Jutland: Clash of the Dreadnoughts

It was the largest naval engagement of World War I, fought between the navies of Britain and Germany off the Danish coast, and featuring the ships de jour, the Dreadnaughts; i.e., battleships. The Brits outnumbered the Germans in almost all respects and drove the Kriegsmarine back into the haven of its port, yet the Brits lost four of its treasured Dreadnaughts and suffered more damage. Tweenty-five ships in all went down. This film is an attempt to figure out why that happened.

It is, alas, hampered by a framing story involving an undersea exploration of the wrecks, now about one hundred years old. We have to sit through the adventurers and marine engineers worrying if they can find the exact spot they're looking for; their barely restrained joy at discovering a couple of lumps by radar on the sea bed. Unless they're very well done and nicely photographed, the footage from these expeditions always strikes me as boring. The viewer's grasp of images is befouled by murky water, unidentifiable structures of twisted steel, and everything festooned with seaweed. The heart races alarmingly if a fish flashes past the camera. But these particular wrecks are only 50 meters deep and relatively easy to reach so we get to know them intimately.

After 1900, in the absence of airplanes, the nations turned their attention to Dreadnaughts, thickly armored and formidably armed. And pretty ugly by today's standards. Germany built a Dreadnaught. Britannia, ruler of the seas since Lord Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, not to be outdone, launched its own Dreadnaught. A Dreadnaught race began and there were soon Dreadnaughts all over the place. When Britain entered the war in 1914, she had about 36 compared to her rival Germany's 25. Britain's Dreadnaughts were berthed at Scapa Flow at the northern tip of Scotland, in a position to intercept any excursion by the German fleet. It was the closest they could get to a naval blockade of Germany.

Commanding the British fleet was Admiral Jellicoe, a name familiar through the medium of T. S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," which is hilarious and should be required reading in every course in military science. In fact, you should read it at once. Here is an excerpt describing Macavity, the mystery cat, ripped off from Sherlock Holmes. It's read by an English Count, which lends the brief recitation an air of positive nobility, although I regret to say that the reader sometimes seems a little drunk. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY3V0s8eRcs) Opposing Jellicoe was Admiral Scheer. Scheer wanted a crack at the Grand Fleet and used as bait the shelling of coastal British towns. Jellicoe had to respond and did so by detaching four battle cruisers under Admiral Beatty and stationing them farther south. However the Brits managed to intercept German radio messages and dispatched the entire fleet south before the Germans had even left port. Damn, the Brits are good at breaking codes and fogging up the enemy. They lied so proficiently at the Falkland Islands too. At any rate, Beatty now was sailing towards the German fleet with the greatest assemblage of warships the world had ever seen. The engagement was about to begin -- and kill roughly 8,500 men.

Beatty's six battle cruisers had some bad luck, silhouetted against the lowering western sun, while the five Germans were back up against a fog bank. Yet the Brits committed serious tactical errors, which I won't go into. The first ship to take a hit was British. The first to be sunk was another British battle cruiser, which exploded in an enormous ball of fire and left only two survivors. Each side now had five capital ships. HMS Queen Mary was regarded as the best of the lot. She too was blown up and took most of her crew with her. It was a disaster. Admiral Beatty remarked, "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today," and turned his fleet around. Beatty steamed north with the remainder of his battle cruisers, the German fleet in hot pursuit.

What Scheer didn't know was that four genuine battleships, the main British fleet, was slogging its way southward to join the battle. As compared to the swift but lightly armored battle cruisers, the battleships were slower but heavily protected by steel all around, including the deck. The film doesn't mention it but the absence of deck armor on battle cruisers made them very vulnerable to plunging fire. That's what happens when big ships fire at one another from a great distance. The shells don't travel in a straight line. They arc high into the air and drop like bombs onto the enemy decks. But added to this was the mishandling of explosives aboard the British ships. Doors that should have been dogged shut were left open to expedite the transfer of cordite. Thus, when one bag of cordite cooked off, so did the others, and the result was a flash fire throughout the ship's bowels and an enormous explosion.

The end result of the twenty-four hours of battle was that the British lost much more in ships and men than the Germans did. None of the commanders committed grave mistakes, and Admiral Scheer's maneuvers were exactly what was needed. However, the German ships had been badly mauled too. Although they didn't explode so eagerly, they took many hits resulting in many deaths and injuries and considerable battle damage. Scheer left the field and returned to port, recommending that in the future more emphasis be placed on submarine warfare. The British blockade continued.

A briefer but more comprehensive description of the battle and its aftermath may be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_UryFjKUsM