Dawn of titans blog1/15/2024 The German ships pulled off the manoeuvre and proceeded south away from the oncoming British. This was an extremely high risk manoeuvre which could easily have resulted in collisions and a complete breakdown of the German line. As such he order the entire German fleet to turn 180 degrees simultaneously. Scheer was in a dire position steaming directly towards an overwhelmingly superior enemy. The resulting action saw the British inflict heavy damage on the lead ships of the High Seas Fleet. Jellicoe had successfully managed to deploy his fleet “crossing the T” of the Germans, which meant that he could bring most of his heavy guns to bear whilst only a few Germans could respond. The sudden appearance of the entire British Grand Fleet took the Germans completely by surprise. In one instance, the British battlecruiser Invincible was hit by a number of heavy calibre shells and blew up. In the confusion, a number of brief and brutal encounters took place as cruiser forces from both sides blundered into the enemy’s main battlefleets. When combined with the difficulties of precise navigation in the misty waters of the North Sea this meant that Jellicoe did not know how to deploy his forces. Unfortunately Beatty’s communications with the Grand Fleet commander Admiral John Jellicoe left a lot to be desired. ( ADM 137/301) The Germans were totally unaware of the existence of the Grand Fleet to the north, and for a time it looked like the British would get exactly the battle they desired. The 5 th Battle Squadron – closest to the German fleet – took heavy fire, but in the process meted out ‘very severe punishment’ on the German battle cruisers. Just as Hipper had drawn Beatty’s battlecruisers south into the path of Scheer’s main fleet, now it was the turn of the British ships to act as bait, pulling the Germans north onto the guns of the overwhelmingly superior British Grand Fleet. Beatty’s flagship Lion was also badly damaged and only survived when a magazine was flooded to prevent a catastrophic explosion. ( ADM 137/301) In a relatively short space of time the British ships Indefatigable and Queen Mary were both struck by shells that penetrated their armour and caused explosions in their magazines, sinking both ships with the loss of almost their entire crews. The two forces opened fire at a range of 18,500 yards, but the German gunnery proved to be ‘very rapid and effective’. The Germans immediately began retreating to the south with Beatty in hot pursuit. This time he was desperate to finish the job. ( ADM 137/1642) A year earlier they had met in the Battle of Dogger Bank and Beatty had failed to destroy his numerically inferior rival. Further investigation revealed it to be the five battlecruisers of Hipper’s opposing force. The two forces met in the afternoon of 31 May, when scouts for Admiral Beatty’s British Battlecruiser Squadron sighted smoke on the horizon. The scene was set for the greatest naval battle of the First World War. By dusk on 30 May the two most powerful battlefleets yet assembled were steaming towards each other, both intent on action. For some time they had been intercepting and decoding German signals, and saw this as a perfect opportunity to achieve the decisive victory over the German fleet which had alluded them for the previous two years. Yet unbeknownst to the Germans, the British were aware of their movements. If they could destroy part of the British fleet in detail it would help shift the balance of power at sea in Germany’s favour, something that could knock Britain out of the war. Their aim was simple to try to use the battlecruisers as bait to lure a part of the numerically superior British fleet into action with the main German force. On the German battlecruiser squadron under Admiral Hipper put to sea, shortly followed by the main High Seas Fleet under Admiral Scheer. New research being done between The National Archives and the National Maritime Museum is serving to return the stories of the individual service personnel to this and will provide a vital new tool for genealogists and historians interested in the battle. Neither side achieved the result they were looking for and the battle has become one of the most heavily contested aspects of the history of the First World War. In between the smoke and the mist of the North Sea, over 50 of the most powerful dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers fought in a deadly game of cat and mouse. 100 years ago today saw a titanic struggle between the British and German fleets in the largest naval battle of the First World War.
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