The point of a cruiser confronting a battleship or battlecruiser is not always to win the gunnery duel. Guns and torpedoes can impose damage severe enough to end the enemy's raid or make it vulnerable to pursuing forces. The Rawalpindi example shows how a ship that cannot survive can still alter a larger operational calculation. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau abandoned their North Atlantic raid after the action, so convoy safety rather than ship survival becomes the measure of the auxiliary cruiser's effect.
Notable Point · 39:28-41:38
Deterrence means making a raider pay
Even an outmatched cruiser can disrupt a stronger raider's campaign by inflicting damage that forces it home.