Originally posted by KwangTiger
I think ppl should be informed if they don't know already that Battlecruisers were total shit ; they were supposed to be powerful reconnisance and ended up being to slow for reconnisance and too weak for the dreadnaughts.
In 1914 they were thought of as important.
And for mopping up colonial problems they probably were, or would have been. Think of the Battle of the Falkland Islands where Invincible and Inflexible did in Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
And their weaknesses were not appreciated really until after the war. Indeed, even in Jutland the main problem was that there was an unbroken line of cordite in the UK ships from the turrets to the magazine.
iirc there was in the Germans as well until after Dogger Bank, when they discovered the problem after a similar explosion failed to sink a German ship (but came jolly close). In Jutland therefore the German Battlecruisers performed a great deal better than their British counterparts (they didn't keep on blowing up, for example). They also helped to provide a screen for the High Seas Fleet to escape.
The Battlecruier does get alot of unfair criticism. If the post-war Naval treaties had never occurred I am sure some sort of Battlecruiser would still be in existence, as a sort of Colonial fast-response unit.
