"Battlecruisers: The Glass-Jawed Warship that Failed" Topic

"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today," said Admiral Beatty as he watched his battlecruisers blow up one by one at the Battle of Jutland.

The words were classic British understatement, but 3,000 dead sailors were ample evidence that something was indeed wrong with the vessels that were neither battleships nor cruisers.

It wasn't supposed to work that way when Britain's Grand Fleet encountered Imperial Germany's High Seas Fleet off the Jutland peninsula of Denmark on May 31, 1916. Battlecruisers were meant to be a solution to a problem, not a problem themselves…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Too many errors to count in that one :) A very "popular" view of BCs but not a very accuaret one.

I agree, too many errors. Author bases his conclusions based only on the the battle of Jutland.

Battlecruisers when used as intended were more than capable of fulfilling the role they had been designed for, that of scouting in front of the fleet & taking on the scout cruisers of the enemy fleet. When used as inexpsensive battleships they of course failed

Once again commanders didn't understand what they had and used them poorly. New weapon systems have a long history of initial misuse, IE tanks, airplanes, rifled muskets etc.

I think the only time the BC concept (fast enough to outrun anything that could kill it, and well enough armed to kill anything it could catch) worked as intended was the US 44-gun frigates.

The battle of the Falkland Islands proved that they could work as intended. Absolutely devastated Von Spee's squadron.

Capable ships if not misused, but too expensive for their assigned task. Comparing them to a modern warship: stupid.

The big problem with Fisher's concept of the battlecruiser is what happens when the other side has battlecruisers and better battlecruisers.

PS: Keelhauled- Battlecruisers actually cost more than battleships.