Hit first, hit hard: The story of HMS Renown, 1916-48

There's a good deal of text in this ship history. The Renown was the last surviving battle cruiser in the RN, and for the last three years of the war, the fastest capital ship as well. From its launching in 1915 to the Atomic age, the Renown summed up the effort to project force past the horizon, and move artillery at the highest possible speed. But the idea of the battle cruiser which sacrificed either armour or armament to obtain speed was flawed, and the Renown demonstrated the attempts to defeat the basic problem: if slowed these ships were easily destroyed, and to enter into a fight even with an equal or lesser ship, was to court destruction every moment.