Early Career
All three ships entered service from the second half of 1908. Initially, Invincible and Inflexible were assigned to the Home Fleet, while Indomitable took the Prince of Wales (later King George V) to the tercentennial celebrations in Canada, before also joining the Home Fleet. Invincible's electrically driven turrets proved to be a failure despite two lengthy refits in 1909 and 1911 and were converted to hydraulic power during her refit in early 1914 at the enormous cost of £151,200. The situation was so bad during her gunnery trials in October 1908 that the captain of HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy's gunnery school described their operation thusly: "When the order was given to train the turret, elevate or run a gun in or out, it was only necessary to push a button, or move a switch, but the result was often a flash of blue flame which seemed to fill the turret."
In 1914, Invincible was refitting in England, while Inflexible and Indomitable, together with the newer Indefatigable formed the nucleus of the Mediterranean Fleet, where Inflexible served as flagship from November 1912. It was in the Mediterranean that the first naval action of the First World War took place, when the British pursued the German warships Goeben and Breslau upon the outbreak of war.
Read more about this topic: Invincible Class Battlecruiser
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