Invincible class (battle cruiser)
| Invincible class | |
|---|---|
_British_Battleship.jpg) |
|
| Overview | |
| Type: | Battle cruiser |
| Units: | 3 |
| Predecessor class: | no |
| Successor class: | Indefatigable class |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | empty: 17,420 tons |
| Length: | over everything: 172.8 m |
| Width: | 23.9 m |
| Draft: | max: 9.1 m |
| Speed: | 25 kn |
| Range: | 3090 nautical miles at 10 knots |
| Drive: | 4 screws over 4 shafts |
The Invincible class was a class of three warships in the Royal Navy that combined the principles of the armored cruiser and the battleship into a new type of ship, the battlecruiser . The class were used in World War I and laid the foundation for many new buildings.
planning
British naval analysts working with Admiral Jackie Fisher had already started before 1905 to see the speed of ships as the decisive component of a naval war. They combined the concept of the fast armored cruiser, such as the Minotaur class, with the concept of heavy, uniform armament, which had already been provided for in the slower battleships with the construction of the Dreadnought in 1905 .
The new ships should be designed for the armed reconnaissance of a fleet and thereby outperform the weaker armored cruisers of future opponents, or they should be able to carry out classic cruiser operations on their own. However, in order to achieve a higher speed of 25 knots on a ship that was also supposed to carry the weapons of a battleship without new technologies, the weight of the armor had to be reduced and the hull had to be lengthened in order to be able to install a larger number of boilers.
The concept ultimately ended the era of armored cruisers when, in the naval battle off the Falkland Islands in December 1914, two Invincible- class battlecruisers overtook the German armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with their superior speed and shot them together from a safe distance without putting themselves in the danger zone to have to give up their weaker armament.
Armament
Main artillery
The Invincible class carried four main gun turrets, each weighing around 500 tons, each with two 30.5 cm L / 45 naval cannons (English BL 12 inch Mk X naval gun). The guns could fire an armor-piercing grenade weighing 386 kg at targets up to 22 kilometers away. The rate of fire was up to 1 to 2 rounds per minute. The three front towers were installed at the same height, one on the forecastle and two wing towers amidships. The single tower on the stern was one deck below.
Middle artillery
The Invincible-class middle artillery was housed in the two deck superstructures of the ships. Six of sixteen 10.2-cm guns were installed below the bridge, the other ten were in the rear structure, four of them in casemates, the other six were set up open. The BL 4 inch naval gun Mk VII (10.2 cm L / 50) could fire a 14 kg high explosive grenade about 10 kilometers away.
Furthermore, the ships were armed with only seven machine guns.
Torpedoes
As was common at that time, these battlecruisers were also equipped with torpedo tubes that were built into the hull, two on port and two on starboard. Another at the stern. The tubes could fire 18 inch (45-cm) torpedoes from openings below the waterline. 23 torpedoes could be carried on board.
Armor protection
The Invincible class was provided on the sides with belt armor made of armor steel 102 mm thick, which was reinforced in the particularly endangered areas of the ships to 152 mm thick. At its thickest point, it extended about a meter below the waterline and about 2.5 meters above it. The barbeds under the turrets were armored down to the armored deck with 178 mm, the turrets of the main artillery themselves were armored on the front and sides with 178 mm and on the top with about 70 mm.
In order to save weight, as was later common with all battle cruisers, the horizontal armor protection was neglected. Priority was given to protection against short-range shells that were fired from a distance of less than 9,000 meters. Projectiles from heavy artillery, which, coming from great distances, hit at a steep angle from above, were ignored. The armored deck was designed to be weaker than that of a battleship and only 38 mm thick.
The best protected position was the armored battle bridge, 254 mm thick at the front and 178 mm at the rear.
machinery
The Invincible class was powered by 31 coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers for generating steam. The steam then drove four Parsons steam turbines , which transmitted their power to four propellers via four shafts . The machines were designed for around 41,000 shaft horsepower , which should be sufficient for up to 25 knots. In tests in 1908, HMS Invincible even reached 26.64 knots for a short time.
Invincible-class ships
Invincible
The HMS Invincible was laid down on April 2, 1906 and launched in April 1907. After the start of the war in 1914, she was used in the sea battle near Helgoland before she was deployed to hunt the German East Asia Squadron, which had withdrawn from Tsingtau . In the naval battle off the Falkland Islands in December 1914, she was involved in the sinking of the two armored cruisers Graf Spees . She returned to England after stops in February 1915 and then took part in the Battle of the Skagerrak in May 1916 as Horace Hood's flagship . There she was the target of the battle cruisers SMS Lützow and SMS Derfflinger, which she hit several times, which led to an explosion of the Invincible's ammunition stores in the area of the wing towers in the middle of the ship and destroyed the ship. 1026 sailors were killed.
Inflexible
The HMS Inflexible was laid down on February 5, 1906 and launched in June 1907. During the war in 1914 she was initially the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy and was involved in the hunt for the SMS Goeben . She then fought with her sister ship HMS Invincible in the Battle of the Falkland Islands. She first returned to the Mediterranean to support the naval operation during the Battle of Gallipoli until the spring of 1916. In the Battle of the Skagerrak, she damaged the battle cruiser SMS Lützow . After the war, the Inflexible was taken out of service and sold for scrapping in 1921.
Indomitable
The HMS Indomitable was laid down on March 1, 1906 and launched on March 16, 1907. During the war she took part in the hunt for the SMS Goeben with the Mediterranean Fleet in 1914 and fought in January 1915 in a battle on the Dogger Bank against von Hippers battle cruiser . It was used in the Battle of the Skagerrak and then only used for security purposes. Like her sister ship, she was sold for scrapping in 1921.
literature
- RA Burt: British Battleships of World War One , Seaforth Publishing, 1986, ISBN 978-1-84832-147-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b R.A. Burt: British Battleships of World War One , p. 42 and following
- ↑ "12" / 45 (30.5 cm) Mark X " on navweaps.com
- ↑ a b c d e f R.A. Burt: British Battleships of World War One , pp. 48 and 49
- ↑ "4/50 (10.2 cm) BL Mark VII" from February 14, 2014 on navweaps.com
- ^ RA Burt: British Battleships of World War One , p. 55