Belted armored cruiser
Belted armored cruiser was the name given to the early armored cruisers before the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which were provided for the first time with permanently attached side armor (belt armor), but did not yet have a partial or continuous armored deck . Some later versions, however, received a relatively light armored deck to at least partially compensate for the effect of projectiles hitting above . On the other hand, these were the first combat ships , the armored ammunition chambers , protective shields for the guns on deck and in the casematesand in some cases also had an armored command tower for the first time . The belted armored cruisers were, however, replaced by the full-fledged armored cruisers only a few years after their introduction and often given other uses before they finally disappeared during the First World War .
history
Emergence
This type of warship emerged from the armored cruisers as well as the armored deck cruisers , which appeared a little later as a further development, with a similar concept (but not the same) , when, due to the newly developed, fast-flying explosive projectiles , greater protection was necessary than one inside the engine rooms with the steam boilers and steam engines could offer obliquely and / or curved armor in cooperation with the side coal bunkers . Initially, the main focus was on the projectiles flying fast and in rather flat trajectories , which almost always hit the sides of the ship, which was particularly dangerous if hit below the waterline .
This created the first combat ships at all, which were provided with permanently attached side armor (belt armor) made of steel , which also reached a little below the waterline. In addition, these ships also had armored ammunition chambers for the first time, light shields for the guns on deck or casemates and / or towers and - in some cases as well as the fully-fledged armored cruisers that appeared later - an armored command tower . However, the belted armored cruisers did not yet have a partial or continuous armored deck , which is why they lacked full horizontal armor protection against projectiles striking obliquely from above or above, which was not a decisive factor at the time of their appearance. A few later ships of this type were later given a rather lightly dimensioned lower armored deck above the engine rooms or the upper area of the ammunition chambers in order to at least partially compensate for this fact. In contrast, "real" armored cruisers had, in addition to the permanently attached side armor, two armored decks of different thicknesses arranged one above the other (the lower one was usually thicker), which were usually connected to the side armor and thus provided much better protection for the ship.
First ships
The first belted armored cruiser is the Russian General-Admiral (Генерал-Адмирал) built as an armored frigate from 1873, which was followed by its sister ship Gerzog Edinburgskij (Герцог Эдинбургский) in 1875 as a direct forerunner of all armor from 152 to 127 mm for the first time Armored cruisers as well as the capital ships also equipped with heavy armored armor ( armored line ships , battle cruisers , battleships ) built much later . The General-Admiral as well as her sister ship were built as armored frigates for long-range use , as the term cruiser was only invented and used later, i.e. H. was still unknown when it was built. Their armament consisted of six guns of 20.3 cm caliber each in a casemate and a 15.0 cm gun with a protective shield on the bow and stern . However, these two ships did not yet have a horizontal armored deck.
The first armored cruiser equipped with a continuous armored deck and thus "full" armored cruiser appeared just two years later after the Russian General-Admiral with the British HMS Shannon in 1877.
features
The belt armored cruisers were initially a bit smaller than the later armored cruisers , but were more heavily armored than the small cruisers and the early light cruisers . They were also always superior to their predecessors, the protected cruisers and the similar (but not identical) armored deck cruisers in terms of combat value , not to mention the unprotected cruisers , which only had to rely on their side coal bunkers as protection. Some later belted armored cruisers received a rather lightly dimensioned lower armored deck, mostly connected to the side armor , to protect against projectiles striking from above or diagonally above, which improved their protection and thus also their combat value somewhat, but not compared to that of the further developed armored cruisers with two horizontal protective decks of different thicknesses connected to the side armor. Their displacement was between 5,000 t and a maximum of around 10,000 t, and in individual cases even more. However, the belted armored cruisers were almost always a little slower than the first armored cruisers and also had a somewhat shorter range due to their lower coal reserves.
On an operational basis, belted armored cruisers were in most cases on an equal footing with armored cruisers and, like these , were classified in the German Imperial Navy as first class cruisers and second class cruisers depending on their size and armament . Most of the other navies did not differentiate between belted armored cruisers and armored cruisers and also put them operationally on a par with armored cruisers, including the British Royal Navy (which they both referred to as "1st class cruiser") and the Imperial Russian Navy (Военно-морской флот Российской Российской влот Российской военно-морской флот Российской военно-морской флот Российской Российской военно-морской флот Российской военно-морской флот Российской военно-морской флот Российской военно. . Other naval forces such as the United States Navy , the Italian Regia Marina or the Imperial Japanese Navy (日本 海軍 - Nippon Kaigun), on the other hand, did not know this type of warship and instead went from the protected cruisers or armored deck cruisers (in the case of the Japanese Navy initially in Europe built) directly to the construction of the full-fledged armored cruiser .
commitment
The belt armored cruisers were always therefore a rarity and history rarely at sea battles involved since the battleship were very early preferred due to their significantly better protection against top-hitting bullets and their often greater speed. As a result, belted armored cruisers were incorporated into the armored cruisers , which represented their logical further development, long before the turn of the century , which is why the designation disappeared more or less at the same time. The rather few ships of this type that were built between the 1890s and the turn of the century were after a relatively short period of time replaced by the armored cruisers that were further developed in terms of armor and thus much better protected, whereupon they were only used by most of the navies in their last period of service from 1905 to were still used for secondary tasks.
The end
The last specimens still in use, mostly displaced from their traditional role long ago and given another use, were retired during the First World War and often canceled a short time later. Since in most cases they were operationally equivalent to armored cruisers, their technically correct designation belt armored cruiser fell out of use long before this time and is therefore hardly known today.
The last ship
Interestingly, the first belt armored cruiser in the world, the Russian General-Admiral, was also the last ship of this type that still existed in the end, albeit no longer in its actual operational role. After the end of its mission in 1909, she and her sister ship Gerzog Edimburgskij were converted into a mine- layer and renamed Narowa and later Oktiabrya . Her sister ship Gerzog Edimburgskij was renamed Onega and used as a training ship for a few years , but dismantled in 1915 and laid up in St. Petersburg as the Hulk . The former General-Admiral, however, continued to serve as a training ship for over two decades before it was retired in 1944 and only scrapped in 1953.