Jutland, The German Perspective by V E Tarrant
On only one occasion during the four years of the First World War did
the world's largest and most powerful navies meet in full battle. For so
long the main indicator of the arms race between Britain and Germany - and
according to some theories a major argument in the inevitability of the
war itself - these two navies had long competed in construction, design
and armament with each other and planned for that final battle which would
decide the war at sea.
The reality of the naval war was far different to the single, decisive
conflict strategists had hoped for. Instead a series of bold hit-and-run
raids by German warships to bombard British coastal towns stung Royal Navy
pride, and apart from fleeting chance encounters between isolated units of
both fleets and the failed opportunities of Dogger Bank and Heligoland
Bight the single, ultimate battle remained elusive. Until Jutland.
The Battle of Jutland took place on 31 May to 1 June 1916 as a plan to
concentrate the German High Seas Fleet precisely against the numerically
superior British Grand Fleet at a time and place of German choice, having
lured the bulk of the Royal Navy into a trap in German waters. Bad luck,
bad weather and the perennial weakness of such Great War battles - poor
communications- meant the battle became a confused, rambling but
desperately hard fought conflict. It also became a pyrrhic victory for
Germany since although the Royal Navy suffered higher losses in men and
ships, the German fleet never ventured out of harbour to seek battle
again. The decisive battle that was claimed by each side as a victory was
in reality a defeat of the German High Seas Fleet.
Amazingly, this classic sea battle has never been studied from the
enemy's view. Now for the first time in the English language a balanced
and unique assessment of the German view of Jutland is possible. Drawing
on many official sources, archives and translations of documents about the
Battle of the Skaggerak (as Jutland is known to the Germans), the
historian V E Tarrant has created this superb new study of the classic
battle.
The author provides a complete review of Jutland usinf hitherto unseen
German naval records: an inter-war appreciation by the German Office of
Naval History, High Seas Fleet War Diaries,Chief of the High Seas Fleet
Operations Staff papers plus action reports from individual commanders
involved in the battle and the letters and papers of Tirpitz, Scheer and
Hipper. As well as this wealth of untapped original source material on
German views and accounts, the author also discusses the technical and
material inferiority of the Royal Navy ships plus a unique revelation of
the German code-breaking and signal interception plsayed in their conduct
of the battle.
Illustrated
with detailed action charts representing ship movements and dispositions
hour-by-hour throughout the battle, and with accurate scale drawings and
silhouettes of all major warships and classes from both sides, Jutland:
The German View fills an important gap in the history and understanding of
this great action.