The battlecruiser, developed in the early years of the twentieth century, had a short and somewhat inglorious history. The first battlecruiser, HMS Invincible was laid down on 2 April 1906 and launched on 13 April 1907. As such, naval historians have fiercely contested the narrative around the development of the battlecruiser and, in particular, the role intended for the warship type, as we will see below. At issue are the ways in which it was intended that the battlecruiser should fit alongside wider Admiralty warfighting strategy; the extent to which the warship type was the brainchild of one man, Sir John ‘Jacky’ Fisher (First Sea Lord from 1904-1910 and again from 1914-1915); and competing readings of the available documentary evidence leading to some very stark differences of interpretation.

This review examines: the literature around the development of the battlecruiser concept and of the initial Invincible class, including the technical developments which pushed towards the genesis of the warship type; the contested discussion around the intended role of the battlecruiser, including the role of Fisher and the Admiralty more generally; the verdict on the effectiveness of the battlecruiser; and a summary of the key historiographical issues evidenced across the literature. We conclude with some remarks on the debates in the extant literature.