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It was the largest naval battle and only full-scale clash of battleships of the war, and the outcome ensured that the Royal Navy denied the German surface fleet access to the North Sea and the Atlantic for the remainder of the war, as Germany avoided all fleet-to-fleet contact thereafter.
- 31 May – 1 June 1916
- Inconclusive, though both have since claimed victory; see § Outcome
- Overview
- Planning and positioning
- The clash of fleets
- Outcome and aftermath
Battle of Jutland, (May 31–June 1, 1916), the only major encounter between the main British and German battle fleets in World War I, fought near the Skagerrak, an arm of the North Sea, about 60 miles (97 km) off the west coast of Jutland (Denmark).
In late spring 1916, after months of calm in the North Sea following the naval action at the Dogger Bank, the main British and German fleets met in a face-to-face encounter for the first time. Paradoxical as it may seem, it was no accident that the navies had avoided a direct confrontation until then. For the Royal Navy, command of the seas was of paramount importance. Its whole outlook, fashioned by centuries of tradition, was based on the premise that so long as the sea routes were open for trade, the future of Britain and its empire was secure. While the German main fleet was penned in German ports, this condition was amply fulfilled. Only German U-boats (submarines) were capable of jeopardizing the safety of the British merchant fleet, and their success was limited at this stage of the war.
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By 1:30 pm on May 31, the rival fleets were approaching each other, but each was unaware of the other’s presence. The High Seas Fleet had rigidly adhered to Scheer’s plan, though Hipper was as yet uncertain whether his scouting group had lured Beatty’s fleet across the North Sea.
For their part, the British were inclined to believe that another fruitless sweep to find the Germans had taken place and that they would soon return to their respective bases. The call sign of the German flagship was, in fact, still being heard from the Jadebusen. Jellicoe, unaware that the transference of this call from ship to shore was a normal practice when the High Seas Fleet put to sea, believed that the main body of that fleet was still in German waters. Beatty’s battle cruisers, with the 5th Battle Squadron in attendance 5 miles (8 km) astern, were reaching the eastern limit of their sweep and would soon turn northward to meet Jellicoe’s force at the rendezvous point. It was a clear, calm spring day. At 2:15 pm the turn commenced, a light-cruiser screen spreading out between the heavy ships and the Helgoland Bight.
Just before 2:00 pm the light cruiser Elbing, on the western flank of the German scouting group, sighted the smoke of a small Danish steamer, the N.J. Fjord, on the horizon to the west. Two torpedo boats were dispatched to investigate. Roughly 10 minutes later, Commodore E.S. Alexander-Sinclair, commanding the British 1st Light Cruiser Squadron aboard the Galatea, also saw the Danish ship and steamed off to investigate, accompanied by the light cruiser Phaeton. At 2:20 pm, the cause of their meeting forgotten, both forces were signaling “Enemy in sight,” and at 2:28 pm the Galatea fired the first shots of the Battle of Jutland.
This chance meeting was extremely fortunate for the Germans, for Jellicoe’s battle squadrons were still 65 miles (105 km) to the north. Had the N.J. Fjord not attracted so much attention, Hipper’s scouting group would inevitably have led the High Seas Fleet toward the Grand Fleet when the latter was fully concentrated under Jellicoe’s command. As it was, the British trap was sprung prematurely.
On receipt of the signals from their light cruisers, both Beatty and Hipper turned and raced toward the sound of gunfire, and at 3:20 pm the two opposing lines of battle cruisers were in sight of each other, maneuvering for position. At 3:48 pm Hipper’s flagship, the Lützow, opened fire, which was promptly returned, but during the next 20 minutes the British line suffered severely: the Lion, the Princess Royal, and the Tiger were hit repeatedly, and the Indefatigable, caught by two salvoes from the Von der Tann, capsized and sank. The 5th Battle Squadron (left behind by the faster battle cruisers) now joined the British line, and its heavy guns caused such damage to Hipper’s battle cruisers that the German torpedo-boat screen moved in to launch a torpedo attack. At this moment another British battle cruiser, the Queen Mary, blew up with a shattering explosion, having been hit in a main magazine.
While this action was in progress, British Commodore W.E. Goodenough’s 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron was patrolling south of Beatty’s main force, and at about 4:40 pm Goodenough reported having sighted the main body of the High Seas Fleet. Beatty immediately withdrew northward to lure the enemy toward the rest of the Grand Fleet, the 5th Battle Squadron covering the withdrawal.
The British sustained greater losses than the Germans in both ships and men: three battle cruisers, three cruisers, and eight destroyers had been sunk against one battleship, one battle cruiser, four light cruisers, and five torpedo craft lost by the Germans; 6,768 British officers and men had been killed or wounded, against 3,058 officers and men killed or wounded in the High Seas Fleet. It was the bloodiest day in British naval history, and the triumphant publication of such figures in the German press gave a worldwide impression that the Royal Navy had suffered a serious reverse. The significant fact, however, was that despite these losses the balance of power in European waters was not essentially changed. The British still dominated the North Sea, and the Germans had not inflicted sufficient losses on their adversary to stand any chance of victory in a new action against its main fleet.
Scheer, did, however, have one more card up his sleeve which he sought to play in 1916. On the evening of August 18, 11 weeks after the Battle of Jutland, he again put to sea with the High Seas Fleet, hoping this time that a bombardment of Sunderland would lure the Grand Fleet into a trap set by his U-boats. The Grand Fleet was ordered south to intercept, and a British force of submarines was amassed off various ports of the North Sea. It was the submarines on both sides which caused the first damage: on the German side, the battleship Westfalen went limping home with damage from a torpedo; on the British side, the light cruiser Nottingham sank off the Farne Islands after being hit three times on the morning of August 19. The U-boats’ sinking of the Nottingham contributed unwittingly to the German failure to lure the bigger game into their trap. Jellicoe, not knowing whether a mine or a torpedo had been responsible for the sinking, turned north and for two hours steamed away from the enemy. By the time he recovered and regained his position, the High Seas Fleet, believing that a small British force coming from Harwich in the south was the main body of the Grand Fleet, had turned tail and made for home.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Battle of Jutland, fought 100 years ago on 31 May, can mess with one’s head. For whom was it a victory and for whom a defeat, and by what criteria? What were its consequences and what its lessons?
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Sep 13, 2018 · Two hours before Hipper left Jade Bay, the Grand Fleet, including its Battle Cruiser Fleet, was already at sea, heading for an encounter off the west coast of Danish Jutland. The battle that followed is conventionally divided by naval historians into five phases: the battle-cruiser action, encompassing two of the phases–a “run to the south ...
The most important naval action seen during the First World War, the battle took place just off the coast of Jutland in Denmark. We explain what the Battle of Jutland was and how it came about. We also look at which fleet attacked first in the naval battle and if Britain did actually win the fight.
June 2006. Proceedings. Vol. 132/6/1,240. Article. View Issue. Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Share. Comments. The May 1916 clash of battle fleets at Jutland during World War I proved that the best laid pre-war plans often come to naught in the fog of war.
Oct 28, 2009 · May | 31. Choose another date. 1916. Battle of Jutland, greatest naval battle of WWI, begins. Just before four o’clock on the afternoon of May 31, 1916, a British naval force commanded by...
