The role envisioned for the GB/CB/1905 battlecruisers and those like them

I am sure that when my friend Cliff conceived the GB/CB/1905 battlecruisers, he was influenced by knowing about the Glorious, Courageous, and Furious. We also knew about the later German "pocket battleships". Without that background, I suspect that we would not have designed ships that had only two turrets with heavy caliber guns. The first were the GB/CB/1905 ships. Having been involved in their design, I designed a smaller, less capable cruiser for the Germans, the Ger/CB/1905 that was built in parallel to the British ships. The British ships were definitely intended as fast scouts, able to run down lesser ships. They also could be used to "turn" an enemy battleline, and to hammer them, briefly.

Frank Fox didn't think much of these ships, as he would prefer thicker armor, more guns, and a slower speed. David K. Brown remarked that they could have used at least 6in side armor and the ability to fire at least four gun broadsides. I have thought that if you would accept a slower rate of fire, you could fire all four guns together. I suspect that is how the pre-dreadnoughts operated. I can't imagine that at the Battle of the Yellow Sea, at something like 14,000 yards, they were firing two gun broadsides. Who knows, but it seems unlikely at long range.

Frank Fox suggested that if these were "cruiser killers", they might have well had 9.2in guns instead of 12in guns. For the cruiser-killer role, that might be adequate, except against the largest ships.

I tend to be protective of these ships, as I had a hand in their development, back in 1971 and during refinement in 1973. They need to be placed in the context that they were conceived: a building program wargame that started from scratch in 1905 and continued to at least 1916, for planning purposes. An odd collection of ships were to be produced, in that they often followed Admiral Fisher's ideas closely. Fast battlecruisers for the large ships and nothing in between them and the large, fast destroyer-types. I particularly liked the "Super Swift" type considered for production in Britain in 1912. They ultimately went with the "Super Blonde" type, instead. That ultimately produced the modern light cruiser, so I guess that it was a good choice. The first ships in the series were the British Arethusa class, designed by Stanley Goodall, as a young, rising star.