Editing Invincible-class battlecruiser (section)

===Battle of the Falklands===
{{Main|Battle of the Falkland Islands}}
[[File:HMS Invincible, Battle of the Falkland Islands (Warships To-day, 1936).jpg|thumb|''Invincible'' during the pursuit of the German cruiser squadron]]
The West Indies Squadron of [[Christopher Cradock|Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock]] was destroyed by the German [[East Asia Squadron]] commanded by [[Maximilian von Spee|Admiral Graf von Spee]] during the [[Battle of Coronel]] on 1 November 1914. In response, the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] ordered that a squadron be sent to destroy the Germans. The squadron, under the command of [[Doveton Sturdee|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 Marine National Park|Abrolhos Rocks]] off the coast of [[Brazil]] on the 26th. The combined force departed the following day and reached [[Stanley, Falkland Islands|Port Stanley]] on the morning of 7 December.<ref>Massie, pp. 248–251</ref>

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 {{SMS|Nürnberg|1906|2}} 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 {{HMS|Canopus|1897|2}}, 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 {{HMS|Cornwall|1902|2}} and the light cruiser {{HMS|Bristol|1910|2}} had one or both of their engines under repair. The armed merchant cruiser ''Macedonian'' was patrolling the outer harbour entrance while the armoured cruiser {{HMS|Kent|1901|2}} 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.<ref>Massie, pp. 254–261</ref>

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 ''Invincible''s, fresh out of dry dock, had a {{convert|5|kn}} advantage over Spee's ships which all had [[fouled bottom]]s that limited their speeds to {{convert|20|kn}} at best. The light cruiser {{SMS|Leipzig|1905|6}} was lagging behind the other ships and Inflexible opened fire on her when the range dropped to {{convert|17500|yd|km}} at 12:55. ''Invincible'' opened fire shortly afterwards and both ships began straddling Leipzig as the range closed to {{convert|13000|yd|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,<ref>Massie, pp. 261–266</ref> although one gun of ''Invincible''{{'}}s 'A' turret jammed at 13:42 and was out of action for thirty minutes.<ref>Tarrant, p. 61</ref>
[[File:HMS Infexible Falklandy.jpg|thumb|left|''Inflexible'' picking up survivors from SMS ''Gneisenau'']]
Spee turned to the south in the hope of disengaging while the British had their vision obscured, but only opened the range to {{convert|17000|yd|m}} before the British saw his course change. This was futile as the British battlecruisers gave chase at {{convert|24|kn}}. Forty minutes later the British opened fire again at {{convert|15000|yd|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 {{convert|15|cm|abbr=on}} secondary armament into play. In this he was successful and the 15&nbsp;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 ships at 15:15 back across their own wakes to gain the windward advantage. Spee turned to the northwest, as if to attempt to [[Crossing the T|cross the British T]], but actually to bring ''Scharnhorst''{{'}}s undamaged starboard guns to bear as most of those on his port side were out of action. The British continued to hit ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' regularly during this time and ''Scharnhorst'' ceased fire at 4:00 before [[capsizing]] at 16:17 with no survivors. ''Gneisenau'' had been slowed by earlier damage and was battered for another hour and a half by ''Inflexible'' and ''Invincible'' at ranges down to {{convert|4000|yd|m}}. Despite the damage her crew continued to fire back until she ceased firing at 16:47. Sturdee was ready to order 'Cease fire' at 17:15 when an ammunition hoist was freed up and she made her last shot. The British continued to pound her until 17:50, after her captain had given the order to scuttle her at 17:40. She slowly capsized at 18:00 and the British were able to rescue 176 men.<ref>Massie, pp. 261–273</ref> ''Invincible'' and ''Inflexible'' fired 513 and 661 twelve-inch shells respectively during the battle,<ref name=c25/> but ''Inflexible'' had been hit only three times and ''Invincible'' had been hit twenty-two times. Two of her bow compartments were flooded and one hit on her waterline abreast 'P' turret had flooded a coal bunker and temporarily given her a 15° list. Only one man was killed and five wounded aboard the battlecruisers during the battle.<ref>Massie, p. 280</ref>

====Battle of Dogger Bank====
{{Main|Battle of Dogger Bank (1915)}}
On 23 January 1915, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Admiral [[Franz von Hipper]] sortied to clear the [[Dogger Bank]] of any British fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements. But the British were reading their coded messages and sailed to intercept them with a larger force of British battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Beatty, which included ''Indomitable''. Contact was initiated at 07:20 on the 24th when the British light cruiser ''Arethusa'' spotted the German light cruiser {{SMS|Kolberg}}. By 07:35 the Germans had spotted Beatty's force and Hipper ordered a turn to the south at {{convert|20|kn}}, believing that this would suffice if the ships that he saw to his northwest were British battleships and that he could always increase speed to {{SMS|Blücher||2}}'s maximum speed of {{convert|23|kn}} if they were British battlecruisers.<ref>Massie, pp. 376–384</ref>

Beatty ordered his battlecruisers to make all practicable speed to catch the Germans before they could escape. ''Indomitable'' managed to exceed 26 knots and Beatty recognised her performance with a signal at 08:55 "Well done, ''Indomitable''"<ref>Massie, p. 385</ref> Despite this achievement ''Indomitable'' was the slowest of Beatty's ships and gradually fell behind the newer and faster battlecruisers. By 10:48 ''Blücher'' had been heavily damaged by fire from all the other battlecruisers and her speed had dropped to {{convert|17|kn}} and her steering gear had been jammed; Beatty ordered ''Indomitable'' to attack her. But due to a combination of a mistake by Beatty's flag lieutenant in signalling, and heavy damage to Beatty's flagship {{HMS|Lion|1910|2}} which had knocked out her radio and caused enough smoke to obscure her signal [[halyard]]s so that Beatty couldn't communicate with his ships, the rest of the battlecruisers turned away from Hipper's main body and engaged ''Blücher''.<ref>Massie, pp. 385–406</ref> ''Indomitable'' fired 134 shells at ''Blücher'' before she capsized and sank at 12:07.<ref name=c25/> After the end of the battle ''Indomitable'' was ordered to tow ''Lion'' back to port as one of her engines had been knocked out, the other was failing and she'd been holed a number of times beneath the waterline. It took over a day and a half at speeds of {{convert|7|-|10|kn}}.<ref>Massie, pp. 410–412</ref>

====Dardanelles Campaign====
{{Main|Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign}}
After the Battle of the Falklands ''Invincible'' and ''Inflexible'' were repaired and refitted at [[Gibraltar]]. ''Invincible'' sailed to England and joined the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron while ''Inflexible'' arrived at the Dardanelles on 24 January 1915 where she replaced ''Indefatigable'' as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. She bombarded Turkish fortifications on 19 February, the start of the [[Battle of Gallipoli]], to little effect, and again on 15 March, with the same results. She was part of the first line of British ships on 18 March as they attempted to suppress the Turkish guns so the minefields could be swept.<ref name=r22/> She was moderately damaged by Turkish gunfire, but was seriously damaged by a mine, probably about {{convert|100|kg|abbr=on}} in size, that blew a large hole in her starboard bow and flooded the forward torpedo flat, drowning 39 men. She had to be beached at the island of [[Bozcaada]] ([[Tenedos]]) to prevent her sinking, as she'd taken in some {{convert|1600|LT}} of water, but she was temporarily repaired with a [[cofferdam]] over the {{convert|30|x|26|ft|m|adj=on}} hole. She sailed to Malta, escorted by the battleship {{HMS|Canopus|1897|2}} and cruiser {{HMS|Talbot|1895|2}} on 6 April. She nearly foundered when her cofferdam worked loose in heavy weather en route and had to be towed stern-first by ''Canopus'' for six hours while the cofferdam was repaired. She was under repair at Malta until early June before she sailed for home.<ref>Burt, pp. 56–57.</ref> She reached the UK on 19 June where she joined the 3rd BCS.<ref name=r22/>

Towards the end of the year, the British battlecruiser force was organised into three [[Squadron (naval)|squadrons]], with the 3rd BCS consisting of the three ''Invincible''-class ships under the command of Rear Admiral [[Horace Hood]] in ''Invincible''. The 1st and 3rd BCS had sortied in response to the German [[bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft]] on 24–25 April 1916, but failed to locate the German ships in heavy weather. During the return home, ''Invincible'' was rammed by the patrol yacht ''Goissa''. ''Goissa''{{'}}s bow was embedded in ''Invincible''{{'}}s side which partially stoved-in. ''Invincible''{{'}}s speed was reduced to {{convert|12|kn}} through flooding and she was forced to haul out of line and proceed independently to [[Rosyth]] for repairs which lasted until 22 May.<ref>Tarrant, pp. 95–96.</ref>