The Battle of Jutland

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Want to know about how the Navy is structured, and where you might fit? This is the place for you. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. Battle of Jutland centenary On 31 May events across the land and sea — and beneath the waves — will mark the th anniversary of the greatest naval battle fought in World War 1. Location the area of battle If the map doesn't load, please check that Functionality cookies are enabled: The shattered halves of HMS Invincible after the explosion that ripped her apart.

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What was the Battle of Jutland, why was it so important to the First World War - and who won?

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Operations Explore the Royal Navy's many current and enduring operations using the link above. This was the first time in history that a carrier-based aeroplane was used for reconnaissance in naval combat. Engadine ' s aircraft did locate and report some German light cruisers just before Unfortunately for Beatty, his initial course changes at Whereas before the north turn, Tiger had been the closest ship to Evan-Thomas, she was now further away than Beatty in Lion. Matters were aggravated because Evan-Thomas had not been briefed regarding standing orders within Beatty's squadron, as his squadron normally operated with the Grand Fleet.

Fleet ships were expected to obey movement orders precisely and not deviate from them. Beatty's standing instructions expected his officers to use their initiative and keep station with the flagship. Dividing the force had serious consequences for the British, costing them what would have been an overwhelming advantage in ships and firepower during the first half-hour of the coming battle. With visibility favouring the Germans, Hipper's battlecruisers at Beatty's conduct during the next 15 minutes has received a great deal of criticism, as his ships out-ranged and outnumbered the German squadron, yet he held his fire for over 10 minutes with the German ships in range.

He also failed to use the time available to rearrange his battlecruisers into a fighting formation, with the result that they were still manoeuvring when the battle started. Thus began the opening phase of the battlecruiser action, known as the Run to the South , in which the British chased the Germans, and Hipper intentionally led Beatty toward Scheer. During the first minutes of the ensuing battle, all the British ships except Princess Royal fired far over their German opponents, due to adverse visibility conditions, before finally getting the range.

Only Lion and Princess Royal had settled into formation, so the other four ships were hampered in aiming by their own turning. Beatty was to windward of Hipper, and therefore funnel and gun smoke from his own ships tended to obscure his targets, while Hipper's smoke blew clear. Also, the eastern sky was overcast and the grey German ships were indistinct and difficult to range. However, due to another mistake with signalling by flag, and possibly because Queen Mary and Tiger were unable to see the German lead ship because of smoke, [45] the second German ship, Derfflinger , was left un-engaged and free to fire without disruption.

The Germans drew first blood. Aided by superior visibility, Hipper's five battlecruisers quickly registered hits on three of the six British battlecruisers. Seven minutes passed before the British managed to score their first hit. The first near-kill of the Run to the South occurred at Dozens of crewmen were instantly killed, but far larger destruction was averted when the mortally wounded turret commander — Major Francis Harvey of the Royal Marines — promptly ordered the magazine doors shut and the magazine flooded. This prevented a magazine explosion at The plunging shells probably pierced the thin upper armour, and seconds later Indefatigable was ripped apart by another magazine explosion, sinking immediately with her crew of 1, officers and men, leaving only two survivors.

Hipper's position deteriorated somewhat by But he knew his baiting mission was close to completion, as his force was rapidly closing with Scheer's main body. Still, it was Commander von Hase, the first gunnery officer aboard Derfflingler , noted:. The enemy was shooting superbly. Twice the Derfflinger came under their infernal hail and each time she was hit. But the Queen Mary was having a bad time; engaged by the Seydlitz as well as the Derfflinger , she met her doom at A vivid red flame shot up from her forepart; then came an explosion forward, followed by a much heavier explosion amidships.

Immediately afterwards, she blew up with a terrific explosion, the masts collapsing inwards and the smoke hiding everything. During the Run to the South, from A signalman promptly leapt on to the bridge of Lion and announced " Princess Royal ' s blown up, Sir. This was the first news that Beatty and Jellicoe had that Scheer and his battle fleet were even at sea. Simultaneously, an all-out destroyer action raged in the space between the opposing battlecruiser forces, as British and German destroyers fought with each other and attempted to torpedo the larger enemy ships.

Each side fired many torpedoes, but both battlecruiser forces turned away from the attacks and all escaped harm except Seydlitz , which was hit forward at Though taking on water, Seydlitz maintained speed. The British disabled the German torpedo boat V27 , which the Germans soon abandoned and sank, and Petard then torpedoed and sank V29 , her second score of the day.

S35 and V26 rescued the crews of their sunken sister ships. Bingham was rescued, and awarded the Victoria Cross for his leadership in the destroyer action. Beatty's withdrawal toward Jellicoe is called the "Run to the North", in which the tables turned and the Germans chased the British. Because Beatty once again failed to signal his intentions adequately, the battleships of the 5th Battle Squadron — which were too far behind to read his flags — found themselves passing the battlecruisers on an opposing course and heading directly toward the approaching main body of the High Seas Fleet.

The difficulties of the 5th Battle Squadron were compounded when Beatty gave the order to Evan-Thomas to "turn in succession" rather than "turn together" at Evan-Thomas acknowledged the signal, but Lieutenant-Commander Ralph Seymour , Beatty's flag lieutenant , aggravated the situation when he did not haul down the flags to execute the signal for some minutes. The order to turn in succession would have resulted in all four ships turning in the same patch of sea as they reached it one by one, giving the High Seas Fleet repeated opportunity with ample time to find the proper range.

For the next hour, the 5th Battle Squadron acted as Beatty's rearguard, drawing fire from all the German ships within range, while by Illustrating the imbalance, Beatty's battlecruisers did not score any hits on the Germans in this phase until Only Valiant was unscathed. The four battleships were far better suited to take this sort of pounding than the battlecruisers, and none were lost, though Malaya suffered heavy damage, an ammunition fire, and heavy crew casualties.

Jellicoe was now aware that full fleet engagement was nearing, but had insufficient information on the position and course of the Germans. To assist Beatty, early in the battle at about Heavily outnumbered by Boedicker's four light cruisers, Chester was pounded before being relieved by Hood's heavy units, which swung westward for that purpose.

Wiesbaden became a sitting target for most of the British fleet during the next hour, but remained afloat and fired some torpedoes at the passing enemy battleships from long range. Meanwhile, Boedicker's other ships turned toward Hipper and Scheer in the mistaken belief that Hood was leading a larger force of British capital ships from the north and east.

A chaotic destroyer action in mist and smoke ensued as German torpedo boats attempted to blunt the arrival of this new formation, but Hood's battlecruisers dodged all the torpedoes fired at them. In the meantime, Beatty and Evan-Thomas had resumed their engagement with Hipper's battlecruisers, this time with the visual conditions to their advantage.

With several of his ships damaged, Hipper turned back toward Scheer at around Jellicoe twice demanded the latest position of the German battlefleet from Beatty, who could not see the German battleships and failed to respond to the question until Meanwhile, Jellicoe received confused sighting reports of varying accuracy and limited usefulness from light cruisers and battleships on the starboard southern flank of his force.

Jellicoe was in a worrying position. He needed to know the location of the German fleet to judge when and how to deploy his battleships from their cruising formation six columns of four ships each into a single battle line. The deployment could be on either the westernmost or the easternmost column, and had to be carried out before the Germans arrived; but early deployment could mean losing any chance of a decisive encounter.

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Deploying to the west would bring his fleet closer to Scheer, gaining valuable time as dusk approached, but the Germans might arrive before the manoeuvre was complete. Deploying to the east would take the force away from Scheer, but Jellicoe's ships might be able to cross the "T" , and visibility would strongly favour British gunnery — Scheer's forces would be silhouetted against the setting sun to the west, while the Grand Fleet would be indistinct against the dark skies to the north and east, and would be hidden by reflection of the low sunlight off intervening haze and smoke. Deployment would take twenty irreplaceable minutes, and the fleets were closing at full speed.

In one of the most critical and difficult tactical command decisions of the entire war, Jellicoe ordered deployment to the east at Scheer had no indication that Jellicoe was at sea, let alone that he was bearing down from the north-west, and was distracted by the intervention of Hood's ships to his north and east.

This period of peril and heavy traffic attending the merger and deployment of the British forces later became known as "Windy Corner". Arbuthnot was attracted by the drifting hull of the crippled Wiesbaden. With Warrior , Defence closed in for the kill, only to blunder right into the gun sights of Hipper's and Scheer's oncoming capital ships.

Planning and positioning

Defence was deluged by heavy-calibre gunfire from many German battleships, which detonated her magazines in a spectacular explosion viewed by most of the deploying Grand Fleet. She sank with all hands officers and men. Warrior was also hit badly, but was spared destruction by a mishap to the nearby battleship Warspite. Warspite had her steering gear overheat and jam under heavy load at high speed as the 5th Battle Squadron made a turn to the north at Warspite was brought back under control and survived the onslaught, but was badly damaged, had to reduce speed, and withdrew northward; later at Warrior , on the other hand, was abandoned and sank the next day after her crew was taken off at As Defence sank and Warspite circled, at about At first, visibility favoured the British: The two German ships then fired three salvoes each at Invincible , and sank her in 90 seconds.

All but six of her crew of 1, officers and men, including Rear-Admiral Hood, were killed. The officers on the lead German battleships, and Scheer himself, were taken completely by surprise when they emerged from drifting clouds of smoky mist to suddenly find themselves facing the massed firepower of the entire Grand Fleet main battle line, which they did not know was even at sea.

Realising he was heading into a death trap, Scheer ordered his fleet to turn and disengage at It was now obvious that we were confronted by a large portion of the English fleet. The entire arc stretching from north to east was a sea of fire. The flash from the muzzles of the guns was seen distinctly through the mist and smoke on the horizon, although the ships themselves were not distinguishable.

Conscious of the risks to his capital ships posed by torpedoes, Jellicoe did not chase directly but headed south, determined to keep the High Seas Fleet west of him. In his memoirs he wrote, "the manoeuvre would be bound to surprise the enemy, to upset his plans for the rest of the day, and if the blow fell heavily it would facilitate the breaking loose at night. Simultaneously, the disabled British destroyer HMS Shark fought desperately against a group of four German torpedo boats and disabled V48 with gunfire, but was eventually torpedoed and sunk at Shark ' s Captain Loftus Jones was awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroism in continuing to fight against all odds.

Commodore Goodenough's 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron dodged the fire of German battleships for a second time to re-establish contact with the High Seas Fleet shortly after Gefechtskehrtwendung , but this time it was executed only with difficulty, as the High Seas Fleet's lead squadrons began to lose formation under concentrated gunfire. Hipper was still aboard the torpedo boat G39 and was unable to command his squadron for this attack. The crews of Scouting Group I suffered heavy casualties, but survived the pounding and veered away with the other battlecruisers once Scheer was out of trouble and the German destroyers were moving in to attack.

While his battlecruisers drew the fire of the British fleet, Scheer slipped away, laying smoke screens. Meanwhile, from about Jellicoe's ships turned away from the attacks and successfully evaded all 31 of the torpedoes launched at them — though, in several cases, only barely — and sank the German destroyer S35 , attributed to a salvo from Iron Duke.

The last major exchanges between capital ships in this battle took place just after sunset, from about Luckily for Scheer, most of the light forces in Jellicoe's rearguard failed to report the seven separate encounters with the German fleet during the night; [98] [99] the very few radio reports that were sent to the British flagship were never received, possibly because the Germans were jamming British frequencies. Jellicoe and his commanders did not understand that the furious gunfire and explosions to the north seen and heard for hours by all the British battleships indicated that the German heavy ships were breaking through the screen astern of the British fleet.

While the nature of Scheer's escape, and Jellicoe's inaction, indicate the overall German superiority in night fighting, the results of the night action were no more clear-cut than were those of the battle as a whole. Deployed as part of a screening force several miles ahead of the main force of the Grand Fleet, Black Prince had lost contact in the darkness and took a position near what she thought was the British line.

The Germans soon identified the new addition to their line and opened fire. Overwhelmed by point-blank gunfire, Black Prince blew up, officers and men — all hands — were lost , as her squadron leader Defence had done hours earlier. Since there was no enemy nearby, it was assumed that she had hit a mine or had been torpedoed by a submarine.

Answering that he thought they were German, Farie then veered off to the east and away from the German line. She hoisted a flag signal indicating that the enemy was to the west and then closed to firing range, letting off a torpedo set for high running at The four pre-dreadnought battleships were in fact two pre-dreadnoughts, Schleswig-Holstein and Schlesien , and the battlecruisers Von der Tann and Derfflinger. Von der Tann sighted the torpedo and was forced to steer sharply to starboard to avoid it as it passed close to her bows. Moresby rejoined Champion convinced she had scored a hit.

The Germans were helped in their escape by the failure of the British Admiralty in London to pass on seven critical radio intercepts obtained by naval intelligence indicating the true position, course and intentions of the High Seas Fleet during the night. However, the erroneous signal from earlier in the day that reported the German fleet still in port, and an intelligence signal received at Had the other messages been forwarded, which confirmed the information received at The unsent intercepted messages had been duly filed by the junior officer left on duty that night, who failed to appreciate their significance.

At midday on 2 June, German authorities released a press statement claiming a victory, including the destruction of a battleship, two battlecruisers, two armoured cruisers, a light cruiser, a submarine and several destroyers, for the loss of Pommern and Wiesbaden. The victory of the Skagerrak was celebrated in the press, children were given a holiday and the nation celebrated.

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The Kaiser announced a new chapter in world history. Post-war, the official German history hailed the battle as a victory and it continued to be celebrated until after World War II. In Britain, the first official news came from German wireless broadcasts. Ships began to arrive in port, their crews sending messages to friends and relatives both of their survival and the loss of some 6, others. The authorities considered suppressing the news, but it had already spread widely. Some crews coming ashore found rumours had already reported them dead to relatives, while others were jeered for the defeat they had suffered.

The following day British newspapers reported a German victory. On 3 June, the Admiralty issued a further statement expanding on German losses, and another the following day with exaggerated claims. International perception of the battle began to change towards a qualified British victory, the German attempt to change the balance of power in the North Sea having been repulsed. In July, bad news from the Somme campaign swept concern over Jutland from the British consciousness.

The British lost 6, seamen; the Germans 2, Several other ships were badly damaged, such as Lion and Seydlitz. As of the summer of , the High Seas Fleet's strategy was to whittle away the numerical advantage of the Royal Navy by bringing its full strength to bear against isolated squadrons of enemy capital ships whilst declining to be drawn into a general fleet battle until it had achieved something resembling parity in heavy ships.

In tactical terms, the High Seas Fleet had clearly inflicted significantly greater losses on the Grand Fleet than it had suffered itself at Jutland and the Germans never had any intention of attempting to hold the site of the battle, [] so some historians support the German claim of victory at Jutland. However, Scheer seems to have quickly realised that further battles with a similar rate of attrition would exhaust the High Seas Fleet long before it reduced the Grand Fleet. Therefore, the High Seas Fleet abandoned its forays into the North Sea and turned its attention to the Baltic for most of whilst Scheer switched tactics against Britain to unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic.

At a strategic level, the outcome has been the subject of a huge amount of literature with no clear consensus. The battle was widely viewed as indecisive in the immediate aftermath and this view remains influential. Despite numerical superiority, the British had been disappointed in their hopes for a decisive victory [ citation needed ] comparable to Trafalgar and the objective of the influential strategic doctrines of Alfred Mahan. The High Seas Fleet survived as a fleet in being.

Most of its losses were made good within a month — even Seydlitz , the most badly damaged ship to survive the battle, was repaired by October and officially back in service by November. However, the Germans had failed in their objective of destroying a substantial portion of the British Fleet, and no progress had been made towards the goal of allowing the High Seas Fleet to operate in the Atlantic Ocean.

Subsequently, there has been considerable support for the view of Jutland as a strategic victory for the British. While the British had not destroyed the German fleet and had lost more ships than their enemy, the Germans had retreated to harbour; at the end of the battle the British were in command of the area. The German fleet would only sortie into the North Sea thrice more, with a raid on 19 August , one in October and another in April All three were unopposed by capital ships and quickly aborted as neither side were prepared to take the risks of mines and submarines.

Apart from these three abortive operations the High Seas Fleet — unwilling to risk another encounter with the British fleet — confined its activities to the Baltic Sea for the remainder of the war. Jellicoe issued an order prohibiting the Grand Fleet from steaming south of the line of Horns Reef owing to the threat of mines and U-boats. On 1 June , it was clear to every thinking person that this battle must, and would be, the last one".

There is also significant support for viewing the battle as a German tactical victory, due to the much higher losses sustained by the British. In response to public outrage, the First Lord of the Admiralty Arthur Balfour asked Winston Churchill to write a second report that was more positive and detailed. At the end of the battle, the British had maintained their numerical superiority and had 23 dreadnoughts ready and four battlecruisers still able to fight, while the Germans had only 10 dreadnoughts.

Battle of Jutland

Barham was docked for a month at Devonport before undergoing speed trials and returning to Scapa on 8 July. Princess Royal stayed initially at Rosyth but transferred to dry dock at Portsmouth before returning to duty at Rosyth 21 July. Tiger was dry docked at Rosyth and ready for service 2 July. Lion initially remained ready for sea duty despite the damaged turret, then underwent a month's repairs in July when Q turret was removed temporarily and replaced in September. A third view, presented in a number of recent evaluations, is that Jutland, the last major fleet action between battleships, illustrated the irrelevance of battleship fleets following the development of the submarine, mine and torpedo.

Although large numbers of battleships were constructed in the decades between the wars, it has been argued that this outcome reflected the social dominance among naval decision-makers of battleship advocates who constrained technological choices to fit traditional paradigms of fleet action. The official British Admiralty examination of the Grand Fleet's performance recognised two main problems:.

German armour-piercing shells were far more effective than the British ones, which often failed to penetrate heavy armour. The shock of impact of a shell against armour often prematurely detonated Lyddite in advance of fuze function while TNT detonation could be delayed until after the shell had penetrated and the fuze had functioned in the vulnerable area behind the armour plate. Of these, four would not have penetrated under any circumstances.

Of the remaining 13, one penetrated the armour and exploded inside. This showed a 7. The issue of poorly performing shells had been known to Jellicoe, who as Third Sea Lord from to had ordered new shells to be designed. However, the matter had not been followed through after his posting to sea and new shells had never been thoroughly tested.

BBC iWonder - Did anyone win the Battle of Jutland?

He had recently visited Berlin, where the German navy had scoffed at how British shells had broken up on their ships' armour. Admiral Dreyer, writing later about the battle, during which he had been captain of the British flagship Iron Duke , estimated that effective shells as later introduced would have led to the sinking of six more German capital ships, based upon the actual number of hits achieved in the battle. Indeed, even shells that failed this relatively mild test had still been issued to ships.

Efforts to replace the shells were initially resisted by the Admiralty, and action was not taken until Jellicoe became First Sea Lord in December As an initial response, the worst of the existing shells were withdrawn from ships in early and replaced from reserve supplies. British battlecruisers were designed to chase and destroy enemy cruisers from out of the range of those ships. Bucharest fell on December 6, and the Romanian Army, a crippled force, could only fall back northeastward into Moldavia, where it had the belated support of Russian troops. Both Admiral Scheer and General Falkenhayn doubted whether the German submarines could do any decisive damage to Great Britain so long as their warfare was restricted in deference to the protests of the United States; and, after a tentative reopening of the submarine campaign on Feb.

The controversy between the statesmen and the advocates of unrestricted warfare was not dead yet. Hindenburg, chief of the general staff from August 29, had Ludendorff as his quartermaster general, and Ludendorff was quickly won over to supporting the chief of the Admiralty staff, Henning von Holtzendorff , in his arguments against the German chancellor , Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg , and the foreign minister, Gottlieb von Jagow.

Whereas Bethmann and some other statesmen were hoping for a negotiated peace see below , Hindenburg and Ludendorff were committed to a military victory. The British naval blockade , however, threatened to starve Germany into collapse before a military victory could be achieved, and soon Hindenburg and Ludendorff got their way: We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval.

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The Eastern Front, In the hope of diverting German strength from the attack at Verdun on the Western Front, the Russians gallantly but prematurely opened an offensive north and south of Lake Naroch Narocz, east of Vilna on March 18, , and continued it until March 27, though they won very little ground at great cost and only for a short time. Previous page Italy and the Italian front, — Page 10 of Next page Peace moves and U.

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