Fleet effectiveness beyond firing guns

The class combined light deck armor and a four-inch conning tower with a design concept that resembled an enlarged destroyer. Its most useful wartime function was often signal support. A six-squadron Grand Fleet would need roughly three or four small cruisers per squadron to keep two repeaters available for battle. Blanche passed through Jutland without firing and still helped the battle squadron communicate. On this operational reading, the Royal Navy won because it retained sea control, forced the German fleet home, and kept it out of the Atlantic. A points tally of ships sunk would answer a different question.