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The battlecruiser was developed by the Royal Navy in the first years of the 20th century as an evolution of the armoured cruiser. [5] The first armoured cruisers had been built in the 1870s, as an attempt to give armour protection to ships fulfilling the typical cruiser roles of patrol, trade protection and power projection.
British experience during the Battle of the Falkland Islands in late 1914 and the Battle of Dogger Bank the following year, where British battlecruisers caught and destroyed German armored cruisers, confirmed all these capabilities. When Congress authorized a large naval building program in 1916, six Lexington-class battlecruisers were included.
British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleship and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-817-4. Roberts, John (1997). Battlecruisers. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-068-1. OCLC 38581302. Schom, Alan (2004).
British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleship and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-817-4. Roberts, John (1997). Battlecruisers. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-068-1. OCLC 38581302. Taylor, Bruce (2008).
The first battlecruisers were designed in the United Kingdom, in the first decade of the century, as a development of the armoured cruiser, at the same time as the dreadnought succeeded the pre-dreadnought battleship. The original aim of the battlecruiser was to hunt down slower, older armoured cruisers and destroy them with heavy gunfire.
The subsequent design of battlecruiser, the Admiral class, ended up incorporating much heavier armour but retained the proven 15-inch guns. Only one, HMS Hood, was completed, with the rest scrapped in 1919. The following class intended (but also never built), based on the G3 design, was a battlecruiser only in relation to the paired N3 battleship.
British Battleships of World War Two: The Development and Technical History of the Royal Navy's Battleship and Battlecruisers from 1911 to 1946. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-817-4. Roberts, John (1997). Battlecruisers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-068-1. Smith, Peter C. (2008) [1976].
The fleet initially contained the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battlecruiser Squadrons but this was reduced to the 1st and 2nd BC Squadrons in June 1916. It also included two light cruiser squadrons and two destroyer flotillas, in addition the new 5th Battle Squadron that included the new fast Queen Elizabeth-class battleships operated with the fleet.