Page 58 - Phonebox Magazine May 2016

The Battle of Jutland
On 31st May 1916, the greatest sea battle in history took place in the northern North Sea between the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet and the German Empire’s High Sea Fleet. From the outset of war in August 1914, the British public
were anxious for another “Trafalgar”, only this time on the German navy.
The 21st October 1805 is a significant date in our history, for the defeat of the French navy at Trafalgar meant we ruled the waves; there was not a navy to match the strength and power of the Royal Navy. It meant we could project our power across the world, export our goods and build up our empire in safety. It protected Canada from the greedy eyes of the US and helped in breaking the slave trade around the world. The Royal Navy was the country’s pride and joy. From time to time France would challenge it, but the magnificence of its ship-building in both terms of quality and magnitude always meant its position was never really challenged. This was to change in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
In 1862, Count Otto von Bismark became Chancellor of Prussia; an agrarian state with a good army but was caste as the second best German speaking nation after the Austro-Hungarian empire. Much of what we know today as Germany was a mixture of small states, cities and provinces either under the protection of Prussia or Austro-Hungary. Prussia went to war in 1864 with Denmark over the sovereignty of Shleswig-Holstein and annexed the province after winning. In 1866 it defeated the Austro-Hungarian empire and became the foremost German state. Finally it took just six weeks in 1870 to defeat the French, and declared itself an empire, annexing Alsace-Lorraine. Germany, as the world now called it, was a world power with a large and efficient army. Bismark was satisfied with their conquests and settled down to a peaceful and financially stable country. Unfortunately in 1888 Kaiser Willhelm II came to the throne and quickly dispensed with Bismark and embarked on a catastrophic reign that was to lead to the defeat of his country and his own abdication. Willhelm was lazy and arrogant; he wanted to be British while at the same time hating
Admiral Of The Fleet Sir John Fisher
58 Phonebox Magazine | May 2016
them. His mother, Victoria, was the eldest child of Queen Victoria and prince Albert. He was extremely jealous of the Royal Navy and believed Germany should have a fleet to match. This was the principle reason for the antagonism of United Kingdom to the Empire of Germany. The British Army was small and was no threat to Germany, while the Royal Navy was integral in her defence. Germany’s army was huge but was no threat while the strength of the Royal Navy was maintained. A large German navy was a threat to the existence of the United Kingdom. Naval Laws passed in the Reichstag (German parliament) began to build the Kreigsmarine through the last ten years of the nineteenth century but The Royal Navy had such a huge fleet it worked in the “two power” system; the Royal Navy would be as large as the second and third largest foreign fleets plus 10 per cent. Further increases to the German navy began to alarm the British and it moved from “Splendid Isolation” with other powers to seeking alliances and this resulted in the “Entente Cordial” with France in 1904 and later with Tsarist Russia. The gauntlet had been laid down by the British, her navy must always be her defence! Luckily for Britain, its ship-building capacity was the largest in the world and her Royal Naval dockyards could build the largest battleships.
In 1904 there came a man who would change the Royal Navy for the good. Sir John (Jack Fisher) became First Sea Lord (the top sailor in the Royal Navy) and he dragged it into the twentieth century, discarding old obsolete ships and replacing them with modern state-of-the art warships. He revolutionised the design of the battleship ensuring that they were faster, heavier gunned, with well-trained crews. The first ship built, HMS Dreadnought, gave its name to all succeeding battleships. He also introduced a new class of warship, the Battlecruiser (originally called an armoured cruiser) which was much faster than a battleship but just as heavily armed but less armoured. His new designs ensured that the German battleships were now obsolete and the capacity of the ship builders ensured that the rate of build maintained the Royal Navy’s lead over the Germans.
German battleships were designed to fight in the North Sea and therefore did not have seamen accommodation and therefore could build a stronger ship, more heavily armoured, which only indicated that they were built to fight the British! While the Royal Navy was there for the defence of the empire.
When war came in August 1914 the British at first maintained a close blockade of the German ports and swept the seas of German merchant shipping, but attrition by mine and submarine forced them into a distant blockade. A minefield off the north coast of Ireland sank the new battleship “Audacious” and Admiral Jellicoe, the head of the Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, moved his fleet away until adequate defences had been implemented.
German strategy was to attempt to lure part of the Grand Fleet to sea and overpower it with the whole of the High Sea Fleet. They started “hit and run” attacks on the east coast of England, bombarding towns such as Scarborough. The battle of Dogger bank on 24th January 1915 put paid to these sorties as a small squadron of German battlecruisers were caught. Due to bad procedures on the British part the Germans escaped and a great opportunity was lost.
In May 1916, Room 40 at the Admiralty, an intelligence gathering section and forerunner to Bletchley Park, began intercepting signals from the High Sea Fleet indicating that it was coming out. Jellicoe set out his plan.
The Battlecruiser Fleet based at Rosyth near Edinburgh, and consisted of six battlecruisers and the fifth battle squadron comprising of four of the best battleships built for the Royal navy, set sail to rendezvous with the rest of the Grand Fleet consisting of 24 battleships and three battlecruisers. The Fifth Battle Squadron were armed with the biggest