The change from 12" to 14" guns for the Malchus class caught out the Greenlandian Navies building foundries. Seven triple turrets of the twelve to be built had been completed, and the other five were finished to complete the order. In 1914 with the results of the Battle of the Falklands Islands in. It was noted by the Admiralty that though their battleships were fast, most light cruisers, and battlecruisers would not be caught by them. A better designed ship than the British Invincible types could be designed around three triple 12" on four ships. The speed requirement was for 31 knots to give some superiority over the 28-30 knot light cruisers being built. The biggest talking point at the time was the use of the new 5.5" gun size on the ships. But more importantly, these were to be mounted in twin turrets. Single 3" AA and some machine guns were to round out the armament. Armour was to be significantly better than the Invincible and to include better internal subdivision against underwater damage from mine or torpedo. (HMS Audacious had been lost to a mine due to poor internal subdivision. Lesson learnt.)
The first pair were laid down in 1914 with completion dates in late 1917 and early 1918. The second pair were laid down in 1916 in response to the Germanic States Brandenburg class Armoured raiders. If those ships had got out amongst the convoys they could have caused real problems. The second pair had their construction slowed during early 1918 when it was found the Brandenburg had never gotten off the drawing board and had only been a rumour. The Greenlandian Admiralty decided the second pair would be repurposed to the new type of ship - the Aircraft Carrier.
These two ships became flagships of the 1st and 2nd Cruiser Squadrons on their acceptance for service. A duty they carried out for all their careers except for the 2-3 years they were being rebuilt. This meant carrying an Admiral or Commodores flag at the fore.
1939 and the Allies have raider hunting groups all over the Atlantic trying to track down and cure the problems posed by the half dozen battleraiders the Germanic States had at sea at wars start. Slowly but surely the Allies got on top of the problem. The Battles around the Falklands Islands and the final resolution of the two GS battleraiders at Tristan da Cunha cured a third of the problem. Then the battlecruiser Australis caught and sunk the Friedrich der Grosse in the Indian Ocean.
The Lotan (BC), Hadad (CVL), and three cruisers were patrolling the strait between Greenland and South America. The area was giving off a constant stream of RRR wireless calls as a GS raider was catching and sinking ships in that area. The Admiral Von Roon was having a field day. The convoy system had not been implemented yet and all these ships were just cruising along the trade routes waiting to be sunk. The Von Roon was happy to oblige. Then suddenly the happy time ended. A lookout called out 'Aircraft to the North East'. It wasn't that it was an aircraft. It was an aircraft without floats, or a seaplane. Neither was it one of the big two and four engined patrol aircraft. No. It was the Kapitan's worst nightmare, an observation aircraft from an aircraft carrier. His thoughts went like lightning through his options. How many hours to darkness? Where was the carrier most likely to be? Could he turn away from where the carrier might be and crack on full speed so that the carriers aircraft would be chasing him and would have to be getting further and further away from the carrier, maybe even to the Bingo point where they might be low on fuel before they catch up and attack him. Dreams are free. An hour later and the observer aircraft was still buzzing around and the call came from the lookouts, many aircraft coming from the north-east. In fact the Hadad had launched a full strike of twenty four aircraft, ten torpedo bombers, eight dive bombers and six fighters. The fighters went in on flak suppression runs while the dive bombers and torpedo bombers did a co-ordinated strike to catch the von Roon from all directions. Two torpedo hits and two bomb hits does not sound like much of a return for the effort involved, but the damage to the von Roon was going to be terminal. The cruisers and Hadad watched as the Lotan went in to finish the von Roon. The von Roon only had its forward two turrets in action, the rear two had jumped off their barbettes when the torpedo hit the ship aft between the turrets. The other torpedo hit and bomb hits had caused further damage that reduced the effectiveness of the von Roon. The Lotan came in range and made sure its first aiming point was the forward turrets. Aiding its gun directors was the observation aircraft that was spotting the Lotan's fall of shot. Twenty minutes later the von Roon had no armament left to fight with. The Admiral aboard the Lotan called in one of the cruisers to torpedo the hulk and sink it. A very satisfactory result for Force 'F' hunting group.
