HOW JUTLAND WAS WON
In a special feature marking BAW ’s 200th issue, the York Historical Warfare Analysis Group offers new perspectives on the titanic clash at Jutland – revealing how the battle may have been decided decades before the first shots were fired. Lead author:
The clash between the British and German battlefleets on May 31 – June 1, 1916, was of unquestioned importance to the outcome of World War One. Admiral John Jellicoe, commander of the British Grand Fleet was, in Churchill’s famous phrase, ‘the only man who could lose the war in an afternoon’ – and he was fully aware of the fact. At Jutland, he avoided this fate decisively.
The German Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet), which had sought battle in the hope of destroying the Royal Navy’s command of the sea, was forced into an ignominious flight for home during which it twice narrowly escaped annihilation. But beyond the bare fact of continued British strategic dominance, the outcome was – and has remained – entirely unsatisfactory to British opinion.
The outnumbered German fleet inflicted far more damage on the Royal Navy than it suffered, losing one dreadnought-era capital ship to three on the British side and inc…
