Lion Class Battlecruiser

Lion Class Battlecruiser

The Lion class were a class of battlecruisers built for the British Royal Navy before World War I. Nicknamed the "Splendid Cats", the ships were a significant improvement over their predecessors of the Indefatigable class in terms of speed, armament and armour. The Lion-class battlecruisers were 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) faster, exchanged the 12-inch (305 mm) guns of the older ships for 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns, and had a waterline armour belt 9 inches (229 mm) thick versus the 6 inches (152 mm) of the Indefatigables. These improvements were in response to the German Moltke class, the first German battlecruisers, which were larger and more powerful than the first British battlecruisers of the Invincible class.

HMS Lion served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet's battlecruisers throughout World War I, except when she was being refitted or under repair. She sank the German light cruiser Cöln during the Battle of Heligoland Bight and served as Vice Admiral Beatty's flagship at the battles of Dogger Bank and Jutland. She was so badly damaged at the first of these battles that she had to be towed back to port by the battlecruiser Indomitable and was under repair for more than two months. During the Battle of Jutland, Lion suffered a serious propellant fire that could have destroyed the ship if not for the action of Royal Marine Major Francis Harvey, the turret commander, who posthumously received the Victoria Cross for ordering the magazine to be flooded. However, the fire destroyed Harvey's turret which had to be removed and rebuilt while the ship underwent repairs for several months.

Princess Royal participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight a month after the war began and then was sent south to the Caribbean to prevent the German East Asia Squadron from using the Panama Canal. After the East Asia Squadron was sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914 by the Invincible and Inflexible, Princess Royal rejoined the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (BCS). During the Battle of Dogger Bank she scored only a few hits, although one crippled the German armoured cruiser Blücher which allowed the enemy vessel to be caught and sunk by the concentrated fire of the British battlecruisers. Shortly afterwards, Princess Royal became the flagship of the 1st BCS, under the command of Rear Admiral Osmond Brock. She was then moderately damaged during the Battle of Jutland and required a month and a half of repairs afterwards.

Both ships spent the rest of the war on uneventful patrols in the North Sea, although they did provide distant cover during Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917. In 1920 they were both put into reserve and sold for scrap a few years later in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.