1916 Battle of Jutland
In the prelude to World War I, both of the great and hostile alliances spent extravagantly on the development of a new type of battleship, the dreadnought — heavily armoured, carrying all big guns (11-inch or larger). Both sides planned on huge naval battles that would see whole fleets of dreadnoughts encountering each other. The Battle of Jutland, however, was the only time this occurred.
By 1916 the German High Fleet had not ventured forth from its bases on the North Sea, penned in by the British Grand Fleet operating from bases in Scotland. It was the intention of German Admiral Reinhard Scheer to lure the British out and destroy them in one great action, allowing his navy access to the North Atlantic. To do so he dangled as bait a detachment of battle cruisers — lighter and faster than dreadnoughts — under Admiral Franz Hipper who was to sail across the path of the British and lead them on to the guns of Scheer’s main force. The British took the bait; Admiral Beatty’s squadron pursued Hipper and ran into the German main force which mauled his ships and forced them to withdraw. The Germans pursued, thus blundering into the bigger British armada, and a battle ensued.
The British outnumbered and outgunned their opponents and proved to be more accurate, but the German ships were more “survivable” and could take greater punishment without sinking. Moreover, British shells lacked the penetrating power of German artillery, because of different explosives used. In the melee that followed, the Royal Navy suffered over 6,000 dead, and lost 3 battlecruisers, 3 armoured cruisers, and 8 destroyers while the German casualty list was 2,500 dead, while losing 1 battlecruiser, 1 pre-dreadnought battle ship, 4 light cruisers, and 5 torpedo-boats. As night fell, the fighting ended with the Germans retreating to their home ports.
Both sides claimed victory; the Germans had certainly done better in the battle, but they had failed to break the British naval blockade of Germany and their fleet never ventured out again. The future lay in submarine attacks for the rest of the war.
