Re: Bloody Shambles
Canopus actually didn't make it to the Battle of Coronel, having failed to get around Cape Horn in time.* She ended up being grounded in Port Stanley harbour to act as a fixed battery, with a phone line over the hill to an observation post. Consequently when von Spee's task group turned up she actually scored the first hit while the Battlecruisers were getting steam up, having just finished coaling.
Oddly the choice of Sturdee as the Admiral in charge of Invincible and Inflexible was also Churchill's choice, although this was mainly to get him out of the Admiralty where he didn't get on with his immediate boss Fisher.
The Battle of the Falklands may indeed have been about the only occasion Battlecruisers were used properly!
*There's a line of thinking that her Captain knew it would be a suicide mission but no real proof.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
