History of the Invincible Class

Lord Fisher was First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910, and had as great an influence on the Royal Navy in those six years as any man in history. He returned as First Sea Lord in 1914, so his name will feature prominently in these pages.
Driven by a desire for reform, boundless energy, and a forceful personality, Fisher recreated the Royal Navy in his own image. Dockyards were reorganized, the manning of the fleet was overhauled, and the fleet redistributed to face the growing threat from Germany. Under his leadership, the Royal Navy switched from coal to oil, and from steam expansion engines to turbines. The strength needed to face the Germans was built up, and the development of the submarine was encouraged. As a former gunnery officer, Fisher revolutionized battleship design with the first all-big-gun ship, the HMS Dreadnought.
Fisher was a firm believer in two things, the first being that speed was as good a form of protection as armor. His second belief was in the overwhelming power of large-caliber naval guns, and he firmly held that a single, devastating hit would decide most capital ship engagements. These two premises led to the development of the battlecruiser, and to the rapid increase in gun sizes with each generation of ships. Envisioned as a sort of "super armored cruiser", the type was designed to scout for the battlefleet without fear from enemy cruisers, yet was fast enough to escape an enemy battleship. They were to be capable of running down any existing cruiser and destroying it, thus protecting British supply lines to her overseas empire.
A new type of armored cruiser, protected against 8" shells and carrying 9.2" guns, would have been sufficient. But Fisher insisted that the vessels carry battleship caliber weapons, which resulted in vessels far too large to be used as cruisers. If superior speed were to remain a design requirement, then protection would be sacrificed. The resulting ship, the HMS Invincible, was the most controversial of her day.
The 1905 Estimates included funds for 4 armored ships, three of which were listed as armored cruisers. No details were given, so it was assumed that they would be the usual type armed with 9.2" guns. It is generally accepted that the German Blucher was designed with 12 x 8.2" guns under this assumption, which was propagated through the press.
The Invincible Class carried some noteworthy design features. They were the first large cruisers to steam at 25 knots, they had the highest horsepower of any vessels yet built, and they had the highest freeboard of any existing warships. Restricted in tonnage, the designers used a diagonal layout for the center turrets, offsetting them by 30-degrees to provide some hope of cross-deck firing without increasing hull length. Protection was on the same scale as the Minotaur Class armored cruisers, though naval publications like Jane's tended to overstate the amount of armor carried.
These vessels were excellent in their design role as cruiser killers, as illustrated by their easy victory over the German cruiser squadron at the Battle of the Falklands. However, as soon as Germany built vessels of equal speed, also carrying large-caliber weapons, the type became obsolete: they were no longer able to outrun a vessel capable of destroying them. Admirals were unable to resist the urge to use them as fast battleships, or worst yet, place them in the battle line. This decision led to disaster, as three thinly-protected battlecruisers blew up under fire at the Battle of Jutland. Their better-armored German counterparts survived, as did the better-armored British battleships. There is evidence to suggest that at least one of the three was lost due to poor cordite handling practices and a lack of flash-tight barriers between the hit turret and the powder room, but the simple fact is that the German heavy guns could penetrate the armor of the British battlecruisers. These handsome but fragile vessels were not able to face ships with equal firepower.
Invincible was destroyed at Jutland, and her two sisters went into reserve soon after the war. They were offered for sale to Chile as a replacement for the incomplete battleship Almirante Cochrane, which had been purchased on the stocks by the UK and converted into the carrier HMS Eagle, but that nation declined. The two ships were discarded in 1922.

HMS Invincible:

1913 Meditarranean service
17 Mar 1913 Collided with British submarine C34
Flagship First Battlecruiser Squadron at outbreak of war
28 Aug 1914 Battle of Heligoland Blight, no damage
Sep 1914 Flagship Second Battlecruiser Squadron
11 Nov Sailed for South America
8 Dec 1914 Battle of the Falkland Islands, hit twice below waterline, one leg of tripod mast shot away, 1 killed
March 1915 Rejoined Grand Fleet
31 May 1916 Blew up 6:34 PM under fire from German battlecruiser Derfflinger and battleship Konig
1,026 killed, 5 survivors

HMS Inflexible:

1914 Flagship Mediterranean Fleet
4-10 Aug 1914 hunt for Goeben
19 Aug 1914 Ordered to England
1-10 Oct 1914 Shetland Patrol to cover troop convoy
4 Nov 1914 Ordered to South America after Battle of Coronel
7 Dec 1914 Arrived Falkland Islands
8 Dec 1914 Battle of the Falklands, no damage, assisted in destroying German squadron
19 Dec ordered to Med
Dec - Jan 1915 Refit at Gibraltar
24 Jan 1915 Flagship Dardanelles Operation
18 Mar 1915 Attack on Narrows, struck twice by Turkish forts, 9 killed
18 Mar 1915 Struck mine, withdrew with 2000 tons of flooding
19 Jun 1915 Joined Grand Fleet following repairs at Gibraltar
31 may 1916 Battle of Jutland, no damage
Jan 1919 Paid off to reserve
31 Mar 1920 Laid up for disposal
Dec 1922 Sold and broken up

HMS Indomitable:

Aug 1914 hunt for Goeben
3 Nov 1914 Bombarded Sedd-el-Bahr
Dec 1914 Refit, joined Grand Fleet
26 Jan 1915 Battle of Dogger Bank, towed HMS Lion home
31 May 1916 Battle of Jutland, no damage
Jan 1919 Paid off, flagship of Nore Reserve Fleet
31 Mar 1920 Listed for disposal
7 Apr 1920 Listed for sale
Dec 1922 Sold and broken up