Editing Battlecruiser (section)

==World War II==
{{See also| List of battlecruisers of the Second World War}}
The Royal Navy deployed some of its battlecruisers during the [[Norwegian Campaign]] in April 1940. The {{ship|German battleship|Gneisenau||2}} and the {{ship|German battleship|Scharnhorst||2}} were engaged during the [[action off Lofoten]] by ''Renown'' in very bad weather and disengaged after ''Gneisenau'' was damaged. One of ''Renown''{{'}}s 15-inch shells passed through ''Gneisenau''{{'}}s [[List of British ordnance terms#DCT|director-control tower]] without exploding, severing electrical and communication cables as it went and destroyed the [[rangefinders]] for the forward 150&nbsp;mm (5.9&nbsp;in) turrets. Main-battery fire control had to be shifted aft due to the loss of electrical power. Another shell from ''Renown'' knocked out ''Gneisenau''{{'}}s aft turret.<ref>Garzke & Dulin, pp. 135–36</ref> The British ship was struck twice by German shells that failed to inflict any significant damage.<ref>Burt, p. 243</ref> She was the only pre-war battlecruiser to survive the war.<ref>Chesneau, pp. 9, 173</ref>

In the early years of the war various German ships had a measure of success hunting merchant ships in the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]]. Allied battlecruisers such as ''Renown'', ''Repulse'', and the fast battleships ''Dunkerque'' and {{ship|French battleship|Strasbourg||2}} were employed on operations to hunt down the commerce-raiding German ships. The one stand-up fight occurred when the battleship {{ship|German battleship|Bismarck||2}} and the [[heavy cruiser]] {{ship|German cruiser|Prinz Eugen||2}} [[sortie]]d into the North Atlantic to attack British shipping and were intercepted by ''Hood'' and the battleship {{HMS|Prince of Wales|53|2}} in May 1941 in the [[Battle of the Denmark Strait]]. ''Hood'' was destroyed when the ''Bismarck''{{'}}s 15-inch shells caused a magazine explosion. Only three men survived.<ref>Whitley 1998, p. 127</ref>

The first battlecruiser to see action in the Pacific War was ''Repulse'' when [[Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse|she was sunk]] by Japanese [[torpedo bomber]]s north of [[Singapore]] on 10 December 1941 whilst in company with ''Prince of Wales''. She was lightly damaged by a single {{convert|250|kg|adj=on}} bomb and near-missed by two others in the first Japanese attack. Her speed and agility enabled her to avoid the other attacks by level bombers and dodge 33 torpedoes. The last group of torpedo bombers attacked from multiple directions and ''Repulse'' was struck by five torpedoes. She quickly [[capsized]] with the loss of 27 officers and 486 crewmen; 42 officers and 754 enlisted men were rescued by the escorting destroyers.<ref>Shores, Cull & Izawa, pp. 116–21, 123</ref> The loss of ''Repulse'' and ''Prince of Wales'' conclusively proved the vulnerability of capital ships to aircraft without air cover of their own.<ref>Osborne, pp. 127–28</ref>

The Japanese ''Kongō''-class battlecruisers were extensively used as carrier escorts for most of their wartime career due to their high speed. Although classified as fast battleships by the Japanese, their World War I–era armament was weaker and their upgraded armour was still thin compared to contemporary battleships. On 13 November 1942, during the [[First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal]], ''Hiei'' stumbled across American cruisers and destroyers at [[point-blank range]]. The ship was badly damaged in the encounter and had to be towed by her [[sister ship]] ''Kirishima''. Both were spotted by American aircraft the following morning and ''Kirishima'' was forced to cast off her tow because of repeated aerial attacks. ''Hiei''{{'}}s captain ordered her crew to abandon ship after further damage and [[scuttled]] ''Hiei'' in the early evening of 14 November.<ref name=hiei>{{Cite web |url= http://www.combinedfleet.com/hiei2.htm |title=IJN Hiei: Tabular Record of Movement |last1=Hackett |first1=Bob |last2=Kingsepp |first2=Sander |last3=Ahlberg |first3=Lars |year=2010 |publisher=Combinedfleet.com |access-date=6 June 2013}}</ref> On the night of 14/15 November during the [[Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal]], ''Kirishima'' returned to [[Ironbottom Sound]], but encountered the American battleships {{USS|South Dakota|BB-57|2}} and {{USS|Washington|BB-56|2}}. While failing to detect ''Washington'', ''Kirishima'' engaged ''South Dakota'' with some effect. ''Washington'' opened fire a few minutes later at short range and badly damaged ''Kirishima'', knocking out her aft turrets, jamming her rudder, and hitting the ship below the waterline. The flooding proved to be uncontrollable and ''Kirishima'' capsized three and a half hours later.<ref name=kiri>{{Cite web |url=http://www.combinedfleet.com/Kirishima.htm |title=IJN Kirishima: Tabular Record of Movement |last1=Hackett |first1=Bob |last2=Kingsepp |first2=Sander |last3=Ahlberg|first3=Lars|year=2010|publisher=Combinedfleet.com|access-date=6 June 2013}}</ref>

Returning to Japan after the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]], ''Kongō'' was torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine {{USS|Sealion II|SS-315|2}} on 21 November 1944.<ref name=j5/> ''Haruna'' was moored at [[Kure, Hiroshima|Kure]], Japan when the [[Bombing of Kure (July 1945)|naval base was attacked]] by American carrier aircraft on 24 and 28 July 1945. The ship was only lightly damaged by a single bomb hit on 24 July, but was hit a dozen more times on 28 July and sank at her [[pier]]. She was refloated after the war and scrapped in early 1946.<ref name=har>{{Cite web |url= http://www.combinedfleet.com/haruna.htm|title=IJN Haruna: Tabular Record of Movement|last1=Hackett|first1=Bob|last2=Kingsepp|first2=Sander|last3=Ahlberg|first3=Lars|year=2012|publisher=Combinedfleet.com|access-date=6 June 2013}}</ref>

===Large cruisers or "cruiser killers"===
{{Further|Design 1047 battlecruiser|Alaska-class cruiser|Design B-65 cruiser}}
{{See also|List of cruisers of the United States Navy#Large cruisers (CB)}}
[[File:USS Alaska (CB-1) off the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 30 July 1944.jpg|thumb|{{USS|Alaska|CB-1|6}}, one of the [[United States Navy]]'s two "large cruisers"]]

A late renaissance in popularity of ships between battleships and cruisers in size occurred on the eve of World War II. Described by some as battlecruisers, but never classified as capital ships, they were variously described as "super cruisers", "large cruisers" or even "unrestricted cruisers". The Dutch, American, and Japanese navies all planned these new classes specifically to counter the heavy cruisers, or their counterparts, being built by their naval rivals.<ref>Chesneau, p. 388; Garzke & Dulin, p. 86; Friedman 1984, p. 288; McLaughlin 2006, p. 104</ref>

The first such battlecruisers were the Dutch [[Design 1047 battlecruiser|Design 1047]], designed to protect their colonies in the [[Dutch East Indies|East Indies]] in the face of Japanese aggression. Never officially assigned names, these ships were designed with German and Italian assistance. While they broadly resembled the German ''Scharnhorst'' class and had the same main battery, they would have been more lightly armoured and only protected against eight-inch gunfire. Although the design was mostly completed, work on the vessels never commenced as the Germans overran the Netherlands in May 1940. The first ship would have been laid down in June of that year.<ref>Noot, pp. 243, 249, 268</ref>

The only class of these late battlecruisers actually built were the United States Navy's {{sclass|Alaska|cruiser|0}} "large cruisers". Two of them were completed, {{USS|Alaska|CB-1|2}} and {{USS|Guam|CB-2|2}}; a third, {{USS|Hawaii|CB-3|2}}, was cancelled while under construction and three others, to be named ''Philippines'', ''Puerto Rico'' and ''Samoa'', were cancelled before they were laid down. The USN classified them "large cruisers" instead of battlecruisers.  These ships were named after territories or protectorates, while battleships were named after states and cruisers after cities. With a displacement of {{convert|27000|LT|t}} and a main armament of nine 12-inch guns in three triple turrets, they were twice the size of {{sclass|Baltimore|cruiser|2}}s and had guns some 50% larger in diameter. The ''Alaska''s design was a scaled-up cruiser rather than a lighter/faster battleship derivative, as they lacked the thick armoured belt and intricate torpedo defence system of contemporary battleships. However, unlike World War I-era battlecruisers, the ''Alaska''s were considered a balanced design according to cruiser standards as their protection could withstand fire from their own caliber of gun, albeit only in a very narrow range band. They were designed to hunt down Japanese heavy cruisers, though by the time they entered service most Japanese cruisers had been sunk by American aircraft or submarines.<ref>Friedman 1984, pp. 288–89, 296, 301–02</ref> Like the contemporary {{sclass|Iowa|battleship|0}} fast battleships, their speed ultimately made them more useful as carrier escorts and bombardment ships than as the surface combatants they were developed to be.<ref>Whitley 1995, pp. 278–79</ref>

The Japanese started designing the B64 class, which was similar to the ''Alaska'' but with {{convert|310|mm|1|adj=on}} guns. News of the ''Alaska''s led them to upgrade the design, creating [[Design B-65 cruiser|Design B-65]]. Armed with 356&nbsp;mm guns, the B65s would have been the best armed of the new breed of battlecruisers, but they still would have had only sufficient protection to keep out eight-inch shells. Much like the Dutch, the Japanese got as far as completing the design for the B65s, but never laid them down. By the time the designs were ready the Japanese Navy recognized that they had little use for the vessels and that their priority for construction should lie with aircraft carriers. Like the ''Alaska''s, the Japanese did not call these ships battlecruisers, referring to them instead as super-heavy cruisers.<ref>Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 40; Garzke & Dulin, pp. 86–87</ref>