Fleet cruiser
From the end of the 19th century, with the return to line tactics, small cruisers were designated as fleet cruisers, which were relatively heavily armored and yet reached a high speed. They were supposed to march with the battle fleets and protect them from enemy torpedo boats and destroyer attacks, as well as take over the reconnaissance in front of the fleets. Similar to the torpedo cruisers , these were armed with several guns up to a caliber of 12 cm, but the armament with torpedo tubes was almost always completely lacking in favor of stronger armor . Pure naval cruisers were built almost exclusively by Great Britain . The German Imperial Navy had to declare some types of small cruisers to be fleet cruisers due to financial problems . These were, however, inferior to the British naval cruisers in terms of speed and armament. It was not until 1916 that the development of actual naval cruisers began in the German Reich , but these were no longer realized. After the First World War , the fleet cruisers got bigger and bigger due to the increased requirements and this type of ship was eventually absorbed into the light cruisers .