The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but …

Key Points and Summary - Battlecruisers were a unique class of warship designed to combine the heavy guns of a battleship with the speed of a cruiser, a compromise achieved by sacrificing armor...

A British naval development, Battlecruisers were championed by Admiral Fisher of the British Navy as an attempt to mate the destructive firepower of the Dreadnought battleship with the speed of a cruiser.

Their job would be to defeat enemy cruisers, support destroyer attacks, and maintain sea trade lanes and lines of communications. The battlecruiser proved its value in the battle of the Falkland Islands …

Battlecruisers became obsolete in World War II as advances in design and technology allowed fast battleships to be developed, which combined or even exceeded the best features of World War I …

Jan 4, 2018 · Amid the changes, Navies on both sides built battlecruisers, a new type of ship which turned out to be fundamentally flawed. Created by British Admiral John Fisher, battlecruisers were a …

Sep 27, 2025 · These so-called battle cruisers achieved greater speed—about 25–30 knots—by limiting the thickness of their armour. At the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914, the …

Aug 4, 2016 · Battlecruisers in the United States and the United Kingdom, 1902-1922. This chronology details the development of battlecruisers in the United States and the United Kingdom from their …

In short, the battlecruiser was a battleship with a lighter armour (and better speed). The latter resulted less from a power increase, than from a more slender hull combined to a better power-to-weight ratio.

In any event, this essay is about the battlecruisers of World War II. And I am going to include other battlecruiser-style ships, sometimes called "super cruisers," "large cruisers" or "pocket battleships" in …