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Battle of Jutland Facts

Battle of Jutland Facts
The Battle of Jutland took place from May 31 to June 1, 1916 in the North Sea between Great Britain and Germany. It was the largest naval battle in World War I, involving about 250 ships, with the British having the Germans outnumbered by 151 to ninety-nine ships. Although it was initially considered to be a German victory, the smaller German force lost many of its most important ships and was unable to go toe to toe with the British navy after that point. Because of that, some military historians consider it a German tactical victory but a British strategic victory because the British were able to hold on to their maritime supremacy.
Interesting Battle of Jutland Facts:
The German fleet was known as the "High Seas Fleet," while the British was known as the "Grand Fleet."
The British Navy was supported by its state of the art "dreadnought" destroyers. "Dreadnought" was the term used for the first of the modern battleships built in the early twentieth century, which came from the first in its class, HMS Dreadnought.
The battle is so named because it took place off Denmark's Jutland peninsula.
The Germans were led by admirals Reinhard Scheer and Franz Hipper, who intended to draw a large part of the British fleet out in order to end its blockade of the North Sea.
The British were led by admirals John Jellicoe and David Beatty, who planned to issue a crushing blow to the German Navy.
The German plan called for U-boats to attack British ships at their bases, thereby drawing them out, but the element of surprise was dashed when they obtained German codes via the Russians.
The British had the Germans outnumbered in every class of ship, the most important being the battleships/dreadnought - twenty-eight to sixteen.
The British ships also had much more firepower.
Although the British had a seaplane for reconnaissance, aircraft only played a small role in the battle.
The fighting began at around 3:48 pm when the British attacked Admiral Hipper's squadron.
The grey color of the German ships gave them some camouflage in the overcast North Sea skies.
By 6 pm. the British had suffered severe losses. Individual squads began to coalesce with the larger fleet formation and the German squads then did the same.
Running battles between ships continued through the night and into the early morning hours of June 1, when the German fleet returned to port.
In addition to losing more ships, more than 6,000 British sailors died versus 2,500 Germans.
Admiral Jellicoe was heavily criticized in Britain for being to cautious and "allowing" the German fleet to escape. This criticism doesn't take into account Admiral Scheer's abilities or his strategy to not directly engage the British fleet.
The Battle of Jutland was the largest naval battle in World War I.
The Germans returned to their strategy of unrestricted submarine warfare after the battle.


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