The Battle of Jutland was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916, in the waters of the North Sea, between forces of the Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy. The battle involved 250 warships, and, in terms of combined tonnage of vessels engaged, was the largest naval battle in history.
The engagement was the result of the high commands of the two nations' eagerness to give their publics a victory in contrast to the stalemate on the ground in Western Europe (the Battle of Verdun had been underway for three months at the time the opposing fleets sortied). Both navies had plans to lure the other's battlecruisers into a trap where they could be defeated by a superior force of battleships. [1]
In the event, the battle had no impact on the course of the war and victory was claimed by both sides.
Royal Navy | Imperial German Navy | |
---|---|---|
Dreadnoughts | 28 total 8 × 15-in. main-battery broadside
| 16 total 10 × 12-in. main-battery broadside
|
Pre-dreadnought battleships | 6 total 4 × 11-in. main-battery broadside
| |
Battlecruisers | 9 total 8 × 13.5-in. main-battery broadside
| 5 total 8 × 12-in. main-battery broadside
|
Armoured cruisers | 8 total 4 × 9.2-in., 5 × 7.5-in. main-battery broadside
| |
Smaller ships | 26 × light cruisers 79 × destroyers (including one destroyer-minelayer) | 11 × light cruisers 61 × torpedo boats |
Dreadnoughts | Pre-dreadnought battleships | Battlecruisers | Armoured cruisers | Light cruisers | Destroyers / Torpedo boats | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Royal Navy | HMS Invincible (31st) HMS Queen Mary (31st) HMS Indefatigable (31st) | HMS Defence (31st) HMS Warrior (1st) HMS Black Prince (1st) | 3 (31st) 5 (1st) | |||
Imperial German Navy | SMS Pommern (1st) | SMS Lützow (1st) | SMS Frauenlob (31st) SMS Rostock (1st) SMS Elbing (1st) SMS Wiesbaden (1st) | 3 (31st) 2 (1st) |
Officers killed in action are indicated thus: †
Abbreviations for officers’ ranks (German ranks translated according to current NATO practice) [lower-alpha 1] [ clarification needed ]:
Other abbreviations
Began sortie from Scapa Flow 9.30pm 28 May [4]
The Grand Fleet [5] [6] was the main body of the British Home Fleets in 1916, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands and Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth in Scotland. [lower-alpha 2]
This squadron, temporarily attached to the Grand Fleet from the Battle Cruiser Fleet, was stationed ahead of the main body, with the intention that it join Beatty when the action began.
Rear-Admiral The Hon. Horace Lambert Alexander Hood †
This force of high-speed ships was subordinate to the Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet, but operated independently as an advanced guard, intended to reconnoiter the enemy fleet and to engage enemy scouting forces. At its core were six battlecruisers, accompanied by 13 light cruisers, and escorted by 18 destroyers and an early aircraft carrier. [lower-alpha 17]
Sortied from Firth of Forth soon after 6.00pm 30 May [4]
Vice-Admiral Sir David Richard Beatty in HMS Lion
Attached vessel
13th Destroyer Flotilla [lower-alpha 19]
Captain James Uchtred Farie
The 5th Battle Squadron was a special unit of fast Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, intended to act as the vanguard of the main battle line. At the Battle of Jutland, it operated with the Battlecruiser Fleet, and was escorted by the 1st Destroyer Flotilla. [lower-alpha 22]
Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas
Sortied from Firth of Forth with Battle Cruiser Fleet soon after 6.00pm 30 May
The High Seas Fleet was the main body of the German surface navy, principally based at Wilhelmshaven, on the Jade River in North-West Germany. [14] [15]
German Große Torpedoboote ("large torpedoboats") were the equivalent of British destroyers [lower-alpha 30] .
It is perhaps significant that all [British World War I] losses in big ships (Audacious, Indefatigable, Invincible, Queen Mary and Vanguard) were finally due to internal explosions, whereas no large German ships were lost from this cause.
— H.M. Le Fleming,
Warships of World War I (1961),
p. 37
During the battle the Germans used the Zeppelin airships of the Naval Airship Section (Marine Luftschiff Abteilung) for scouting, although in the prevailing overcast conditions they were not particularly successful. The commander of the Naval Airship Section was Korvettenkapitän Peter Strasser, and they flew from bases at Nordholz and Hage in north-west Germany and Tondern (then part of Schleswig; the town became part of Denmark in 1920).
Sortied on 31 May
Sortied on 1 June
Did not sortie during the Battle of Jutland
The German operation for the invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 was code-named Weserübung, or "Weser Exercise." Opposing the invasion were the partially mobilized Norwegian military, and an allied expeditionary force composed of British, French, and Free Polish formations. The following list formed the order of battle for this campaign.
HMS Laforey was the lead ship of her class of destroyer built for the Royal Navy. Launched a year before the First World War began, she was attached to the Dover Patrol. Laforey saw action in several engagements with German torpedo boats, including the Battle off Noordhinder Bank and the action of 17 March 1917. Laforey was sunk in 1917 by a British mine after escorting several freighters to France. She was named for Francis Laforey, captain of HMS Spartiate at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval engagement during the First World War that took place on 24 January 1915 near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea between squadrons of the British Grand Fleet and the Kaiserliche Marine.
HMS Nottingham was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy just before World War I. She was one of three ships of the Birmingham sub-class and was completed in early 1914. The ship was assigned to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron (LCS) of the Home and Grand Fleets for her entire career. Nottingham participated in most of the early fleet actions, including the battles of Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland, helping to sink several German ships during the battles. The ship was sunk by the German submarine U-52 during the Action of 19 August 1916.
The Adriatic Campaign of World War I was a naval campaign fought between the Central Powers and the Mediterranean squadrons of Great Britain, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Australia, and the United States.
HMS Falmouth was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the 1910s. She was one of four ships of the Weymouth sub-class. The ship was initially assigned to the Atlantic Fleet upon completion in 1911, but was reduced to reserve in mid-1913. When the First World War began in 1914, Falmouth was transferred to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron (LCS) of the Grand Fleet and then the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron at the end of the year. The ship participated in most of the early fleet actions, including the Battles of Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland, but was only seriously engaged in the latter. She was torpedoed and sunk off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire by German submarines during the action of 19 August 1916.
SMS V46 was a 1913 Type Large Torpedo Boat of the Imperial German Navy during World War I. She was built by AG Vulcan at their Stettin shipyard, being launched on 23 December 1914 and completing in October 1915.
HMS Fearless was one of three Active-class scout cruisers built for the Royal Navy shortly before the First World War. Upon completion in 1913, the ship was assigned to the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron (LCS) of the 1st Fleet. She became flotilla leader of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla (DF) shortly before the start of the war in August 1914 and was transferred to the Harwich Force shortly after it began. Fearless participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and the Cuxhaven Raid later that year. The ship was transferred to the Grand Fleet in early 1915 and played a minor role in the Battle of Jutland the following year.
SMS Rostock was a light cruiser of the Karlsruhe class built by the German Kaiserliche Marine. She had one sister ship, SMS Karlsruhe; the ships were very similar to the previous Magdeburg-class cruisers. The ship was laid down in 1911, launched in November 1912, and completed by February 1914. Armed with twelve 10.5 cm SK L/45 guns, Rostock had a top speed of 28.5 knots and displaced 6,191 t at full load.
The Harwich Force originally called Harwich Striking Force was a squadron of the Royal Navy, formed during the First World War and based in Harwich. It played a significant role in the war.
The Battle of Jutland took place in the North Sea between the German High Seas Fleet and British Grand Fleet on the afternoon and evening of 31 May 1916, continuing sporadically through the night into the early hours of 1 June. The battle was the only direct engagement between the two fleets throughout World War I. The war had already been waged for two years without any major sea battle, and many of the people present did not expect that this patrol would end differently. Lack of experience still accounted for a number of mistakes by the combatants. The battle has been described in a number of phases, the last of which is the subject of this article.
The Battle off Texel, also known as the Action off Texel or the Action of 17 October 1914, was a naval battle off the coast of the Dutch island of Texel during the First World War. A British squadron, comprising one light cruiser and four destroyers on a routine patrol, encountered the German 7th Half Flotilla of torpedo boats which was en route to the British coast to lay mines. The British forces attacked and the outgunned German force attempted to flee and then fought a desperate and ineffective action against the British force, which sank all four German boats.
The Battle of Dogger Bank on 10 February 1916 was a naval engagement between the Kaiserliche Marine of the German Empire and the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, during the First World War. Three German torpedo boat flotillas sortied into the North Sea and encountered the British 10th Sloop Flotilla near Dogger Bank. The German vessels eventually engaged the British vessels, after mistaking them for cruisers instead of minesweeping sloops. Knowing they were out-gunned, the British attempted to flee and in the chase, the sloop HMS Arabis was sunk, before the British squadron escaped. As the cruisers of the Harwich Force returned to port, the light cruiser HMS Arethusa struck a mine, ran aground and broke in two. Although the Germans were victorious, they inflated the victory by reporting that they had sunk two cruisers.
Franz Ritter von Hipper was an admiral in the German Imperial Navy. Franz von Hipper joined the German Navy in 1881 as an officer cadet. He commanded several torpedo boat units and served as watch officer aboard several warships, as well as Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht SMY Hohenzollern. Hipper commanded several cruisers in the reconnaissance forces before being appointed commander of the I Scouting Group in October 1913.
The naval order of 24 October 1918 was a plan made by the German Admiralty to provoke a decisive battle between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Grand Fleet in the southern North Sea in the final weeks of World War I. It was drawn up contrary to the wishes and without the knowledge of the German government. When the order to prepare for the sortie was issued on 29 October, mutiny broke out aboard some of the German ships stationed at Wilhelmshaven. Despite the cancellation of the operation, the sailors' revolt led to the more serious Kiel mutiny, which was the starting point for the German Revolution of 1918-19 and the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
HMS Acasta was an Acasta-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, and the name ship of that class. She was built between 1911 and 1913, and was initially designated a K-class torpedo boat destroyer, having at various times the pennant numbers G40, H59 (1914) or H00 (1918). She saw extensive service during the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland, where she was badly damaged. She was sold for breaking up in 1921.
SMS S50 was a V25-class torpedo boat of the Imperial German Navy. Launched in 1915, she served through the rest of the war, taking part in the Battle of Jutland and operations in the Baltic. She was scuttled at Scapa Flow in 1919, but was later raised and scrapped.
SMS V1 was a V1-class torpedo boat of the Imperial German Navy. The ship was built by AG Vulcan, completing in 1912. She served in the First World War with the German High Seas Fleet, taking part in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight in 1914 and the Battle of Jutland in 1916. She was retained by the post-war German Navy and was stricken in 1929 and scrapped.
SMS V43 was a V25-class Large Torpedo Boat of the Imperial German Navy, that served during the First World War. V43 was built by AG Vulcan at their Stettin shipyard from 1914–1915, entering service on 28 May that year. V43 took part in operations in the North Sea, the English Channel and the Baltic Sea. She survived the war, and was interned at Scapa Flow, surviving the Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow. V43 was allocated to the US Navy, and was sunk as a target on 15 July 1921.
This is the order of battle of the Imperial German Navy on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.