List of sunken battlecruisers

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The battlecruisers listed are grouped according to how they came to be sunk. In each category, they are listed in chronological order by date sunk.

Contents 1 Sunk in combat 1.1 HMS Invincible 1.2 HMS Indefatigable 1.3 HMS Queen Mary 1.4 SMS Lützow 1.5 HMS Repulse 1.6 HMS Hood 1.7 Scharnhorst 1.8 Other Ships 2 Scuttled in deep water 2.1 HMAS Australia 3 Scuttled and later salvaged 3.1 SMS Von der Tann 3.2 SMS Moltke 3.3 SMS Seydlitz 3.4 SMS Derfflinger 3.5 SMS Hindenburg 3.6 Gneisenau 4 See also 5 External links 6 Notes 7 References

[edit] Sunk in combat

The following ships were destroyed in battle. These ships are considered war graves.

[edit] HMS Invincible

Destroyed by a salvo from the battlecruiser SMS Lützow at the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916.

• Navy:  Royal Navy
• Casualties: Six survivors out of 1,021 crewmembers.
• Location: North Sea
• Status: Official war grave site.
• Condition: The Invincible lies in two pieces in 180 feet of water.

[edit] HMS Indefatigable

Destroyed by a salvo from the battlecruiser SMS Von der Tann at the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916.

• Navy:  Royal Navy
• Casualties: Two survivors out of 1,017 crewmembers.
• Location: North Sea
• Status: Official war grave site.
• Condition: The Indefatigable was extensively scavenged and salvaged prior to being declared a protected war grave. Only large pieces of metal remain on the sea floor.
• Relics: One of the ship's life savers that survived the sinking is on display at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.

[edit] HMS Queen Mary

Destroyed by a salvo from the battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz at the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916.

• Navy:  Royal Navy
• Casualties: Nine survivors out of 1,266 crew members
• Location: North Sea
• Status: Official war grave site.
• Condition: The Queen Mary lies upside down in 200 feet of water.

[edit] SMS Lützow

Heavily battered by the British battleships and battlecruisers at the Battle of Jutland, Lützow was returning home when she finally succumbed to severe flooding and had to be scuttled by her crew on June 1, 1916.

• Navy:  Kaiserliche Marine
• Location: North Sea
• Status: Official war grave site.
• Condition: The Lützow is relatively intact, upside down, in 160 feet of water.

[edit] HMS Repulse

Destroyed by Japanese aerial torpedoes on December 10, 1941, while deployed in defense of Singapore.

• Navy:  Royal Navy
• Casualties: 327 lost and 1,285 survivors
• Location: Near Kuantan in Malaysia
• Status: Official war grave site.
• Condition: On her side in 180 feet of water.

[edit] HMS Hood

Designed and laid down as a battlecruiser, she did undergo some redesign following the Battle of Jutland while still under construction. Though popularly referred to as a battleship, she remained classified as a battlecruiser by the Royal Navy, and is still generally recognized to be one of the last battlecruisers. Destroyed by gunfire on May 24, 1941, while attacking the German warships Bismarck and Prinz Eugen during the Battle of the Denmark Strait.

• Navy:  Royal Navy
• Casualties: 3 survivors out of 1,418 crew members
• Location: Denmark Strait, North Atlantic Ocean
• Status: Official war grave site.
• Condition: In pieces in 10,000 feet of water.
• Relics: Two of the Hood's 5.5-inch (140 mm) guns, removed earlier during a refit, were installed on Ascension Island where the battery still exists today in a largely intact condition. A single gun mounting survives on the Faroe Islands.

[edit] Scharnhorst

Though classified by the Germans as a battleship, some argue the Scharnhorst and her sister ship represent the ultimate example of the German theory of battlecruiser design. On a platform with high-speed machinery and battleship-class armor, the Germans installed guns that were smaller than contemporary battleships. However, this was not due to a desire to reduce weight to increase speed, it was due to the Versailles Treaty, which limited German production of 15" guns to one per year.

Destroyed by gunfire and torpedoes from an Allied task force off the coast of Norway on December 26, 1943 during the Battle of North Cape.

• Navy:  Kriegsmarine
• Casualties: Only 36 survivors out of 1,968 men
• Location: Arctic Ocean, approximately 66 miles off the North Cape of Norway.
• Status: Official war grave site.
• Condition: The Scharnhorst lies upside down in 900 feet of water.

[edit] Other Ships

Four Japanese ships of the Kongo class were designed and built as battlecruisers, and were all destroyed in battle during the Second World War. These ships were heavily rebuilt during the inter-war years, and it is generally agreed that these ships were upgraded to fast battleships. These ships were the Kongō, the Hiei, the Kirishima, and the Haruna.

Two American ships of the Lexington class were designed and laid down as battlecruisers, but were completed as aircraft carriers. The Lexington was destroyed by aerial torpedoes and aerial bombs during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Two Japanese ships of the Amagi class were designed and laid down as battlecruisers, with the Akagi completed as an aircraft carrier. (The Amagi was destroyed in an earthquake.) The Akagi was destroyed during the Battle of Midway.

Three British ships of the Glorious class were designed and built as battlecruisers, and later converted into aircraft carriers. Glorious was sunk by the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau while evacuating British soldiers from Norway. Courageous was sunk by a U-boat in 1939, while on convoy escort. The third ship, Furious, survived the war, and was scrapped in 1948.

[edit] Scuttled in deep water

The following ships were intentionally sunk while not engaged in battle.

[edit] HMAS Australia

Scuttled at sea in accordance with the dis-armament terms of the Washington Naval Treaty on April 12, 1924.

• Navy:  Royal Australian Navy
• Location: Pacific Ocean, approximately 24 miles from Sydney Harbor.
• Relics: A number of relics were saved and are distributed around Australia. The admiral's table is displayed at Parliament House in Canberra.

[edit] Scuttled and later salvaged

The following ships were sunk, but were later salvaged and scrapped.

[edit] SMS Von der Tann

Interned at the end of World War I at Scapa Flow, and scuttled there by her crew on June 21 1919. Later raised and scrapped.

• Navy:  Kaiserliche Marine

[edit] SMS Moltke

Interned at the end of World War I at Scapa Flow, and scuttled there by her crew on June 21 1919. Later raised and scrapped.

• Navy:  Kaiserliche Marine

[edit] SMS Seydlitz

Interned at the end of World War I at Scapa Flow, and scuttled there by her crew on June 21 1919. Later raised and scrapped.

• Navy:  Kaiserliche Marine

[edit] SMS Derfflinger

Interned at the end of World War I at Scapa Flow, and scuttled there by her crew on June 21 1919. Later raised and scrapped.

• Navy:  Kaiserliche Marine

[edit] SMS Hindenburg

Interned at the end of World War I at Scapa Flow, and scuttled there by her crew on June 21 1919. Later raised and scrapped.

• Navy:  Kaiserliche Marine

[edit] Gneisenau

The target of frequent and massive Allied bombing raids, Gneisenau was eventually decommissioned and scuttled as a blockship in Gotenhafen. Later raised and scrapped.

• Navy:  Kriegsmarine
• Relics: One main turret was converted to a coastal artillery placement in Ørland, Norway, where it still exists as a museum. Parts of the guns from another main turret are on display in the Netherlands. Two twin 15 cm turrets from her secondary armament still exist in Denmark near Rødvig.

[edit] See also

List of sunken battleships

[edit] External links

• All the worlds battlecruisers
• Maritimequest Battleships & Battlecruisers of the 20th century
• British and German Battlecruisers of the First World War
• Navsource Online
• Capital Ship Dive Sites

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Baldwin, Hanson World War I: An Outline History (Harper and Row, New York, 1962)
• Bonney, George The Battle of Jutland 1916 Sutton Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-0750941785
• Breyer, Siegfried Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970 (Doubleday and Company; Garden City, New York, 1973) (originally published in German as Schlachtschiffe und Schlachtkreuzer 1905-1970, J.F. Lehmanns, Verlag, Munchen, 1970).
• Brooks, John, Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland, The Question of Fire Control,Routledge, Abingdon, 2005.
• Burr, Lawrence British Battlecruisers 1914- 1918 (New Vanguard) Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1846030086
• Gardiner, Robert, ed. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 (Conway Maritime Press, London, 1979)
• Hough, Richard Dreadnought: A History of the Modern Battleship MacMillan Publishing Company, 1975. ISBN 978-0025544208
• Ireland, Bernard, and Tony Gibbons Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century New York: HarperCollins, 1996. ISBN 0-00-470997-7 Also covers battlecruisers
• Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I (Jane's Publishing, London, 1919)
• Lambert, Nicholas. "Sir John Fisher's Naval Revolution" (Studies in Maritime History). New Edition. (University of South Carolina Press, 2002). ISBN 978-1570034923. An important account; use with Sumida, below.
• Massie, Robert K, Dreadnought, Jonathan Cape, London, 2003.
• Massie, Robert K, Castles Of Steel Jonathan Cape, London, 1992.
• Miller, David. The Illustrated Directory of Warships: from 1860 to the Present Day. London: Salamander, 2001 ISBN 0-86288-677-5
• Roberts, John Battlecruisers, Chatham Publishing, London, 1997.
• Staff, Gary German Battlecruisers 1914-18 (New Vanguard) Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 978-1846030093
• Sumida, Jon T. "In Defense of Naval Supremacy: Financial Limitation, Technological Innovation and British Naval Policy, 1889-1914." (Routledge, 1993). The standard account.
• Tarrant, V. E. Battlecruiser Invincible: The History of the First Battlecruiser, 1909-1916 (Arms and Armour Press, London, 1986) ISBN 0-87021-147-1
• Van Der Vat, Dan The ship that changed the world: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914 Adler & Adler, 1986. ASIN B000JN9QC6