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The History Book Club discussion
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
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THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND
It looks like communication or lack of was really important in this battle. It seems odd to me that the Germans had better communication than the British but it may be that the tradition of the flag systems kept the British from trying new things.In World War II it was the same sort of thing where the German tanks had better communication systems and were able to out coordinate and fight the British and French tanks which were just as powerful as the ones the Germans were using at this time in that war.
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Fortunately for the Allies, they were ultimately able to overcome some of these German strengths.
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by
Peter HartSynopsis:
Based on letters, diaries, unpublished memoirs, interviews, books and other sources, this detailed study examines the whole event from the perspective of participants on both sides and from all ranks. Relive the dramatic intensity of the battle, and the all too sad aftermath.
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by Andrew GordonSynopsis:
When published in hardcover in 1997, this book was praised for providing an engrossing education not only in naval strategy and tactics but in Victorian social attitudes and the influence of character on history. In juxtaposing an operational with a cultural theme, the author comes closer than any historian yet to explaining what was behind the often described operations of this famous 1916 battle at Jutland. Although the British fleet was victorious over the Germans, the cost in ships and men was high, and debates have raged within British naval circles ever since about why the Royal Navy was unable to take advantage of the situation. In this book Andrew Gordon focuses on what he calls a fault-line between two incompatible styles of tactical leadership within the Royal Navy and different understandings of the rules of the games.
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by V.E. Tarrant (no photo)Synopsis:
For the Germans, the Battle of Jutland in 1916 should have been a simple set piece that lured the British Grand Fleet into a lethal trap. Instead, it turned into a confused, rambling conflict. The Royal Navy suffered higher losses, but the German fleet never again ventured out of harbor to fight. Using previously unseen records, action reports, letters, plus charts and drawings of major warships, a naval historian tells this absorbing tale from the German perspective. It sheds new light on just what happened.
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by
Daniel Allen ButlerSynopsis:
Distant Victory is an examination of the great sea fight at Jutland that is more than a mere balance sheet of ships sunk and lives lost, or an account of which fleet fled before the other. Rather, it is an a retelling of the battle that reveals its long-term consequences set in motion by the decisions both the Germans and the British made as a result of each fleet's experience at Jutland. While the German High Seas Fleet could claim a tactical victory because it sank more ships and inflicted higher casualties on the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet than the British did to the Germans, the British could rightly claim that strategically they won the battle, for when it was over the German warships had retreated to the safety of their harbors, having failed in their objective of defeating the Grand Fleet in detail.
For the past nine decades the Battle of Jutland has been history's most hotly debated and least understood naval action. Treated usually as a tactical German victory or else as a draw, and dismissed as strategically indecisive, it has been remembered by historians as for its lost opportunities, mistakes, and sheer scale, the largest naval surface action ever fought and the greatest clash of battleships the world would ever see. The Battle of Jutland has never been seen as one of the decisive battles of the First World War.
Thanks so much for those additions, Jerome. This topic hasn't had any activity for quite a while; hopefully this will get it started again.To better understand the subject, here is a summary of the Battle of Jutland.
The Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland is considered to be the only major naval
battle of World War One. Jutland witnessed the British Navy losing more men and ships but the verdict of the Battle of Jutland was that the German Navy lost and was never in a position again to put to sea during the war. Admiral John Jellicoe's tactics were criticised by some, but after the battle the British Navy remained a powerful fighting force whereas the German High Seas fleet was not.
Why was the battle fought? It was generally believed that Britain had naval supremacy not only in Europe but also throughout the world. One of the major clashes involving Germany and Britain before the outbreak of war in August 1914, was what was described as the naval race between the two nations. The British public had grown to believe that Britain could not be challenged when its navy was concerned. The song “Rule Britannia” was very much in this mould as the song starts “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britain never, never, never shall be slaves.” A strong British navy was expected by the public, as was the inevitable naval victory.
At the start of the war, Britain was involved in two minor naval clashes – Heligoland and Dogger Bank. A full-scale naval clash between Germany and Britain had not occurred. Germany’s fleet was smaller than Britain’s but both fleets benefited from the development in 1906 of the Dreadnought. Overnight, all warships were redundant in terms of what they could do relative to the Dreadnought. The new design was quickly latched onto by the Germans and a naval race began.
Two fleets with such power could inflict great damage on the other. One argument that has been put forward for the lack of naval activity at the start of the war is that both fleets basically avoided a major clash for fear that it would be decisive and leave their respective nation's vulnerable to attack.
The British Navy in the North Sea was based in Rosyth, Cromarty and Scapa Flow. Here it could protect the central and northern areas of the North Sea and stop the German High Seas Fleet from getting into the Atlantic where it could cause huge problems for Britain’s merchant fleet. The British believed that the Germans would not try to rush the English Channel and face the might of the British Navy based in Portsmouth and Plymouth. Therefore, it was reckoned that the German Navy could only operate in the North Sea.
The British had by 1916 put up an effective blockade of Germany. Germany’s northern coastline was very small and any blockade was easy to enforce. Up to 1916, the German High Seas Fleet had been commanded by Admiral von Poul. He was considered to be too passive in his approach to what the German Navy could do. In 1916, von Poul was replaced by the far more aggressive Admiral Reinhardt von Scheer. He decided that the blockade had gone too far and was causing too much damage to Germany.
Scheer wanted to lure out of their respective naval bases parts of the British fleet and using a combination of submarines and surface boats attack and destroy them. On the night of the 24th and 25th of April 1916, the German Navy attacked the coastal towns of Lowestoft and Yarmouth. The idea was that the British fleet would respond to this.
In May, Scheer ordered Admiral von Hipper to sea with 40 ships to move along the Danish coast. The news of this movement reached Admiral Jellicoe in Rosyth. He saw this movement of such a large force as a provocative move and ordered the Grand Fleet to put to sea. The Battle of Jutland started on May 31st 1916.
Finding where the enemy’s fleet was proved a reasonably difficult task. Spotter reconnaissance planes were far too unreliable to cover the distance required over the North Sea. Therefore, fast cruisers were sent out by both fleets to discover where the other was. When both did find the other there was a brief exchange of fire but both had done their task – hunting down the enemy.
Now that the British had found the Germans, Jellicoe was joined by the fleet based at Scapa Flow led by Sir David Beatty. Fifty-two ships joined the Grand Fleet. Jellicoe and Beatty faced a fleet of forty German ships led by Admiral Hipper. They opened fire at one another at a distance of about ten miles. Though they were a smaller force, the initial advantage lay with the Germans who were helped with their visibility by the lay of the sun.
Just after 16.00, the British battle cruiser “Indefatigable” was destroyed by the Germans. One thousand men lost their lives when a magazine exploded. Nearly thirty minutes later, “Queen Mary” was sunk in just ninety seconds.
The position of the British became more difficult when Hipper was joined by Scheer’s High Seas Fleet. Jellicoe’s force was about fifteen miles from Beatty’s force when the actual battle started. As the two British fleets converged, the British suffered a third major loss when the “Invincible” was sunk shortly after 18.30.
When the two fleets did join, they represented an awesome force and Hipper ordered the German fleet to sail north. Jellicoe interpreted this move as an attempt to lure the British fleet into either a submarine trap or a German mine field – or both. Therefore, he did not follow the retiring German fleet. Jellicoe decided to sail his fleet south to cut off the Germans when they tried to sail for home.
Both fleets clashed again as the Germans sailed for port. The German ship “Lutzow” was sunk. “Seydlitz” and “Derfflinger” were badly damaged.
The Germans claimed that Jutland was a victory for them as they had sunk more capital ships than the British. Jellicoe claimed that the victory belonged to the British as his fleet was still a sea worthy entity whereas the German High Seas fleet was not. The British did lose more ships (14 ships and over 6,000 lives) than the Germans (9 ships and over 2,500 casualties). But the German fleet was never again to be in a position to put to sea and challenge the British Navy in the North Sea. (Source: www.historylearningsite.co.uk )
And for background:Dreadnought
by
Robert K. MassieSynopsis:
Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Robert K. Massie has written a richly textured and gripping chronicle of the personal and national rivalries that led to the twentieth century's first great arms race. Massie brings to vivid life, such historical figures as the single-minded Admiral von Tirpitz, the young, ambitious, Winston Churchill, the ruthless, sycophantic Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow, and many others. Their story, and the story of the era, filled with misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and events leading to unintended conclusions, unfolds like a Greek tratedy in his powerful narrative. Intimately human and dramatic, DREADNOUGHT is history at its most riveting.
Massie has also written a follow on to Dreadnought that includes Jutland
by
Robert K. MassieSynopsis:
This is the story of World War I at sea. Mr. Massie covers all the battles, including Dogger Bank and Jutland, and the personalities. Very fitting sequal to Dreadnought
FTR I think both are 5 star reads.
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by Robert K. Massie..."
I did enjoy Massie's history of the war at sea. The only handicap is that it focuses only on the naval conflict between Germany and Britian rather than all the other naval conflicts, but Massie's is a pretty thorough treatment of that subject.
The British won......no, wait a minute, the Germans won. The fact is nobody won and it was pretty much a draw.The Battle of Jutland 1916
by George Bonney (no photo)Synopsis:
The Battle of Jutland was the greatest naval battle of World War I, representing the culmination of the war on the surface of the sea between Britain and Germany, and of the preparations for naval combat that began in 1897. There is controversy to this day over who really won the battle. The fighting took place in the confined waters of the North Sea, just off the entrance to the Skagerrak and the Danish province of Jutland. Both Germany and Britain fielded great numbers of Dreadnought battleships, with scouting cruisers, protecting destroyers, and torpedo boats. The carnage was massive, and heavy losses were suffered—some 6,097 British seamen and 2,551 German seamen had lost their lives. Germany claimed and continues to claim victory. But, although the Royal Navy's grand fleet suffered greatly in terms of ships and men lost, the net result was that for the rest of the war the German High Seas Fleet ceased to be a threat to Allied surface shipping. Lavishly illustrated with archive photographs and paintings, this book presents the Jutland story in an engaging and accessible style.
Written the the Commander of Britain's Grand Fleet, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, this book follows the build-up of the British Navy which culminated in the Battle of Jutland.The Grand Fleet 194-1918
by John Rushworth Jellicoe (no photo)Synopsis:
This history of the British Grand Fleet from 1914 to 1916 was written by its commander, Admiral John Rushworth Jellicoe. It is a detailed analysis of the Royal Navy's strategic, tactical, and logistical problems during the first two years of the First World War from the point-of-view of a professional naval officer at the highest level. It details the operations of the British Grand Fleet which was assigned the responsibility of defending the stormy North Sea against the Imperial German Navy. Admiral Jellicoe was forced to cope with many unprecedented changes in the conduct of naval warfare brought about by such things as the submarine, torpedoes, long-range gunnery, aircraft, and airships, all of which demanded the development of entirely new tactics and strategies. The challenge to Admiral Jellicoe was huge, as these new technologies were being aggressively developed by the Germans, giving them the most technologically advanced navy in the world at that time. Substantial destruction of the Grand Fleet at their hands would have doomed Britain to catastrophic defeat. Admiral Jellicoe's narrative begins with the outbreak of war in 1914 when he was given command of the Grand Fleet, Britain's largest and most vital fleet, culminating with its stupendous encounter in 1916 with the German High Sea Fleet off Jutland in the greatest sea battle yet fought, after which he was promoted to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord.
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A very in-depth look at the battle of Jutland and the strengths and weaknesses of the British and German fleets.British Dreadnought vs German Dreadnought
by Mark Stille (no photo)Synopsis
In 1916, in the seas near Jutland, two fleets of armoured dreadnoughts met in open battle. This book tells the story of the British and German battleships of these two great fleets - from their development as the first generation of fully- armoured warships - to their combat experiences. The differing weapon systems and crew training of the British and German fleets are examined in detail, as is the titanic struggle of Jutland, through an hour-by-hour, shot-by-shot, reconstruction. Finally, it analyzes the outcome of the struggle, explaining the successes and failures of these great battleships.
The only major battle seen by the fleet built by von Tirpitz was Jutland......and it ended in a draw.Tirpitz: Architect of the German High Seas Fleet
by Michael Epkenhans (no photo)Synopsis:
Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930), who joined the Prussian Navy in 1865 as a midshipman, was chiefly responsible for rapidly developing and enlarging the German Navy, especially the High Seas Fleet, from 1897 until the years immediately prior to the First World War. Epkenhans uses newly discovered documents to provide a fresh treatment of this important naval leader.
In 1897, Tirpitz became the Secretary of State of the Imperial Navy Department. In four major building acts of 1898, 1900, 1908, and 1912, and, in working closely with Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tirpitz expanded the Imperial Navy from a small coastal force into a major blue-water navy. Great Britain, reacting with alarm to this challenge to its overseas trade and naval supremacy, accelerated the naval arms race by launching a revolutionary type of battleship, the Dreadnought, in 1906 and entering into strategic alliances with France and Russia. By the start of the First World War in 1914, the British Royal Navy still held a sizable advantage in capital ships over Germany, so that only one notable fleet action, Jutland in 1916, took place during the war.
Tirpitz, who had become the German Navy commander with the outbreak of the war, thereafter became a staunch advocate of unrestricted submarine warfare. This policy did not differentiate between neutral and belligerent shipping and proved so controversial with the neutral United States that Germany was forced to retract it, albeit only temporarily. In the meantime, Tirpitz tendered his resignation to the Kaiser, who surprisingly accepted it. Tirpitz remained a minor figure thereafter, later serving the right-wing Fatherland Party as a deputy in the Reichstag.
Not much of a GR blurb but good reviews.Flawed Victory: Jutland, 1916
by Keith Yates(no photo)Synopsis:
With style and verve, Yates expertly analyzes the Battle of Jutland and the post-war controversy.
One of my favorite books on the famous battle of Jutland.Battle of Jutland
by Jonathan Sutherland(no photo)Synopsis:
The Battle of Jutland was the greatest naval engagement of the First World War, if not any war. Admiral Scheer had adopted a policy of launching attacks against the British coast. What he did not know was that the British had broken his naval codes and that they knew of his plans. Consequently, when Scheer threw his entire fleet in a mission to attack the British mainland in May 1916, he could not know that the Royal Navy at Scapa Flow were underway. This is a fresh account of this greatest naval engagement, it offers fascinating insight into the events preceding the action, the tactics during the battle and the political and military fall-out. The book draws on released official records and personal accounts. Jellicoe failed to ensnare Scheer and the bulk of the German fleet which escaped battered, but intact. The Germans knew however that despite their great fleet, it was the Royal Navy that controlled the North Sea.
I have never understood the importance of the Battle of Jutland. British sea power was at its peak but the German High Fleet escaped and stayed in port for the rest of the war. The battle was basically a draw although both sides declared victory. I am obviously missing something regarding this battle which, although it involved a multitude of ships, it was basically was rather anticlimactic. Somebody tell me I'm wrong and am just being obtuse!
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Thanks, Jerome. I was beginning to think that I was missing the point. It accomplished very little strategically and I never could get the point of it being "the most important sea battle of all time".
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Yeah, I haven't come across any historians that argue Jutland was one of history's decisive battles. A lot of people back then expected the German or British navies to smash the enemy in a decisive victory like Trafalgar, but in retrospect such an idea belonged to an earlier age.
All that build-up of dreadnoughts....a race between England and Germany to build bigger, faster, and more powerful ships and it came down to Jutland!
It certainly was destructive. Peter Hart records how when the Indefatigable was sunk all but two of the 1,019 men were killed.More followed. Hart really highlights how the weak armour of the British battlecruisers was such a factor.
He summarises; "Jellicoe was above all a pragmatist: his success at Jutland was made in that image - the status quo would continue and for Germany that marked a strategic defeat."
Thanks so much for your post, Bevan. The Battle of Jutland will probably always cause historians to point out the importance/non-importance of that meeting of two large navies. It makes for good discussion.BTW, your book citation is close but needs the author's link, as such:
by
Peter Hart
Haha I'll get there eventually! Lets have another go. Peter Hart has also produced a brand new book (Kindle now, hardback next year) that is based on the 183 interviews he carried out for the Imperial War Museum in the 1980s and early 1990s. One interview was 22 hours long!As a taste, here's an extract of a Midshipman on HMS Tiger who found the final arrival of the confrontation a relief:
"At last the two main fleets were in action. I remember thinking to myself, 'Well, we've lost a lot and we're going to lose more. But we don't mind losing this and that as long as the two fleets meet'. This moment had arrived and there was a feeling of extraordinary relief - rather patriotic relief perhaps. It was absolutely wonderful to see the battleships opening fire. I thought, 'Well, this is the end!'.
by
Peter Hart
Interesting information, Bevan. The two great navies of the world finally meeting....I imagine it would be exhilarating for the participants to finally see the ships en masse that they had heard about.......bigger than any ships that ever sailed and armed to the teeth. Wouldn't Admiral Lord Nelson have loved it!!!!
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Release date: August 8, 2016
Jutland 1916: Twelve Hours That Decided The Great War
by Angus Konstam (no photo)Synopsis:
Using a narrative approach, Jutland 1916 – Twelve Hours that Decided the War tells the story of the Battle of Jutland, the greatest naval clash of the First World War. Drawing on a wealth of first-hand accounts, some of which were previously unknown, it weaves a highly original narrative, which intertwines original research, into a fast-paced account of the fighting. This is the only book on the battle to use a narrative thread to tell the story from both the British and German perspectives and will provide a fresh perspective on this decisive battle.
That sound like a goody, Jerome. I am of two minds about who was the "victor" at Jutland. I guess I lean toward the British since they drove the High Seas fleet back into harbor where it remained for the rest of the war.It was an interesting battle to say the least.
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Release date: July 1, 2016
The Battle of Jutland
by
John BrooksSynopsis:
This is a major new account of the Battle of Jutland, the key naval battle of the First World War in which the British Grand Fleet engaged the German High Seas Fleet off the coast of Denmark in 1916. Beginning with the building of the two fleets, John Brooks reveals the key technologies employed, from ammunition, gunnery and fire control, to signalling and torpedoes, as well as the opposing commanders' tactical expectations and battle orders. In describing Jutland's five major phases, he offers important new interpretations of the battle itself and how the outcome was influenced by technology, as well as the tactics and leadership of the principal commanders, with the reliability of their own accounts of the fighting reassessed. The book draws on contemporary sources which have rarely been cited in previous accounts, including the despatches of both the British and German formations, along with official records, letters and memoirs.
Another of those books that have no GR blurb but good reviews.Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting
by John Campbell (no photo)Synopsis
The authoritative work on the great sea battle of World War I.
Bryan wrote: "And for background:Dreadnought
by Robert K. Massie"Review: this book has been praised to seventh heaven and back, what can I add ? It does not tell the neatly wrapped story of the origins of WWI, nor does it focus exclusively on the naval armaments race between the British and German empires. At over a 1000 pages it is certainly not aimed at the novice history aficionado.
Rather, it is a score written for the saga of Clark and MacMillan*. All aspects of the rising antagonism between the Great Powers of Europe make an appearance in the flesh, resurrected from contemporary sources down to entire conversations quoted ad verbatim.
Well-known tableaux such as the funeral of Edward VII (which opened for the Guns of August) and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary (printed to death) are joined by episodes that usually warrant scant lines, even tough they are each marked as stepstones on the road to the outbreak of war:
Here, the French brave the perils of the Sahara only to wearily watch a British flotilla approach Fashoda. Here, the Kaiser's unruly horse ruins the majesty of his entry in Tangier; six years later a solitary, frustrated German merchant waves the gunboat "Panther" to shore in order to justify an armed intervention in Morocco. Here, two Jewish businessmen make a last-minute bid to ease the Anglo-German antagonism by inviting Lord Haldane for a mission.
The Leitmotif of the book is the naval race. Fisher's impact upon the development of the Dreadnought and the reorientation of naval defence towards protecting the Home Islands from the Hochseeflotte is similarky humanized and stripped of its inevitability. Here, the mercurial Fisher prevails thanks to his good rappport with the King, beset on all sides by powerful opponents within the naval establishment.
For those familiar with the facts of European diplomacy and defence in the period ca. 1890-1914, Massie will bring them to life with love.
A release announced for 2017: Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield
byInnes Mccartney(no photo)Synopsis:
The Battle of Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the First World War. For years the myriad factors contributing to the loss of many of the ships remained a mystery, subject only to speculation and theory.
In this book, marine archaeologist and historian Dr Innes McCartney reveals for the first time what became of the warships that vanished on the night of 31st May 1916, examining the circumstances behind the loss of each ship and reconciling what was known in 1916 to what the archaeology is revealing today. The knowledge of what was present was transformed in 2015 by a groundbreaking survey using the modern technology of multi-beam. This greatly assisted in unraveling the details behind several Jutland enigmas, not least the devastating explosions which claimed five major British warships, the details of the wrecks of the 13 destroyers lost in the battle and the German warships scuttled during the night phase.
This is the first book to identify the locations of many of the wrecks, and--scandalously--how more than half of these sites have been illegally plundered for salvage, despite their status as war graves. An essential and revealing read for anyone interested in naval history and marine archaeology.
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See post #32 for another book on the Battle of Jutland by this author.Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland: The Question of Fire Control
by
John BrooksSynopsis:
With a foreword by Professor Andrew Lambert, it shows how, in 1913, the Admiralty rejected Arthur Pollen's Argo system for the Dreyer fire control tables. Many naval historians now believe that, consequently, British dreadnoughts were fitted with a system that, despite being partly plagiarised from Pollen's, was inferior: and that the Dreyer Tables were a contributory cause in the sinking of Indefatigable and Queen Mary at Jutland.
This book provides new and revisionist accounts of the Dreyer/Pollen controversy, and of gunnery at Jutland. In fire control, as with other technologies, the Royal Navy had been open, though not uncritically, to innovations. The Dreyer Tables were better suited to action conditions (particularly those at Jutland). Beatty's losses were the result mainly of deficient tactics and training: and his battlecruisers would have been even more disadvantaged had they been equipped by Argo. It follows the development of the Pollen and Dreyer systems, refutes the charges of plagiarism and explains Argo's rejection. It outlines the German fire control system: and uses contemporary sources in a critical reassessment of Beatty's tactics throughout the Battle of Jutland.
Another historian takes on the Battle of Jutland.Jutland 1916: The Ultimate Test
by R J Urquhart (no photo)Synopsis:
On the morning of 1st June 1916, the British Battle-Fleet steamed for base through tonnes of wreckage, bodies of sailors and the flotsam of the largest naval battle of the Great War. The destructive events of the day before are told here...
This was the warm-up for the Battle of Jutland when German dreadnoughts took to the sea for the first time. It was about as anti-climactic as Jutland.Battle of Dogger Bank: The First Dreadnought Engagement
by Tobias Philbin (no photo)Synopsis:
On January 24, 1915, a German naval force commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper conducted a raid on British fishing fleets in the area of the Dogger Banks. The force was engaged by a British force, which had been alerted by a decoded radio intercept. The ensuing battle would prove to be the largest and longest surface engagement until the Battle of Jutland the following summer. While the Germans lost an armored cruiser with heavy loss of life and Hipper's flagship was almost sunk, confusion in executing orders allowed the Germans to escape. The British considered the battle a victory; but the Germans had learned important lessons and they would be better prepared for the next encounter with the British fleet at Jutand. Tobias Philbin's Battle of Dogger Bank provides a keen analytical description of the battle and its place in the naval history of World War I.,
Another pre-Jutland book, but with good emphasis on the long-term defects that would plague the Grand Fleet on 31 may 1916.Before Jutland: The Naval War in Northern European Waters, August 1914 February 1915
by James Goldrick (no photo)Synopsis:
Before Jutland is a definitive study of the naval engagements in northern European waters in 1914 15 when the German High Sea Fleet faced the Grand Fleet in the North Sea and the Russian Fleet in the Baltic. Author James Goldrick reexamines one of the key periods of naval operations in the First World War, arguing that a focus on the campaign on the western front conceals the reality that the Great War was also a maritime conflict. Combining new historical information from primary sources with a comprehensive analysis of the operational issues, this book is an extensive revision of The King s Ships Were at Sea, Goldrick s earlier work on this naval campaign. In all, Before Jutland shows not only what happened, but how the various navies evolved to meet the challenges that they faced during the Great War and whether or not that evolution was successful."
my two cents - part 1Before Jutland: The Naval War in Northern European Waters, August 1914 February 1915 (Paperback)
by James Goldrick (no photo) Before Jutland, the King’s ships were at sea and there was many a thing wrong with them. The professional eye of Rear-Admiral James Goldrick offers an arcane analysis of the Grand Fleet’s deficiencies as revealed during the first 6 months of the war. On the surface, the Royal Navy justly deserved its reputation of invincibility. Not only was it numerically stronger in capital ships, it also boasted the greatest number of Dreadnoughts that combined the speed of a cruiser with the unprecedented firepower of a 12-inch broadside.
The war could yet be lost in an afternoon. Since their main enemy, the German Hochseeflotte , could not hope to achieve parity, much less superiority, it opted for a strategy of mutual assured destruction. The problem, as the nuclear age has shown, is that mutual destruction tends to be applied mutually. Both sides strived for an encounter where the advance guard would pin down its opponent until the main force could close in and annihilate it.
Operationally, this was similar to the massive battle which was grinding down along the frontiers of France, albeit with one crucial difference. The naval version gave a prominent role to a shadowy kind of skirmishers, lurking inconspicuously in advance of the main body. While a modern battleship was all-steel and heavily armoured to withstand the impact of explosive shell that literally weighted a ton and survive to sail another day, it was not immune to the principles of Archimedes A single penetration of the hull under the waterline could sink it as easily as a wooden ship of the line. That is why a screen of torpedo boats and submarines – and their natural enemy, the destroyers - accompanied the battleship squadrons, to tilt the balance even before the broadsides could be brought to bear.
Both weapons saw the light around 1900. The torpedo had evolved from a mine into a self-propelled weapon with a reach of several thousand yards. The diesel-powered submarine had a handful of pre-industrial precedents, but had made its debut in battle as recently as the Russo-Japanese war of 1905. Their capabilities were therefor poorly understood. It was clear that the days of the close blockade were numbered when harbours were defended by these new vessels, but how would they perform in open waters? They were not truly submersibles, since the limited power of their batteries forced them to stay on the surface most of the time and only dive for attack.
The net result was a submarine paranoia which runs through the book like a comic relief through a soap opera. Destroyers would engage phantom submarines after a cruiser hit an errant mine; even solitary foam-capped waves were mistaken for the predator eye of a periscope. Goldcirk anchors the rest of the story firmly within the technology and doctrine of the pre-war Navy.
The celebrated one-volume treatments of the First World War by Keegan & Strachan paint a rosy, almost inspirational picture of the service. It goes something like this. The Armies turned a blind eye to the obsolescence of cavalry and the bayonet and neglected the value of the airplane; as Foch infamously declared, it was only good for sport. By no fault of their own, communications remained stuck on a 19th century level thanks to the cumbersome radio apparatus. By contrast, the navies of the Great Powers were unhindered by misplaced nostalgia. Sailing ships swiftly gave way to ironclads fired by coal and oil. Broadsides by 32-pdr muzzle-loaders with an effective range of a few hundred meters were replaced by breech-loading turrets which could hit a ship miles away. There was sufficient room to accommodate wireless, abolishing the reliance on visual signals.
The reality was less crystal. The most modern compass could completely prevent the all-age guesswork about one’s position on the open sea, even less so in relation to both friend and foe. The effective range of wireless on smaller ships was often insufficient for the flagship to maintain effective control over the line of battle. The continuously belching smoke obscured the traditional flag signals. When it conspired with humid weather to form smog banks, the oily fumes even affected battle.
This was only the most visible of the problems inherent to the age of coal-burning fleets, which would not fully evolve into oil until after the war. Goldrick presents us with some of his most graphic excerpts on this subject, since the men who lived through the transition claimed themselves that people who hadn’t, couldn’t fully imagine the amount of effort required to feed the fire. Even during peacetime manoeuvers, the top speed of the newest capital ships was seldom achieved because of the frightfully high (and thus expensive) consumption rate of the furnaces. The backbreaking labour was continuous and a ship’s de facto cruising speed depended more than anything on easy-to-access coal bunkers. Consequently, the cruising speed of a squadron was dictated by the best effort of its elder pre-Dreadnought capital ships to catch up. The inferior quality of German coal restricted their operative range as a fleet largely to the Heligoland Bight.
Artillery had always been an exact science and naval gunnery in ‘14-‘18 was, despite the development of primitive targeting computers, no less challenging than in the age of sail. Even a 4000 m² ship with a towering superstructure made for an elusive prey while in motion at 10 to 20km distance (beyond pre-war estimates), with its own muzzle flashes the only colourful spot amidst the dull waters and smoke. The number of hits versus expended shells was drastically low, with the misses throwing up curtains of water around the target. On the other hand, when a 12-inch battery found its mark, it could sink a ship within minutes if the crew was lucky enough to score a square hit in the ammo stock. Each country had its own procedures regarding the loading and stocking ammunition from hold to turret, but captains on both sides had to watch helplessly as the next ship (or their own!) vanished in one gigantic explosion.
A final common defect that plagued both the vessels and the crews was as old as war itself. Prussia, with its relatively short Baltic shoreline, had no naval tradition to speak of. The manpower demands of the Kaiserliche Marine were far larger than the number of fishermen etc. who could leaven it with some sea legs. Great Britain had a proud naval tradition, but it had been sitting on the docks for almost a century. Certainly, the Royal Navy had dispatched a field Army to the Crimea and patrolled the shipping lines of the Empire, but it hadn’t operated as a concentrated force in a single theatre of war or maintained a blockade at any distance since the original “Great War” of 1792-1815. The annual peacetime maneuvers were conducted in the mild climate of the azure Mediterranean at low speeds.
These were peacetime navies about to get their first taste of war. The High Commands had no clear idea of the wear and tear that continuous patrols in the foggy greys of the North Sea entailed. The engineers had never driven the engines to the limit for hours on end in a feverish attempt to close the range on a fleeing flag. The crew had never stood by the guns as the walls vibrated with the thunder of impacting shells and the air was thick with the taste of cordite.
Apart from shared constraints by the limits of technology, the Grand Fleet and the Hochseeflotte each had worries of their own. To various extents, they each managed to corroborate the other side’s additional problems. So it goes, as Vonnegut would say. The wealth of sources produced by both sides (mostly post-Jutland), with the interwar German accounts often translated into English, enables us to regularly switch bridges in this balanced account.
The British had a long eastern coastline to protect and wide shipping lanes to patrol as part of their distant blockade. The Germans organized a few sorties against seaside towns, inflicting upon the civilian population the terror of the bombardment of Alexandria (1882) where Jellicoe had served as a young officer.
The existing anchorages for the Grand Fleet squadrons were not only too widely dispersed to timely intercept these raids; they also made it difficult to assemble the fleet for large-scale attacks. Scapa Flow emerged as the solution, but its growth was marked by poor infrastructure, groundings, collisions and a few dastardly U-boat intrusions. The Germans were at an advantage here, with their fleet centered on Wilhelmshaven (to this day it functions as the main naval base and only deep-water port of the Bundesrepublik ).
The shipping lanes which interconnected the vital resources of the Empire, including 50% of the food consumption of the Home Isles and many raw materials for the armaments industry, needed protection. The Germans were able, to In accordance with pre-war strategy, German surface raiding, most famously by the runaway Far East Squadron under Admiral Von Spee, stopped the Royal Navy from concentrating its assets in the North Sea Theater. The dispatching of cruisers to hunt the poachers was partly alleviated by units from the Mediterranean, where the allied French Navy took up the watch.
So far, nothing you can’t hear from Robert K. Massie. Largely. But Goldrick, as befits an Australian, looks out at all sides of the globe. One story of interest not often told concerns neutral Sweden. It played an uneasy game with its minefields, occasionally relaxing the traffic regulations. Why Sweden ?
A distinct flavour comes from the subtitle of the book “the war in Northern European waters” Waterzz as in plural; Goldrick generously includes the operations in the Baltic, with recent gems such as To Crown the Waves (2013) to help with the Russian side of things, since apart from a few submarines the Royal Navy played no part in this theatre. The Russian Imperial Navy was just starting to pull itself together after the near-fatal twin defeats of Port Arthur and Tsushima, but the psychological scars still ran deep. For one “fleet in being” was a principle adhered to in the extreme when it come to the precious new Dreadnoughts. For another, the prospect of a surprise torpedo attack on Kronstadt reinforced a defensive posture, with liberal use of minefields (which, like on the other side of Denmark, occasionally sank friendly vessels). Ironically, Germany was always on the lookout for an amphibious assault on the Baltic coast that could, in the larger scheme of things, cut off the flow between the twin land fronts and the hinterland. As things stood, the Baltic Islands became a center of contention (and the site of a successful German occupation in 1917).
my two cents - part 2Before Jutland: The Naval War in Northern European Waters, August 1914 February 1915
by James Goldrick (no photo)Scouting is a small but highly intriguing subject of comparison: the British used their cruisers as the hunting dogs of tradition next to the first proto-aircraft carriers whose seaplanes were the eyes of the future. The Germans put more effort into their Zeppelins* and preferred to deploy submarines as an early warning system when they were not busy bending the established rules of ‘civilized’ naval warfare by indiscriminately attacking neutral shipping in the War Zone around the Home Isles, until the German ambassador in Washington faced an irate Woodrow Wilson over the sinking of the RMS Lusitania . Dawn bombardments and Zeppelin raids on towns along the East Coast likewise infuriated the British press, pressuring the Grand Fleet into action. A few minor sorties towards Wilhemshaven can be traced back exclusively to this dimension of the total war that was taking shape between the sobbing ruins of civilian targets, but at no point did political pressure launch the military into a turbine-propelled Balaclava.
The battles at Heligoland Bight and the Dogger Bank showed foremost that the ‘piecemeal’ strategy didn’t work out for either side. The elements of the Grand Fleet were (initially) too dispersed to concentrate in time, while the German High Command was too cautious, with the mercurial anxieties of the Kaiser looming over every cancelled sortie in strength. Both sides showed a tendency to increase the minimum size of the sortie force. In the parlance of World War II, a flock of “carrier battle groups” centered around Dreadnought battleships could not easily be cut into motti like Soviet infantry battalions during the Winter War.
Although the main duel between Sheer and Jellicoe still lay over a year in the future at the end, there was too little time to correct these defects, creating a draw at Jutland that we’ll continue to dissect for another century. It is impossible to understand this hotly debated clash without knowledge of how the opposing fleets came into being or how the experience of 1914-15 shaped their commanders. Many respectable works on Jutland will provide this background information in abridged format, but Goldrick twists our head around to see the events ‘prior’ in the contemporary fashion, with pre-war assertions slowly unraveling and every sighting of the sleek Kaiserliche Marine as THE long-awaited opportunity to wreck it into state of irreversible harmlessness.
Overall, this is a worthwhile revision of 1984's The King's Ships Were at Sea...it just DRAGS in the middle because, let's face it, there's not a whole lot of salvoes going on...
*Angus Konstam in his book on Jutland touches upon a wireless monitoring system in South-East England that could deduct the movements of German flotillas based on the intensity of their radio traffic, in a way that is reminiscent of the Chain Home system that traditionally is credited with victory in the Battle of Britain. See also Battlebags and Naval Aviation
Works cited:
The King's Ships Were at Sea: The War in the North Sea, August 1914-February 1915(no cover) byJames Goldrisk (no photo)
by
John Keegan
by
Hew Strachan
&
by
Robert K. Massie.
byVincent P. O'Hara (no photo)
British Airships of the First World War an Illustrated History by Ces Mowthorpe(no photo)
by R.D. Layman (no photo).
by
Angus Konstam
Thanks so much for that recommendation, Dmitri.
I hope you don't mind the two-part structure. I never exactly compared the maximum character length of comments vs reviews, the whole thing originally fit just fine into a singular review field, cited works & all.
Not a problem, Dimitri. It is preferred that the post be a singular structure but sometimes there is so much more to say about a book that it takes a little more than the maximum character length. Great review, btw.
Jutland 1916: Clash of the Dreadnoughts 
Synopsis :
The only major fleet engagement of World War I (1914-1918), the Battle of Jutland (1916) has been surrounded by controversy ever since. The British public felt Admiral Jellicoe had failed – a reaction rooted in a hundred years of the 'Nelson cult', a conviction that anything short of a Trafalgar-style annihilation was letting the side down. True, the German Fleet had sunk more ships and suffered fewer casualties, but the British had forced them to disengage and run for port and were still cruising off Denmark spoiling for a fight. This title recounts in detail how on an early summer's evening in 1916, the two fleets clashed head to head: the events that followed would spark a polemic that still rages today.
my two cents :
A handy millennial companion to the centennial Jutland 1916 . The strengths of the Osprey format are used to the full, recapulating each phase of the battle, be it a flotilla run or a duel, with some first-class colour maps. Charles London knows how to capture the essence of things with a memorable metaphor, for example “Thanks to the Kaiser, after Helgoland [Blight] Admiral Von Ingenohl had to wage a naval campaign with one hand tied behind his back.” (p. 59).
In its brevity, it even finds time to offer information not fully covered by fellow Osprey author Angus Konstam. His paragraphs on naval intelligence are worth summarizing here: Wireless receiving stations enabled Britain to compare German signal strength to know where their ships were situated or coming from, adding to the information gathered by encryption. The German coastline, by contrast, was too ragged to make this approach effective. Rather, they once again put the concentration of their naval power on the western edge of the Empire to their advantage for intelligence gathering. Early warning of British sorties was given by U-boats prowling Scapa Flow etc. as well as Zeppelin sweeps up to the British coasts.
In short, the corpus and catography of this book still have value in 2016. So does the Further Reading section: if The Rules of the Game and Jutland an Analysis of the Fighting were still the must-haves in 2000, their continued relevance amidst new additions such as Jutland: The Unfinished Battle and Skagerrak .
Works cited:
by
Angus Konstam
by Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon (no photo)
by John Campbell (no photo)Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes (no cover) by Gary Staff (no photo)
by Nick Jellicoe no photo* I hope to read all of these. They're owned already.
Dimitri...........Since you are on a Battle of Jutland reading phase, I am interested to hear what you think about the battle. There is so many different opinions about who won, why, and was it important. This question was discussed earlier in this topic but I enjoy hearing what everyone who is interested in this battle has to say. Your thoughts?
Jill wrote: "Dimitri...........Since you are on a Battle of Jutland reading phase, I am interested to hear what you think about the battle. There is so many different opinions about who won, why, and was it imp..."Jill.... I could get back to you on that when I'm done with that little collection. On the other hand, perhaps my judgement is less murky now that I haven't been drawn fully into a century of printed controversy over Jutland, but have been told the main lines of the Great War at sea often enough to put the battle into context; this is thanks to a shift in historiography away from the overriding importance of the Western Front.
Jutland was a draw because neither side achieved its objective of annihilating the enemy fleet, with a slight advantage to the British as they reduced the Hochseeflotte to a fleet in being sufficiently weak that it could no longer disturb naval strategy. The initial safeguarding of worldwide naval supply lines & the blockade of Germany were in the end more decisive than the long-anticipated fleet battle.
With the benefit of hindsight, other positive qualities can be attributed to a battle like Jutland. The prospect kept Britain focussed on her strong point (the Navy) while it diverted the resources of Germany away from U-boat development or a cheaper large fleet of raiders that could've pushed the Royal Navy into an imperial overstretch. The probability of unrestricted U-boat warfare succesfully taking over the task of surface ships to sever supply close to the Home Islands, I can't judge sufficiently, however greater numbers could've compensated for technological restrictions to turn the tide.
In short, Jutland made both sides think naval warfare over. "This battleship clash thing isn't working out as well as we tought it would, maybe there's better ways we can win at sea."
P.S. Since this seems to be the only naval topic for WWI in the group (?)...Jutland's sure to get a fat chapter in this upcoming release. Vincent O'Hara has proven his worth as a naval historian for a prime publisher.
Clash of Fleets: Naval Battles of the Great War, 1914 18
<Clash of Fleets: Naval Battles of the Great War, 1914 18 (no cover) by Vincent P O'Hara (no photo)
Synopsis :
Clash of Fleets is an operational history that records every naval engagement fought between major surface warships during World War I. Much more than a catalog of combat facts, Clash of Fleets explores why battles occurred; how the different navies fought; and how combat advanced doctrine and affected the development and application of technology. The result is a holistic overview of the war at sea as it affected all nations and all theaters of war. A work of this scope is unprecedented.Organized into seven chapters, the authors first introduce the technology, weapons, ships, and the doctrine that governed naval warfare in 1914. The next five chapters explore each year of the war and are subdivided into sections corresponding to major geographic areas. This arrangement allows the massive sweep of action to be presented in a structured and easy to follow format that includes engagements fought by the Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Ottoman, and Russian Navies in the Adriatic, Aegean, Baltic, Black, Mediterranean, and North Seas as well as the Atlantic, India, and Pacific Oceans. The role of surface combat in the Great War is analyzed and these actions are compared to major naval wars before and after.
In addition to providing detailed descriptions of actions in their historical perspectives, O Hara and Heinz advance several themes, including the notion that World War I was a war of navies as much as a war of armies. They explain that surface combat had a major impact on all aspects of the naval war and on the course of the war in general. Finally, Clash of Fleets illustrates that systems developed in peace do not always work as expected in war, that some are not used as anticipated, and that others became unexpectedly important. There is much for today s naval professional to consider in the naval conflict that occurred a century ago."
P.S. Can we post in multiple threads ? This book felt like it also belonged in "Warships and their navies" and "Famous sea battles"
Mod
I am sorry that Jill did not get back to you Dmitri.
Not a problem. I'll use my best judgement for future doubles.
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The Battle of Jutland (other topics)Jutland: World War I's Greatest Naval Battle (other topics)
Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield (other topics)
Clash of Fleets: Naval Battles of the Great War, 1914-18 (other topics)
Jutland an Analysis of the Fighting (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Geoffrey Bennett (other topics)Michael Epkenhans (other topics)
Innes McCartney (other topics)
Vincent P. O'Hara (other topics)
Gary Staff (other topics)
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One of the books which discusses The Battle of Jutland is Keegan's book on pages 261-274 of The First World War.