Admiral Jackie Fisher’s battle cruisers.

Way back when, well before the First World War, Royal Navy admiral Fisher wanted vessels to find the enemy battle fleet at sea.  Battle fleets (maybe a dozen battle ships) had a screen of cruisers to shield them from enemy observation in this age before aircraft.  Since the fleet screen was cruisers, Fisher could not use destroyers for searching; the cruiser screen could easily sink any destroyers that caught up with them.  If he used cruisers, all that would happen is a bunch to ship-to-ship duels between his cruisers and the enemy cruisers and he would not find the enemy battle fleet. 

  So Fisher asked for a ship strong enough to break thru the cruiser screen and fast enough to catch the enemy battle fleet.  The result was a big as a battleship, carried the guns of a battleship, and the turbine engines that were just coming into service. In fact the battle cruisers had everything a battleship had except armor plate.  Their commanders thought they were commanding battleships.

   Come World War 1.  The British had built four of Fisher’s battle cruisers.  They were grouped into a squadron under command of the flamboyant Admiral Beatty.  Beatty wasn’t very bright, he wasn’t an experienced old sea dog; he was a member of parliament.  But, as luck would have it, Beatty encountered the German battle fleet at sea, getting ready for the battle of Jutland.  Beatty failed to get a radio message off giving German position, course, and speed, he failed to order his squadron to turn and run for it.  Instead Beatty ordered his squadron of four battle cruisers to engage the Germans.  With in a few minutes the German battleships sank three out of Beatty’s four battle cruisers, “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.” Beatty remarked at the time. 

   Meantime the British Grand Fleet, under experienced old sea dog Admiral Jellicoe had put to sea.  Jellicoe knew the North Sea, the tides, the winds, the shoal waters, and the amount to daylight.  Using his knowledge of the sea Jellicoe figured where the Germans were going to go.  He got it right, so right that he was able to cross the German’s Tee, a battle winning maneuver in those days.  One firing pass by the British inflicted so much damage on the Germans that they used a fancy new turning maneuver and left the area.  Jellicoe maneuvered himself and about an hour later managed to cross the German’s Tee a second time, inflicting a lot more damage. 

   Next morning, the British fleet was back at Scapa Flow and reported to London that it was ready for action again.  The German fleet was so shot up that it was not ready to sail again for months.  Both sides claimed victory, but by rights the British won this one.