. They encountered Hipper's battlecruisers only 10,000 yards (9,100 m) away as the sun was setting about 20:19 and opened fire. Seydlitz was hit five times before the battlecruisers were rescued by the pre-dreadnought battleships of Rear Admiral Mauve and the British shifted fire to the new threat. Three of the predreadnoughts were hit before they too were able to turn into the gloom.[54]
Post-Jutland career
The loss of three battlecruisers at Jutland (the others were
After the end of the war, Chile began seeking additional ships for its navy. In April 1920, Chile bought Canada and four destroyers, all of which had been ordered by Chile prior to the war's outbreak and requisitioned by the British for the war.[55] Further planned expansion included Inflexible and Indomitable, but when the secret negotiations to acquire them were leaked to the press, a major uproar erupted in Chile. The most visible dissension came from a bloc of officers in the navy, who publicly opposed any possible purchase and instead promoted a "New Navy" which would acquire submarines and aircraft. They argued that these weapons would cost less and give the country, and its lengthy coastline, better protection from external threats. The ships were not bought for reasons of cost, but neither were the aircraft its supporters had been hoping for.[56] Both were sold for scrap on 1 December 1921.[34]
Notes
References
- ^ Osborne, p. 206
- ^ Brown, pp. 165–167
- ^ Roberts, pp. 18–20, 22–24
- ^ Roberts, pp. 24–25
- ^ Roberts, pp. 43–44
- ^ Roberts, pp. 68–69
- ^ Roberts, pp. 69–70
- ^ Roberts, pp. 76, 80
- ^ Roberts, p. 75
- ^ Roberts, pp. 70–75
- ^ Roberts, p. 76
- ^ a b c Preston, p. 24
- ^ Roberts, pp. 81–84
- ^ "Britain 12"/45 (30.5 cm) Mark X". 30 January 2009. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Roberts, p. 83
- ^ Roberts, pp. 96–97
- ^ "British 4"/40 (10.2 cm) QF Marks I, II and III". 10 January 2009. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
- ^ "Britain 4"/45 (10.2 cm) BL Marks IX and X". 28 February 2009. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
- ^ "BL 4-inch naval gun Mk VII". Retrieved 15 October 2009.
- ^ "British Hotchkiss 3-pdr (1.4 kg) [1.85"/40 (47 mm)] QF Marks I and II". 27 February 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
- ^ "British 12-pdr [3"/45 (76.2 cm)] 20cwt QF HA Marks I, II, III and IV". 27 February 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
- ^ Roberts, pp. 90–91
- ^ Roberts, pp. 92–93
- ^ Roberts, pp. 109, 112
- ^ Roberts, p. 92
- ^ Brassey's Naval Annual 1914, pp. 192–199
- ^ Parkes, p. 492–496
- ^ Roberts, Preston and Brassey's say 1909, though Parkes says 1908.
- ^ Captain Reginald Tupper, quoted in Roberts, p. 85
- ^ Massie, p. 39
- ^ Massie, pp. 45–46
- ^ a b c Preston, p. 25
- ^ Carlyon p. 47
- ^ a b c d e Roberts, p. 122
- ^ a b Massie, pp. 109–113
- ^ Tarrant, p. 33
- ^ Massie, pp. 248–251
- ^ Massie, pp. 254–261
- ^ Massie, pp. 261–266
- ^ Tarrant, p. 61
- ^ Massie, pp. 261–273
- ^ Massie, p. 280
- ^ Massie, pp. 376–384
- ^ Massie, p. 385
- ^ Massie, pp. 385–406
- ^ Massie, p. 410–412
- ^ Burt, pp. 56–57
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 95–96
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 98–99
- ^ Tarrant, pp. 103–105
- ^ Campbell, pp. 185–187
- ^ Campbell, p. 183
- ^ Campbell, p. 159
- ^ Campbell, pp. 252–254, 272
- ^ Livermore, p. 48
- ^ Somervell, pp. 393–394
Bibliography
- ISBN 1-55750-315-X.
- Burt, R. A. (1986). British Battleships of World War One. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-863-8.
- Campbell, John (1986). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-324-5.
- ISBN 0-385-60475-0.
- Livermore, Seward W. (1944). "Battleship Diplomacy in South America: 1905–1925". The Journal of Modern History. 16 (1): 31–44. S2CID 145007468.
- The Naval Annual 1914.
- Johnston, Ian & Buxton, Ian (2013). The Battleship Builders - Constructing and Arming British Capital Ships. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-027-6.
- ISBN 0-679-45671-6.
- Osborne, Eric W. (2004). Cruisers and Battle Cruisers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-369-9.
- ISBN 1-55750-075-4.
- ISBN 0-85177-245-5.
- Somervell, Philip (1984). "Naval Affairs in Chilean Politics, 1910–1932". Journal of Latin American Studies. 16 (2): 381–402. S2CID 145293853.
- Roberts, John (1997). Battlecruisers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-068-1.
- Tarrant, V. E. (1986). Battlecruiser Invincible: The History of the First Battlecruiser, 1909–16. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-147-1.
External links
- Dreadnought Project Technical material on the weaponry and fire control for the ships
- World War 1 Naval Combat