HMS Invincible

[Kaiser Kirk]

I have a book on HMS Invincible, and the bit on the battle with Spee's squadron is interesting.

On the way to the Falklands, practice against towed targets was done at 12,000 yards.  his range was chosen in the belief that the German 8.2" could not penetrate the BC's  belt.
Invincible fired 32 times for 1 hit and a couple near misses.
Inflexible fired 32 times for 3 hits.
4/64 = 6% at target practice.
I have read elsewhere that this was the first time they had practiced at this range, 6,000 being the standard before AFAIK.

Since the British Admiral wanted to fight the action at extreme range for his ship's safety, he opened fire at a max range of 16,500 while the Germans could only range 13,500 with the 8.2" and 11,000 with their 5.9". 

The range rapidly dropped to 12,000 before the BCs tried to open it up again, but at times got down to under 10,000. Most of the battle seems to have been about 10-11,000 yards.
In the first 30 minutes, the two BCs fired 210 x 12" rounds, and it's believed there were 4 hits. That would be 2%.

It is important to remember that British shells at this time were defective. They broke up at high angles of obliquity- such as longer range shots, and burst quickly due to a very low delay when they did function, meaning deep interior hits were problematic.

They had severe problems due to their own funnel smoke, vibration effecting the stereoscopic rangefinders, and the German smoke cloaking the "over" splashes.
They were firing cross deck, which tore up deck, distorted members and severely affected "P" turret with muzzle blast, dazing the crew.
Later in the book it relates that the fore funnel was raised 15 feet to help with the smoke effecting the bridge, and directors fitted. So this may be the 1905 fire control by our system, but certainly not further than 1908 FC, there's not enough detail to tell for sure.     

Once Scharnhorst sank, it took another 1 hour, 45minutes for them to sink Gneisenau, and they were running out of ammunition.  By time she sank, Gneisenau, had reached the weather cell she had been running for.  Had it been 2 hours closer, she likely would have escaped.

Overall, the BCs fire 1,150 x 12" shells. The british cruisers added 85 x 7.5" and 60 x 6".
The British estimated 74 hits - 40 on S and 34 on G.   This may be an overestimate, as a rescued Midshipman from Gneisenau had been logging the hits and only noted 23, or 2/3s what was claimed.
This puts the hits between 74 rounds and 49 rounds, and the hit rate at 0.6% - 0.4%   Far worse than practice.

In return the Germans hit Invincible  22 times, 12x 8.2" and 6x 5.9" +4 ?.  It would seem the British idea of fighting at the edge or beyond the German range worked.
They flooded two bow compartments, and the port coal bunker*, giving her a 15degree list.
11 deck hits, 1 on aft conn, 2 unarmored hull, 4 belt, 1 below belt (the port coal bunker), one on A turret, one on the starboard anchorchain, and one on the starboard strut of the mainmast.
Inflexible took only 3 hits
* The port coal bunker hit was important. A dud 8.2" shell came under the belt and lodged against the lightly armored bulkhead separating the coal from the magazine for P & Q turrets.
Had that shell functioned, there is a very good chance Invincible would not have made it to Jutland.

So, a little Alt-history.
Say the coal bunker shell detonated, Invincible blew up.  Scharnhorst still succumbs to Inflexible but now Gneisenau has the time to make the rain squall and escapes.
Suddenly the battlecruiser looks a little shaky as a concept PRIOR to Jutland.  Would that change their employment ? More concentration on the heavy scout role and less on the capital ship engagements?


Fun tidbit :
Scharnhorst was ordered in 1904, laid down January of 1905, commissioned October of 1907. Blucher was laid down in February of 1907.
Invincible was a third larger in size, and laid down April of 1906 and commissioned March of 09.   Her new electric turrets were so bad that the ship was not battleworthy, and  in 1913 the electrics were torn out and hyrdaulics put in.

So they were equal in era, it's just Invincible Invincible was a third larger.   Interestingly, it's Blucher which really falls short as she's much closer in displacement to Invincible, with the same speed and similar armor, but far worse main battery.

[snip]

A most interesting what-if. I can't really see the overall strategic use being much different; ultimately they are battleship-sized ships with battleship-sized guns and would always end up getting used as such as long as they existed. Since the High Seas Fleet has them, the Royal Navy ships still need to counter them in some way because the whole of the Grand Fleet is too slow to catch Hipper's ships I can see it leading to more conservative tactical use (eg maybe Blutcher survives Dodger Bank because Beatty does not pursue as aggressively). On the ship side, I doubt we see Refit and Repair as Battlecruisers and the Admirals are probably more conventional Fast Battleships rather than a more well-protected Battlecruiser. Maybe the most interesting result is we see more of the Admirals at an advanced enough state to influence the Washington Naval Treaty more. No Nelsons or something Hood-like for the USN and IJN (assuming Nagao's stats remain secret) perhaps?