Lion-class battlecruiser

Lion-class battlecruiser.
Two Lion-class battlecruisers were built, for the Royal Navy before World War I. Lion served as the flagship of the British Grand Fleet's battlecruisers during most of the war, and Princess Royal became the flagship of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron in 1915. The two ships were a significant improvement over their predecessors in terms of speed, armament and armour. They both participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1914, where Lion sank the German light cruiser Cöln. In the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915, Lion was badly damaged and Princess Royal scored several hits, one crippling the German armoured cruiser Blücher, which allowed the enemy vessel to be caught and sunk. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Lion suffered a serious cordite fire that could have destroyed the ship, and Princess Royal was moderately damaged. They were both put into reserve in 1920, and were sold for scrap a few years later. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battlecruisers of the world.)