Battle of Jutland

Battle of Jutland
Part of World War I
The Battle of Jutland, 1916
Date 31 May – 1 June 1916 Location North Sea, near Denmark 56°42′N 5°52′E Result Tactically inconclusive; British dominance of the North Sea maintained
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Australia[1]  Canada[1]	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Sir John Jellicoe  Sir David Beatty	Reinhard Scheer  Franz Hipper
Strength
Total: 151 combat ships 28 battleships 9 battlecruisers 8 armoured cruisers 26 light cruisers 78 destroyers 1 minelayer 1 seaplane carrier	Total: 99 combat ships 16 battleships 5 battlecruisers 6 pre-dreadnoughts 11 light cruisers 61 torpedo-boats[a]
Casualties and losses
6,094 killed 674 wounded 177 captured 3 battlecruisers 3 armoured cruisers 8 destroyers (113,300 tons sunk)[2]	2,551 killed 507 wounded 1 battlecruiser 1 pre-dreadnought 4 light cruisers 5 torpedo-boats (62,300 tons sunk)[2]

The Battle of Jutland (German:Skagerrakschlacht) was a naval battle fought by the Royal Navy'sGrand Fleet (which also included ships and individual personnel from the Royal Australian Navyand Royal Canadian Navy  against the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war. It was only the third-everfleet action between steel battleships, following the smaller but more decisive battles of theYellow Sea (1904) and Tsushima (1905) during the Russo-Japanese War.

The Grand Fleet was commanded by British Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the High Seas Fleet by German Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer. The High Seas Fleet's intention was to lure out, trap and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, as the German naval force was insufficient to successfully engage the entire British fleet. This formed part of a larger strategy to break the British blockade of Germany and to allow German mercantile shipping to operate. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy pursued a strategy to engage and destroy the High Seas Fleet, or keep the German force contained and away from Britain's own shipping lanes.

The German plan was to use Vice-Admiral Franz Hipper's fast scouting group of five modernbattlecruisers to lure Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's battlecruiser squadrons into the path of the main German fleet. Submarines were stationed in advance across the likely routes of the British ships. However, the British learned from signal intercepts that a major fleet operation was likely, so on 30 May Jellicoe sailed with

 the Grand Fleet to rendezvous with Beatty, passing over the locations of the German submarine picket lines while they were unprepared. The German plan had been delayed, causing further problems for their submarines which had reached the limit of their endurance at sea.

On the afternoon of 31 May, Beatty encountered Hipper's battlecruiser force long before the Germans had expected. In a running battle, Hipper successfully drew the British vanguardinto the path of the High Seas Fleet. By the time Beatty sighted the larger force and turned back towards the British main fleet, he had lost two battlecruisers from a force of six battlecruisers and four battleships, against the five ships commanded by Hipper. The battleships, commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas, were the last to turn and formed a rearguard as Beatty withdrew, now drawing the German fleet in pursuit towards the main British positions. Between 18:30, when the sun was lowering on the western horizon, backlighting the German forces, and nightfall at about 20:30, the two fleets – totalling 250 ships between them – directly engaged twice.

Fourteen British and eleven German ships were sunk, with great loss of life. After sunset, and throughout the night, Jellicoe manoeuvered to cut the Germans off from their base, hoping to continue the battle the next morning, but under the cover of darkness Scheer broke through the British light forces forming the rearguard of the Grand Fleet and returned to port.

Both sides claimed victory. The British lost more ships and twice as many sailors, and the British press criticised the Grand Fleet's failure to force a decisive outcome, but Scheer's plan of destroying a substantial portion of the British fleet also failed. The Germans' 'fleet in being' continued to pose a threat, requiring the British to keep 

their battleships concentrated in the North Sea, but the battle confirmed the German policy of avoiding all fleet-to-fleet contact. At the end of the year, after further unsuccessful attempts to reduce the Royal Navy's numerical advantage, the German Navy turned its efforts and resources to unrestricted submarine warfare and the destruction of Allied and neutral shipping which by April 1917 triggered the United States of America's declaration of war on Germany.

Subsequent reviews commissioned by the Royal Navy generated strong disagreement between supporters of Jellicoe and Beatty concerning the two admirals' performance in the battle. Debate over their performance and the significance of the battle continues today.