Subject: RE: battle of jutland
From:
Little Hawk
Date: 12 Nov 00 - 10:46 PM
The Battle of Jutland was an interesting case of a battle where both sides claimed victory. The German fleet had hoped to catch a portion of the British fleet and destroy it, while avoiding contact with the main body. The entire British fleet was simply too numerous for the German High Seas fleet to take on. The Germans came close to achieving their objective in the early stage of Jutland, sinking 2 British battlecruisers, but then found themselves shortly under the guns of the British main body of battleships. Only the famed "battle turn-away manuever" saved them from utter disaster. It was a maneuver considered too dangerous for practicality by the British, but it worked for the Germans. They spent the rest of the evening and the night that followed, desperately trying to reach safe waters, and eventually did.
Tactically, the battle was more or less a draw.
In terms of ships sunk, it was a German victory.
In terms of strategic result (the most important aspect) it was a British victory.
The Germans made 1 or 2 unenthusiastic forays after Jutland, and returned quickly to harbour without engaging the British. It was plain to both the German commanders and sailors that the British fleet was too strong for them. When they were ordered to sea in the last days of the war (which was clearly lost) the naval troops mutinied and siezed the ships. These same ships were later sailed sadly to internment at Scapa Flow (British base in Scotland), and not much later were scuttled there by their own crews in a last act of defiance. It was a miserable end for a once proud fleet which always showed bravery and deserved a better fate.
I had the old Avalon Hill game "Jutland" and played it numerous times with friends. The Germans had individually tougher ships, but they simply could not win, because they didn't have enough of them. As for the British, they had tradition and experience on their side, as well as numbers...they were certainly the world's most effective fleet at that time, no doubt of that.
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sj
