by Philip Wyre

Created on: November 10, 2009

The battle of Jutland was fought between the British Royal Navy's Grand fleet and the High Seas fleet of Imperial Germany. It was the largest naval battle of World War I and was the only time during the Great war that there was a full scale conflict between two opposing sets of Battleships. Both navies felt heavy causalities with Britain losing 14 ships and 6,781 men killed wounded or captured and Germany losing 11 Ships and 3,058 men. The battle was fought on the 31st May 1916 to 1st June 1916 and although the battle was tactically inconclusive for both sides, it had the potential to change to outcome of World War I. Of the admiral of the Royal Navy's Grand fleet Sir John Jellicoe, Winston Churchill said he "was the only man on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon.".

The aim in the Battle of Jutland for the German Navy was to split up the Royal Navy's Grand fleet and destroy a small section in order to weaken Britain's grip on the seas and to break the British naval blockade of Germany. To do this, Vice-Admiral Franz Hipper was to use five battle cruisers to lure the British battle cruiser squadrons led by Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty away from the main fleet. A naval picket of German U-boats was to be set up for the British ships to be lured through. The aim of this was to damage and disrupt the battle cruisers and allow the German fleet to close in and destroy them. This plan was foiled by the fact that the British had intercepted German signals and they knew a major fleet operation was to happen. Sir John Jellicoe sailed out with the entire Grand Fleet to meet Beatty before the German U-boats were in position.

On the afternoon of 31st May Beatty's battle cruisers made contact with Hipper's near Jutland, taking the Germans by surprise. During the ensuing battle, the German's were successful in sinking two of the British ships from a force of ten before the English disengaged. As the German force chased the eight remaining British ships, they came into contact with the entirety of the Royal Navy's Grand fleet. Between 6pm and 9pm the German and British forces, a combined total of 250 ships, were twice engaged. During the battle on the evening of 31st May, a further twelve British ships and eleven German ships were sunk, and a great many men were killed. After the sun had set, the British forces attempted to manoeuvre to cut off the German fleet from returning to port, aiming to destroy the remaining German force in the morning. However, under cover of darkness, Scheer managed to have his fleer cut behind the British fleet and return safely to port.

Although the battle of Jutland was a large, fiercely fought contest, there was no clear victor. Although the Germans managed to inflict more damage, they failed to end the British dominance on the seas. The Royal Navy also failed to significantly deplete the German fleet meaning Germany would maintain a strong enough Naval force to require the British to concentrate a large fleet in the North sea in order to contain the German ships. Sir John Jellicoe was criticised for not striking a significant blow to the German Navy with his lack of aggression. However, Jellicoe's supporters, including historian Cyril Falls, showed that it would have been reckless for the Grand Fleet to be overly aggressive and risk losing the battle, as Britain already dominated the seas. Because of the lack of a significant outcome of the Battle of Jutland,the Naval blockade of Germany lasted the entire course of the First World War. Germany was forced to resort to unrestricted submarine warfare on merchant shipping, in an attempt to starve England into submission

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