Famous Naval Warfare in World War 1: The Battle of Jutland, the Only Engagement Naval Warfare Engagement.

The Battle of Jutland involve several 250 ships and 100,000 men, this battle took place at Denmark’s North Sea coast. It was the only major naval surface engagement of World War I. The battle began in the afternoon of May 31, 1916, with opening fire between the German and British scouting forces. When the main battleships met, The British Royal Navy led by Admiral John Jellicoe maneuverer his boats to take advantage of the fading daylight, scoring dozens of direct hits that eventually forced German Navy led by Admiral Reinhard Scheer into retreat. Both sides claimed victory in this indecisive battle, though Britain maintain control of the North Sea. In May, Scheer ordered to sea with only 40 ships to move along the Danish coast because the Denmark allow the German to trade supply. 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 and hard task. Reconnaissance planes were far away to cover the distance required over the tremendous North Sea. Therefore, the high speed steam ships of fast cruisers were sent out by both fleets to discover where the other was. Jellicoe was joined by the fleet based at Scapa Flow led by Sir David Beatty. 52 ships joined the Grand Fleet. Jellicoe and Beatty faced a fleet of forty German ships led by Admiral Hipper. They opened fire at a distance of about 20 kilometres away. Tho

The Battle of Jutland took place in 1916

Admiral Von Hipper

Admiral John Jellicoe

The engagement Battle of Jutland picture

ugh they were a small in number, the advantage side with the Germans who were helped with their visibility by the brightness of the sun. Just after 4 pm, the British battle cruiser name “Indefatigable” was destroyed by the German ship. About one thousand men lost their lives when a magazine exploded. Nearly thirty minutes later, “Queen Mary” was sunk in just ninety seconds, a shortest sunk in the battle history. The position of the British Royal Navy became harder when Hipper’s ships 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 loss when they lost “Invincible”. When the two fleets did join, 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. Another German ship were “Seydlitz” and “Derfflinger” 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.