page_title: Invincible-class battlecruiser
section_title: Battle of the Falklands
hierarchical_section_title: Invincible-class battlecruiser / Service history / Battle of the Falklands
caption_attribution_description: HMS Invincible going into action at the battle of the Falkland Islands
context_page_description: The three Invincible-class battlecruisers were built for the Royal Navy and entered service in 1908 as the world's first battlecruisers. They were the brainchild of Admiral Sir John Fisher, the man who had sponsored the construction of the world's first "all-big-gun" warship, HMS Dreadnought. He visualised a new breed of warship, somewhere between the armoured cruiser and battleship; it would have the armament of the latter, but the high speed of the former. This combination would allow it to chase down most ships, while allowing it to run from more powerful designs.
  This design philosophy would prove to be most successful when the Invincibles were able to use their speed to run down smaller and weaker ships. The classic example was during World War I at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, where Invincible and Inflexible sank the German armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau; despite numerous hits by the German ships, Inflexible and Invincible incurred very few casualties among their crews. They were least successful when standing in the main line of battle, where they faced enemy capital ships.
context_section_description: The West Indies Squadron of Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock was destroyed by the German German East Asia Squadron commanded by Admiral Graf von Spee during the Battle of Coronel on 1 November 1914. In response, the Admiralty ordered that a squadron be sent to destroy the Germans. The squadron, under the command of Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee, consisted of Invincible (flag) and Inflexible. They departed on 11 November and rendezvoused with several other cruisers under Rear Admiral Stoddard at Abrolhos Rocks off the coast of Brazil on the 26th. The combined force departed the following day and reached Port Stanley on the morning of 7 December.
  Spee, making a leisurely voyage back to the Atlantic, decided to destroy the radio station at Port Stanley and sent the armoured cruiser SMS Gneisenau and the light cruiser Nürnberg on the morning of 8 December to see if the harbour was clear of British warships. They were spotted at 07:30 although the pre-dreadnought Canopus, grounded in Stanley Harbour to defend the town and its wireless station, did not receive the signal until 07:45. It mattered little because Sturdee was not expecting an engagement and most of his ships were coaling. Furthermore, the armoured cruiser Cornwall and the light cruiser Bristol had one or both of their engines under repair. The armed merchant cruiser Macedonian was patrolling the outer harbour entrance while the armoured cruiser Kent was anchored in the outer harbour, scheduled to relieve the Macedonian at 08:00. The Germans were not expecting any resistance and the first salvo from Canopus's guns at 09:20 caused them to sheer off from their planned bombardment of the wireless station and fall back on Spee's main body.
  Sturdee's ships did not sortie from the harbour until 9:50, but they could see the retreating German ships on the southwest horizon. The Invincibles, fresh out of dry dock, had a 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) advantage over Spee's ships which all had fouled bottoms that limited their speeds to 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) at best. The light cruiser SMS Leipzig was lagging behind the other ships and Inflexible opened fire on her when the range dropped to 17,500 yards (16.0 km) at 12:55. Invincible opened fire shortly afterwards and both ships began straddling Leipzig as the range closed to 13,000 yards (12,000 m). At 01:20 Spee ordered his squadron to separate and ordered his light cruisers to turn to the southwest while his armoured cruisers turned to the north east to cover their retreat. The German ships opened fire first at 13:30 and scored their first hit at 13:44 when SMS Scharnhorst hit Invincible, although the shell burst harmlessly on the belt armour. Both sides fired rapidly during the first half-hour of the engagement before Sturdee opened up the range a little to put his ships outside the effective range of the German guns. British gunnery was very poor during this period, scoring only four hits out of 210 rounds fired. The primary cause was the smoke from the guns and funnels as the British were downwind of the Germans, although one gun of Invincible's 'A' turret jammed at 13:42 and was out of action for thirty minutes.
  Spee turned to the south in the hope of disengaging while the British had their vision obscured, but only opened the range to 17,000 yards (16,000 m) before the British saw his course change. This was futile as the British battlecruisers gave chase at 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). Forty minutes later the British opened fire again at 15,000 yards (14,000 m). Eight minutes later Spee turned again to the east to give battle. This time his strategy was to close the range on the British ships so he could bring his 15 cm (5.9 in) secondary armament into play. In this he was successful and the 15 cm guns were able to open fire at 15:00 at maximum elevation. On this course the smoke bothered both sides, but multiple hits were made regardless. Those made by the Germans either failed to detonate or hit in some insignificant area. On the contrary Gneisenau had her starboard engine room put out of action. Sturdee ordered his 
caption: Invincible during the pursuit of the German cruiser squadron
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