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Did Britain Or Germany Win Battle Of Jutland?

Did Britain Or Germany Win Battle Of Jutland?

Most British people tend not to think about Jutland as much as the big land battles of the Somme and Ypres.

That is partly because there are not any well-tended cemeteries to visit, and you cannot do a walking tour of the North Sea.

But it is also because the battle itself has always been a bit puzzling.

Its scale was extraordinary - a battlefield of hundreds of square miles and a full-scale clash between two of the mightiest fleets the world has ever seen.

Almost 300 vessels were in action and the loss of more than 6,000 British sailors makes it the Royal Navy's bloodiest ever day.

But who won?

It was the only time in the war the main strength of the Royal Navy and Germany's High Seas Fleet confronted each other. These were by far the most technologically advanced, and militarily powerful, institutions in the world.

The Dreadnought class of battleship was the supreme marvel of the age. A modern sailor boarding one would find himself instantly at home.

These were mighty ships, infinitely closer to a modern warship than to the navy of Nelson. It is also worth remembering that submarine warfare was a vital part of the war right from the start.

But despite their terrifying modernity, naval ships in this era still had fairly rudimentary communications. This is one thing that makes naval combat in WWI very similar to land combat - the technology of killing was very advanced, but the technology of communications during battle could be primitive.

Often during the Battle of Jutland, ships had to communicate using flags and lamps.

So what was the strategic position? Very simply, Britain had naval supremacy and the Kaiser had one task - to smash it.

The Royal Navy was the world's policeman, as it had been since Nelson. The navy kept the hastily assembled British Army supplied and transported on the Western Front and throughout the world. And, crucially, it instituted a blockade of Germany, denying them food.

Effectively, this was siege warfare. The Germans knew they had to break the British stranglehold in the North Sea.

British admirals like Jellicoe and Fisher, the First Sea Lord, were not fools. They knew not to risk a full-scale battle.

So the Germans had to seduce them into one. This they managed on 31 May 1916.

The 24 hours that followed were frankly a lesson in seamanship for the Royal Navy. Several major ships were lost and British captains were frequently outwitted by their counterparts.

German gunnery, spontaneity, and even courage all seemed superior.

At one point Admiral Beatty, a senior British officer, exclaimed in panic: "There's something wrong with our bloody ships today!"

When news of the battle filtered through to Berlin, the Kaiser released a statement saying: "The spell of Trafalgar is broken."

British public opinion was profoundly shocked: they had been brought up to believe the Royal Navy was invincible. Together with the Army's unprecedented casualty lists on land, it was extremely disorientating.

So did Germany win? No.

Although its top brass won tactically, they completely failed to overturn Britain's strategic dominance.

The blockade on food continued. In desperation, in January 1917, Germany turned to "unrestricted submarine warfare" - the sinking of merchant vessels without warning. But it was to no avail.

The results of their failure at Jutland were seen in 1918, when a massive military offensive on the Western Front was initially successful but then ran out of steam when many starving troops, coming across shops full of goods, deserted to eat and drink.

Meanwhile in Germany itself, a tired and hungry workforce gave vent to their anger in a series of rebellions.

The 1918 offensive was Germany's last throw of the dice - a brilliant and almost successful attempt to strike through the Allied lines and divide British and French forces. It succeeded in 1940 but failed in 1918, largely because the Royal Navy's blockade had brought the German people to their knees.

The 100th anniversary of Jutland is an opportunity to reflect on one of the war's most tantalising might-have-beens.

And it is time to remember the human losses.

Vera Brittain, a nurse during the war and author of Testament Of Youth, wrote poignantly of Jutland: "The one indisputable fact was that hundreds of young men, many of them midshipmen only just in their teens, had gone down without hope of rescue or understanding of the issues to a cold, anonymous grave."