good afternoon everyone uh I am John Mau for those of you who don't know me and today I'm going to talk about the Battle of Jutland because today May 31st and into the evening of June 1st it's the 100th anniversary of the largest naval engagement of the first world war a celebrated engagement even though the outcome disappointed but both sides in this battle and what I'm going to do today is give you uh a strategic appraisal about the Battle I want to put it in a larger strategic context as well as talk about the Battle itself the battle has many controversies that surround it and so I want to address some of the most important controversies about the Battle including who won who lost uh and what effects strategic effects both more short-term and long-term grew out of the engagement and then have some takeaways well Jutland has to be seen in the context of the long tide of History looking back on British Naval dominance going back to the time of the Napoleonic Wars the wars in which Alfred the Mahan lectured on over at our war College over the the museum what is now the museum and wrote about in his three big volumes on the influence of Sea power upon history and on October 21st 1805 was The Great Battle of Trafalger in which the Royal Navy won a major victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets and this battle sent something of a well a benchmark of what a decisive Naval engagement should look like about 2/3 of the Fran Franco Spanish Fleet uh was captured or destroyed in the battle uh the commander of the British Fleet Admiral Lord Nelson became a big hero of course died while fighting the battle in fact uh his uh Legacy uh for the Royal Navy in Britain he has seen as the savior of his country and indeed his last words are celebrated in much the same way that people would look at uh uh Christ's last words so here's someone who has become a Great Hero become savior of the country by giving of his life to win this big battle over the French and Spanish well the Battle of Trafalgar is seen as conferring on Britain conferring on Britain a Mastery of the maritime Commons for the next hundred years in one of the books that's widely read now about the Battle of Jutland and the Royal Navy in This Time by Andrew Gordon rules of the game that in 1897 at the time of Queen Victoria's great Jubilee it looked like Britain was still on top of the world that the Royal Navy with 360 fighting ships was equal to the next five navies combined boy that sounds a lot like today when people compare defense budgets and say oh the US defense budget or tonnage of the US Fleet is equal to the next three or four countries and the rest it it looks like a a a presence a strength that is something that is unassailable unassailable again the tradition of traler stretching down to this period of time well of course that unassailable Supremacy was soon to be challenged in the very next year there is the first big Fleet building law passed by the German Reich Stog German government led by Kaiser vilhelm has decided to in bark on a major Naval building program this is a very famous speech that the Kaiser gave at the end of the 19th century where he said that the strong Fleet is in Urgent or sometimes translated as a bitter need for us for the German people the Kaiser put all of his Prestige behind building up this Fleet the German historian famous German historian uh Fredick minica said that the Kaiser was the fleet Kaiser he led the German people who were very much continental and focus land power LED them to understand how important it was for Germany to become a sea power Germany was becoming a great industrial State technological State uh trading State and it accompanied those great achievements in industry and commerce uh you also Germany also needed a powerful Fleet so the Kaiser is very much behind building up this Fleet uh to understand Jutland the Battle of Jutland you have to go back at least 20 years in other words a generation to see this buildup that's taking place uh with the German Fleet that is challenging that unassailable Supremacy now the Kaiser knew very much what he was doing one of his top political leaders man who becomes Chancellor in 1909 and is chancellor at the outbreak of the war Bolan bman Hol uh this is what he is telling a friend about what the Kaiser's aim is first and foremost is that Germany is going to emerge as a world power a rival to that of Britain on the world's stage again the way it's put is they're going to break Britain's position in the world in favor of Germany the international system in which Britain is really the only superpower is now going to be challenged the world is moving into a post British World a more multi-polar world we might say in which Germany is one of the leading states of the International System and to be able to do that Germany has to have a fleet a fleet is required for that more on this in a moment in the aftermath of Jutland and of course to have a powerful Fleet a powerful battle Fleet you have to be strong economically you have to have great industry and so Germany in this period of time is also industrializing from 1890 on you see a remarkable growth in German industry in the post bismar era and that industry uh creates the wealth that enables Germany to be able to afford a fleet again Germany has to become rich first hence priority to Industry is bman holg tells his friend but then with that wealth and that industry to build up a fleet in 1897 Admiral turitz who was the architect of the German Naval buildup appointed by the Kaiser in 1897 lays out what's called the turits memorandum in June 1897 to lay out the plan for the development of the German Fleet and uh he picks England as the most dangerous enemy that's the Benchmark he's not making as a benchmark France another Continental power he's is using as The Benchmark the world's leading Naval power that's pretty remarkable again it's not Russia or France that he's building against it's against Britain he's setting out the most demanding scenario that you could imagine to challenge the world leader right anyway it's the enemy the enemy notice that Germany most needs to have a battle Fleet now again he doesn't see it necessarily leading to war it could also be an instrument a tool for leverage in negotiations with Britain again it's a way of having some force to be able to back up German demands on the world stage so that as Chancellor Boo at this time said Germans don't like being dictated to by some foreign Jupiter that foreign Jupiter is Great Britain some Godlike figure up there on Olympus that sends down its dictat and everyone else has to obey well no with a powerful German battle Fleet Jupiter won't be able to dictate anymore again more on that when we get to the Kaiser speech after the battle of Jutland now what type of Fleet to build well you could build Cruisers you could build number of types of Fleet architecture but tpit says you have to have battleships head-to-head more of a symmetrical challenge to Britain tpit was a reader of Mahan uh thought that mahan's uh theories about sea power and building up of Naval power had validity for Germany believed that Germany to be competitive against Britain because it didn't have overseas bases coing stations and the rest uh that Germany had to build up a fleet of battleships to contest with Britain in home Waters in the North Sea and uh the Germans very quickly start building a fleet of what we would call pre- dreadnut battleships very powerful Fleet comes into existence in a very short period of time and again tpet highlighted in the memorandum that this is a fleet that's going to fight in the lural in close to the German home Waters where Germany will have not just battleships but also Torpedoes mines Coastal artillery capabilities to be able to wear down an attacking British Fleet because it's thought that the Royal Navy with these traditions of TR faler taking the offensive that the Royal Navy's battle Fleet its Grand Fleet will launch an offensive into German home Waters that's what Mahan would predict that it would do and so the Germans leadership tpet in particular being a follower of Mahan believes that the German that the British are going to undertake an early offensive into German home Waters there is where the fight will take place in the southern portions of the North Sea well Britain follows what we would call an offset strategy if the Germans are doing an area denial anti-axis strategy we might call it the British were also following an offset strategy and this is most closely uh linked to Admiral Jackie Fischer and there's a slide of him I love this portrait of him because it shows a very determined man you can see his arms crossed there staring at you looking you down yes he he is known for being ruthless within the Navy you know know it's Jackie Fischer's way or the highway he does not tolerate or Brook opposition in that sense he's very much like turits both turits and fiser are very determined opinionated men they have their views and they don't like to have people contradict their views they're pretty confident that they are right and they surround themselves with other people who agree with them uh and if you can't agree well then you're outside as they said the fish pond you're not in fiser pond well he goes ahead with the dreadnut uh dreadnut very famous story well known uh well if the Germans are building pre- dreadnots ships of say 4 11in Heavy Artillery the dreadn is going to be 10 Heavy Artillery pieces of 12in caliber in other words a battleship with more than twice the Firepower also greater speed because it has turbines uh this ship can take on and defeat several pre-read Nots um fiser also pioneers and builds uh a group of capital ships known as battle Cruisers they're uh again large ships faster than battleships less heavily armored uh but with a great deal of Firepower as well 812 in guns with this speed you're able to track down hunt down German armored Cruisers or German big steam ships liners ocean liners might be converted to Cruisers in Wartime uh the invincibles are meant to be able to destroy mop up as Fisher said uh German Cruisers anyone that would surface ships that would be able to prey on British trade in Wartime again very beautiful and Powerful uh ships and again here you can see the difference between a pre- dreadnut and the dreadnut again the dreadnut is a much more powerful ship it's a revolutionary kind of surface ship uh fiser said hey with the dreadnut all existing battleships even the most modern will be practically obsolete the Germans have invested in this battle Fleet now what fiser has done is introduce a new generation of surface ships that uh is better than the last one all those ships that tpit is invested in from 1898 down to 194 five they're outclassed they're outclassed it won't be a fair fight in a fight between dreadnots and pre- dreadnots that it's they're not going to win well uh what does Germany do well they have the industry and wealth to build dreadnots themselves now fiser hoped that by introducing the dreadnut that he would frustrate the designs not only of Germany but the United States and other Naval Challengers that other countries would find it too expensive to follow Britain's lead with dreadnots and this happens in most countries France United States um uh Russia uh but in Germany's case what turits does is say okay we adapt the plan uh where we have uh battleships we just have to increase the tonnage and build dreadnut battleships and so they start constructing a fleet of dreadnots uh and they're very quick to do it too uh well what's Britain's response to that well if the Germans are now going to build dreadnots we have to build super dreadnots and if they build super what's super dreadn again uh uh heavy armor now goes from 12 in to 13.5 in guns displacement goes up uh a little bit more powerfully armored and if the Germans build super dreadnots because they can do that they have the industry then we build the fast Battleship of the Queen Elizabeth class so what you're seeing here is part of this offset strategy is Fischer and the Royal Navy are trying to keep one generation ahead of the German Challenger at this time and so what you see in a relatively short period of time of 20 years you go from displacements of about 15,000 tons and four 12in heavy guns to the British were building uh wanted to build super Hoods by the early 1920s battleships that would displace about 50,000 tons and have 98in guns very powerful ships again the British strategy is to keep one generation ahead of Naval Rivals and in particular uh Germany at the Battle of Jutland what you're going to see is that the Germans bring uh three generations of large surface ships they bring pre- dreadnots that had no business being there by the way dreadnots and super dreadnots the British at Jutland bring dreadnots super dreadnots and fast battleships uh to the fight Britain also stays ahead of Germany by building more Capital ships than Germany does on a ratio of about 3 to two a 3 to2 Edge superiority that the British have but the British are also pioneering in other ways under fiser one of the things he does is develop uh long range submarines up to the early part of the 20th century submarines were used primarily for coastal defense for defensive purposes what the British are doing at this time is pioneering submarines that have greater range that now they're more offensive oriented their purpose is to go and strike at the enemy in their home Waters submarines are not now defensive to protect your own home Waters it is with these more powerful submarines to take the flight into the enemy's home Waters and the d-class is the first overseas submarine again this is one way you can take the offensive into the enemy's home Waters without risking battleships Capital ships you can put in play submarines that are seen as being well less expensive than uh battleships again a way of undertaking offensive operations into enemy home Waters without having to risk uh the very expensive battleships now fiser also in 1906 by 1906 recognizes something else it's Geographic position again something that manahan highlighted and he talks about what we would call offshore uh control Germany is this great trading State great importer and exporter but Britain lies uh thwart uh German sea lines of communication as fiser says this is a huge Breakwater the British Isles uh against German Commerce that the Commerce has to go between Scotland and Norway or through the Straits of Dover and then Britain doesn't have to go in to the southern portion of the North Sea into German home Waters to be able to destroy most of Germany's overseas trade Germany's trade will be limited to the Baltic to Sweden by doing this offshore control and again it's a unique position of Advantage Geographic Advantage here strategic Advantage uh Germany has about a thousand Merchant ships that ply uh the World's Trade at this time uh what fiser is arguing is that once this blockade goes into effect that about 800 German Merchant Steamers in other words 80% of it is out in the world's ocean they'll be cut off they'll be cut off at that point and so they'll be either intered in neutral ports or the British will uh be able to take them again because of this Geographic advantage in fact to fiser what will be the impact of this on the German economy well it it'll be worth Paris in other words the Germans through a land campaign can take Paris beat the French but German trade and finance will be so damaged so damaged by uh this blockade that it'll be a major blow to Germany uh on par with them the type of damage they're going to inflict upon France so again he sees this as being a u an important element in an anglo-german war of being able to hurt Germany by waging this economic Warfare well War occurs uh in 1914 the summer of 1914 the grand Fleet uh was on a big exercise maneuvers uh it is sent to its War stations German battle Fleet at the time also goes to its War stations at the time the German planners thought they ought to try to launch a surprise attack on the British Fleet if they can they wanted to do to the British Fleet what the Japanese had done in 1904 in the Russo Japanese War uh a sneak attack on the British Fleet and like Japan would do at Pearl Harbor in 1941 but they didn't have good Intelligence on the whereabouts of the British Fleet and so they couldn't carry out that attack at the beginning of the of the war so what do you have at the beginning of the war both fleets are taking up War stations away from each other and what you have is a stalemate that sets in on the North Sea front this is the major naval front of the first world war where the two great fleets the high sea Fleet of Germany and the grand Fleet of Britain Britain's main Naval Base is scapa flow in the north it wasn't ready by the way at the outbreak of war and as a consequence since the base was not secure the U commander of the grand Fleet Admiral jelo uh had to keep uh his Fleet at Sea uh during the fall uh and early winter of 1914 the grand Fleet steamed 16,000 miles imagine that how far you can go in 16,000 miles that's the Voyage of the Russian balic Fleet around to suima in the Russo Japanese war again he did not feel secure in scapa until all the defenses were put in place and various entrances into scapa flow were were blocked again he only felt secure by being at Sea uh uh away from German submarines because the Germans have also followed British lead not only in the building of battleships but now long range submarines by the way turits didn't like submarines he he didn't promote that until the very Eve of war and it's only in 1912 that the Germans start to invest heavily invest heavily in a submarine Force first coastal defense submarines and then the larger submarines for offensive purposes well if you're steaming a lot one of the things that can happen is that you can run into a mine and here's the HMS audacious which hit a mine uh while out at Sea this is one of Britain's super dreadnots one of the latest generation of battleships in the British inventory and yet it goes down to a mine laid by uh a German um uh uh ship uh the the sinking of the audacious by the way was captured on film because there was an ocean liner that went uh by and all the passengers in the ocean liner went and say look at that there's a ship sinking over there uh and so it was captured and the British of course had to quarantine this and prevent the news getting out because they didn't want people to know right away that one of their latest uh class one of their latest battleships had just been lost uh another example of how dangerous and lethal Warfare could be that the big ships could be attacked was uh uh the sinking of the abacore cresi and Hogue off the coast of the Netherlands these three armored Cruisers were in Patrol uh off the coast of uh Netherlands they're hit by one submarine at first the first Cruiser it's hit by a torpedo it was thought that it was a line so the other Cruisers decide to slow down and pick up survivors making them sitting ducks for the German submarine un9 which then Torpedoes the other two um Admiral Fischer would say about this that in one day with the sinking of the abacore cresi and hog these three armored Cruisers that more Sailors were lost killed than what Lord Nelson lost in all of his battles put together again the reference back to Nelson the Nelson tradition again everything is being referred back to traler and to Nelson that this is a a catastrophe uh it shows that hey we we we're we're taking heavy losses here and for what in return the dardan eles on March 18th 1915 there's a major Naval assault at The Darden Ells against the Ottoman Empire six battleships are mind in that three are sunk again showing the dangers of torpedoes and mins to the big ships uh this weighs heavily on the mind of Admiral gelico now as first Lord of the admiralty in the period from the outbreak of War 1914 down to the Battle of Jutland on the right is Winston Churchill uh he would be first Lord of the admiralty until May 1915 when he was forced to resign and he was succeeded by Arthur balfor who is over there on the left Al Arthur balur is uh one of the most prominent British politicians in the early part of the 20th century he had been prime minister uh uh of uh of Britain in fact he had succeeded his uh Uncle uh Lord Salsbury as prime minister and when people would say well H how did he get to be prime minister they would say well Bob's his uncle uh that Lord Salsbury is his uncle it's all family connections well he becomes first Lord of the admiralty after uh Churchill these are two very powerful political figures they are both unhappy with the stalemate in the North Sea they would like to see the grand Fleet take offensive operations in other words revert to a more mahanian strategy of launching an offensive when you go through jellico's papers which are located in the British library in London and you go through balor's papers which are also located in the British library in London what you see is a car correspondence between jelo and balur and also Churchill and and jelo in which these two civilian heads of the royal Navy the first Lord of the adaly are pushing upon jelo urging him to undertake offensive operations against the German Fleet to destroy it to Institute an even closer blockade of Germany well jelo is opposed to that and this is part of his correspondence writing back to balur and he says Hey the danger is very real a disaster could happen in a few minutes without warning again the example the abacore cresy Hogue the example of the audacious the example of six battleships being mined in the Dell's attack damaged or sunk you could also look to the experience of the Russo Japanese war where on May 15th 1904 the Japanese main battle Fleet ran across a minefield two of the six battleships of the Japanese Fleet were sunk that day onethird in other words of the capital ship strength of Japan was lost by going over a Minefield jelo is aware of all of this and so he understands that if his Fleet goes over a Minefield a reversal as he says could take place that reduces British margin of strength over Germany that that 3 to2 Edge that Britain has in large surface ships could disappear in a day and what happens well then Britain's whole world position collapses at that point again the existence of the Empire is at once in the most immediate and Grave danger Britain's command of the maritime Commons could be lost to Minds well here's the British blockade though it's working its way on the Germans Jellico by the way fends off balur and Churchill and he does it in part because the um uh Naval leadership uniform leadership the first Sea Lord uh all back him up the uniform leaders by and large are all on board with jellico's cautious strategy of not launching an offensive into the North Sea and instead let this blockade do its work against Germany and it has an impact this is uh an estimate put together by modern historians looking at the German economy and what I've tried to graph here is that at the outbreak of the war the GDP the gross domestic product of Britain and Germany it's approximately roughly equal and under the impact of Wars you can see both e economies decline but Britain's economy uh recovers it has access to World Markets because of its command of the sea the British economy actually grows during the first world war but notice how the German economy uh takes a dive of 15 to 20% again the estimate and doesn't recover throughout the war whereas Germany and Britain were economic equals at the outbreak of war in 1914 by 1918 they no longer are you can see the Delta there that has emerged Britain is a stronger economic power relative to Germany by the end of the war the Germans understand this now a lot of this is due to the blockade not all of it the German leadership government mismanages the economy in the first world war another complete topic but the combination of German mismanagement of the economy plus the blockade has this impact on Germany's economy and again over time there's pressure now being put on the German leadership to do something about this to break the blockade or at least make Britain hurt as much as much as Germany is and meanwhile what's the German Army doing it's engaged in very heavy fighting 1916 in February 1916 the chief of the German general staff fulcon Han opened is a large offense of adver dun a big battle of attrition on the Western Front of attack Counterattack Grizzly battles tens of thousands of men killed okay the arm is doing a lot of heavy fighting what's the Navy doing well turits the architect of the fleet is frustrated he wants the fleet to be put in play he wants it to undertake offensive operations become more aggressive and even if the German battle Fleet is lost well that's a would be a good thing because at least it will show that the fleet can fight he's concerned that in the post-war world when the war is over when the war is over if the German battle Fleet is not seen as playing an active role when it comes to decisions about Force structure and funding that the Army will get all the money and not the Navy again he's concerned that the German people understand that Germany is a sea power that needs a powerful navy again tet's always looking of how he can get funding for the Navy it has to show itself as being an important weapon taking part actively in the fighting in this war again talk about a bureaucratic fighter here he is well uh all he does is annoy the Kaiser because the Kaiser is afraid of putting the battle Fleet in play but the pressure grows on the German government again because of the blockade again because of the battles on the west in the Eastern front uh it's thought that the German battle Fleet in which so much has been invested has to take a more active role and there's a change of command and a new Admiral takes over Admiral Reinhardt Sher takes command of the high sea Fleet he had been a squadron commander up to this point and he decides that a more aggressive game plan is called for again sorties by the German Fleet into the North Sea that he then hopes will draw the British out from their bases into the North Sea and then by uh luring them over mines or submarine attacks will somehow Whittle down degrade the British Fleet so that eventually the German Fleet can fight a battle at odds that uh will enable it to beat Britain's Grand Fleet well the day for the Germans to tog everything is playing up to the day the big day of battle and so here we are finally at Jutland now what I want to highlight here is that the Battle of Jutland has to seen in the context of a 20year old Naval rivalry between Britain and Germany it just didn't spring up on the day it's part of a longer term rivalry between the two countries and the two navies well the German Fleet comes out the British have advanced warning because they have broken German Naval codes they know the grand Fleet is out they don't know or the high sea Fleet is out they don't know the exact location but they want to bring it to battle some wonderful paintings of the battle of Jutland of the two fleets again these fleets uh attracted a great deal of attention in both countries it's often seen as theater in fact these great fleets came to represent British and German nationalism we all the high sea Fleet steaming out being led by the battle cruiser Force Germany also built battle Cruisers and this is Admiral France hipper um again uh wonderful representative of the leadership of the German Navy he's a Bavarian not a Prussian he's a Catholic not a Protestant he's middle class not an aristocrat but he is promoted why because he represents the technocratic elite of this new industrial Germany now after the battle he becomes uh ennobled he becomes France Von hipper uh and as you can see he's also awarded the p marit uh the Blue Max the highest award that Germany could give its leaders for his role in Jutland uh hipper leads out the Vanguard uh on his staff the man second from the left if you look at him you'll see that that's uh Eric Raider who is going to become the head of the German Navy in the second world war in the 30s uh and down to 1943 until Hitler fires him again uh here's a connection between the first war and the second war Raider is with the German battle Fleet uh at the Battle of Jutland on the other side the battle cruiser Force that's in the Vanguard of the grand Fleet is commanded by Sir David Admiral Sir David Batty and there's a typical pose of his with the uh hand in his pockets and uh looking right at you and his hat of scance and the rest uh someone who's is going to be a dashing uh figure and sees himself as being a dashing uh figure again very aggressive commander who wants to bring the Germans uh to to battle and there again he is on the bridge of his U his uh Flagship the lion the man to the left is uh Captain his flag Captain Earley Chatfield who is going to become First Sea Lord during the 1930s and preside over the buildup of Naval power British Naval power in the late 1930s so again the connection between the first world war and the second now one thing that I want to come get across here is when you look at Sher when you look at uh Jellico when you look at hipper when you look at batty uh where are they they're on the bridge of their ships they're in the midst of the battle they're under great danger they can be killed in these fights this is very very different from what we uh picture of the first world war on land where generals are often derided as being Chateau generals far away from the front out of danger uh to understand what goes on at Jutland you have to understand that these leaders are not only under great stress because of the responsibility but they're actually in the thick of the action uh Batty's Flagship lion came very close to being destroyed blown up at Jutland uh he could have been killed so the Admirals are very much in the thick of the fight well the two fleets two battle cruiser forces come across each other uh hipper in command of the German battle cruiser Force scouting group one decides to this is great draw the British back toward the main German Fleet meanwhile batty seeing the German battle Cruisers launches an immediate Pursuit he violates one of the principles of War concentration of force he has six battle Cruisers plus four fast battleships of the fifth battles ship Squadron under Admiral Evan Thomas uh batty decides to engage in such an impetuous way charging at the Germans that he doesn't close up his formation and close up these forces in fact through signaling erors the fifth Battleship Squadron uh is delayed in getting into the action inexcusable uh anyway batty decides to attack he sees himself as having six battle Cruisers against the five German battle Cruisers six to five enough of a superiority uh plus the British battle Cruisers have heavier ordinance so he thinks that he can pull this one off so he pursues uh these are the battleships of the fifth Battleship Squadron by the way these are the largest most powerful battleships in the world at this time four battleships capable of doing 22 maybe 23 knots uh eight 15inch guns that can outrange any any uh uh Heavy Artillery on the German Fleet again initially they're not in the action they're lagging behind if they had been in the action from the very beginning uh their shell would have been able to tell on the uh Germans by the way these ships tend to be fairly good Shooters too better than the battle cruiser Force the battle Cruisers unfortunately are not um uh are not good Shooters more on that in a moment well in the engagement one of the British battle Cruisers uh the HMS IND fatigable around 2:00 in the afternoon is destroyed by German heavy gunfire uh not only does batty engage before his whole force is ready as they engage so quickly uh one of the German battle Cruisers is not covered by German by British fire and so it is able to fire back without having to worry about being hit itself uh how the indefatigable is lost uh there's some debate about it um uh whether it's armor was penetrated or not uh if this is most is likely but it could also been done by magazine explosion caused by bad handling of ammunition and shell uh more on that in a moment too uh about 20 minutes later another battle cruiser the Queen Mary blows up as you can see by the way all from the left is uh Batty's Flagship lion also coming under heavy attack having a major explosion losing a turret comes very close to being destroyed um one of the things that happens in the Jutland story is that both Jellico and batty had decided that whenever there was going to be an engagement that they wanted to have their ships fire as rapidly as possible and as a consequence of that some very sloppy handling takes place of loading of shell ammunition from magazines to turrets uh it's now thought that at least two of the three battle Cruisers that are destroyed at Jutland are due to this sloppy handling of am amunition and shell in other words the battle cruiser design was not at fault what was at fault was the U uh uh desire of the U British to have more rapid fire at this time and it comes from the leadership from jelo and batty one of the uh stories that needs to be told about Jutland has been told uh is that after Jutland both batty and jelo do their utmost to try to cover up this story uh um and their responsibility uh for it um again another painting now of the Queen Mary blowing up well batty and hipper are going south batty by the way seeing two of his uh six ships destroyed his own uh ship lion almost destroyed turns to Chatfield and at this time says there seems to be something bloody wrong with our ships today well maybe so uh but it also might have been not so much the ships but also the way they were handling shell um hipper has drawn batty down to Admiral shar's main Force batty then turns around again poor signaling the fifth Battleship Squadron is exposed slow to turn around boy the Germans are are getting a lot of luck here in this this should never have happened I mean this is bad command on the part of batty engaging with a force without concentrating his force and then leaving the fifth Battleship Squadron to lag behind where uh they come close to having to face the whole German battle Fleet uh this is Germany's great opportunity uh at the Battle of Jutland well in the chase North now batty is trying to draw the high sea Fleet against jellico's Fleet which is deploying now batty is sloppy again in signaling jelo doesn't know the exact whereabouts of not only the German High sea Fleet uh and the German battle cruiser Force but also Admiral Batty's force jelo is very frustrated by this the lack of information uncertainty that he faces uh in this battle he deploys his Force though in a brilliant way given the information at his disposal and brings it uh his Force to the point where it really is crossing the tea of the German force uh Sher understands this that he is now being engaged by a much Superior Force and runs away he does the smart thing turns away in this part of the uh action there's some very heavy firing that takes place and another British battle cruiser the HMS Invincible is destroyed along with Admiral Hood again it is now thought that like the Queen Mary uh that uh the Invincible was destroyed because of sloppy shell handling not because of the design of the battle Cruisers uh and there as you can see the the Invincible broken in the background around uh the grand Fleet is actually steaming by uh there well Sher is so desperate to get back home he now does something that well he shouldn't have done he makes a turn back toward the British Fleet not only is Jellico unaware having trouble locating the enemy forces because of visibility and and uh poor scouting but share his situational awareness is also poor so he inadvertently turns his Fleet right back at jelo well uh it's not before long in the so-called second engagement when uh jellico's forces start firing on Sher that Sher is how do I get out of here and so uh again Sher does another major turnaway in doing that he also orders his destroyers to launch a torpedo attack on the grand Fleet jelo then turns away to avoid this Mass torpedo attack so at one of the critical moments of the battle you see both Sher and jelo being decisive in turning away and running away from each other uh again this helps explain why the Battle of Jutland uh ends up the way uh it does by the way I think both leaders are correct in what they decide to do at this time that preserving the force is more important than the destruction of the enemy's Force because the odds don't look good that you'll be able to destroy the enemy's Force by more aggressive action again some paintings of the battle uh uh by Claus Bergen here German forces firing again it captures well the poor visibility uh uh that goes on in the battle well after this second engagement jelo tries to keep his force close to share but he doesn't know exactly where Sher is and he knows that Sher has two potential roads back home given the minefields and the rest that are in the southern part of the North Sea and so jelo has to choose which one is it well given that shar's uh course from the last engagement indicated that he was headling heading south he thought okay the one uh the choice on the left is the likely one so jelo positions his Fleet uh steaming at nighttime to try to intercept the German force on that on that approach back home again he expects that uh at Daybreak on June 1st that he'll be still between the German bases and the German High sea Fleet now what Sher does though at night though is he decides to go the other way to cut back now he ran a great risk here he's already cut back once and put himself right in the midst of the royal of the of the grand Fleet of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet uh this time he gets a little bit luckier uh he's able to cut through behind the main force of of Jellico there's a lot of fighting that goes on there jelo though isn't aware of the intensity of the fighting plus again the fifth battle ship Squadron which is now at the rear of the British line of jellico's force they actually see through the night they actually see uh what they can make out silhouettes of German battleships uh in fact the the Gunnery officer of the battleship Malaya says I want to open fire on them and the skipper says no no no we're not supposed to have a night engagement so we're not going to fire we're not going to illuminate targets uh well at least let's pass this information down the jelo so he knows that uh get some new information that might indicate that shar's going the other way it's like well no no no no the the Admiral probably knows all of this stuff and so some Vital Information is not passed along to Jellico that should have been passed along to him as late as midnight if he had uh changed course looping back North he could have put himself in a position to intercept Sher on the morning of June the 1st but instead he continues on a southerly course expecting to meet the Germans further south again shares Force gets away uh by the way in the middle of the night cutting through the German lines uh the Germans who had every reason to conceal themselves to not turn on their search lights and the rest uh nonetheless do when they see tempting targets uh including British armor Cruisers uh that uh German battleships then engage again one of the reasons why the British don't open fire is that they want to conceal themselves by putting on your search lights you're making the enemy aware of where you are and uh they don't want a night engagement the Germans had every reason too to avoid a night engagement in the sense of trying to escape but again when a Target like this emerged it was turn on the search lights open fire again the Germans were lucky in this regard uh that information Vital Information was not ped along to uh uh to jelo now what about jellico's handling of the fleet he's criticized for not being aggressive enough uh to centralize his command and control not uh letting subordinates have more leeway and the grand Fleet battle orders uh well Churchill who is generally critical of jelo who doesn't like Jellico nonetheless pens one of the most famous statements about jellico's responsibility that he was the only individual leader uh on either side of generals Admirals uh or Statesmen uh who could lose the war in an afternoon again the great responsibility that he had for the grand Fleet because if the grand Fleet is destroyed well then the whole strategic Contour of the war at Sea changes that Britain loses uh that dominance at Sea that it needs to be able to continue the the war again this is something of a defense of uh jellico's risk averse uh Behavior okay who won right away the big debate is who won well there there's the numbers you know if you look at the ships the tonnage looks like the Germans uh won if you measure it this way uh what's fascinating about it is two of the German battle Cruisers the Mula and satets were so badly damaged uh in fact they they had to go it on their own to escape during the night if they had been caught at Sea by destroyers British destroyers throw a few Torpedoes at them they would have been lost uh the the satellites in Mula could well have been sunk in this battle if you change that number around for German losses to three battle Cruisers something that should have happened I would argue then the battle doesn't look at all like uh um as uh as if the British haven't done as well again it's it's very close what is happening here in the losses that both sides are suffering and the reason why I want to highlight this is that there's a sort of a mythology out there that the Germans were just better than the British and I say no that's not the case the British are very good they're inflicting a lot of damage on the German ships uh the Germans are um a little bit lucky and that those two battle Cruisers escape and I would also add because of the poor handling of ammunition during the battle that two of the three British battle Cruisers that were lost probably wouldn't have been sunk if they had U been following a more prudent way of handling shell and ammunition so that number could have been changed to one battle cruiser rather than three again you can play with these numbers and show that that uh the British Fleet uh uh is inflicting as much punishment damage as the Germans uh are in this well right away the Germans claim victory and here's a painting that shows Kaiser vilhelm on June 5th going to visit the fleet in vilhelms hoffen give them arousing speech this speech generally has only one sentence that's been translated in English which is that the aura of Tri falger has been destroyed and the rest well I I I was on a qu I want to actually find the whole speech and my colleagues in the S&P Department know that I I went on a little quest for this and I finally was able to get through our wonderful library on inter Library loan the collected speeches of of Kaiser vilhelm during the first world war and so I I did my translation of the speech and again vilhelm puts it in this larger contest of Germany striving for world power and Britain being that Godlike figure that dominates the world and the world's oceans and that they've suffered a blow and again at last the day has come the tag you know and the British Fleet albian you know that had dominated the oceans imposed a tyrannical rule on the sea for over the whole world during the past 100 years since traler again warn the Nimbus this is often translated uh Nimbus is translated as aura you know um I I I I know that aura has a better sound in the English ear but he uses in the speech the word Nimbus twice it's a cognate so I thought I had to keep it uh and and Nimbus has that glow like a crown but it's the crown of a God so the Kaiser is very specifically saying here this foreign Jupiter with this glow now well it's come to an end and what happened on the day of battle the English Fleet is beaten again generally it's only the last one that gets translated the tradition of Trafalger torn to shreds uh I think this is the first English translation of a bigger chunk of the of the speech and so I'm most proud of that anyway again this Hammer blow has been struck and again he uses the word Nimbus and it's English global domination again that's what's at stake here at the Battle of Trafalgar and in the war at Sea it's not over something trivial it's over something major who's going to be the dominant world power Britain or Germany well what's the response in Britain well initially it's very depressed this is a a painting of Lord riddle who is one of the big press Barons whose uh papers his Diaries He was an avid diary Keeper in or also in the British library in London and what he writes down is wow we suffered a reverse jutland's a defeat that's the initial view that's being held by the British Elite fiser who's no longer in power no longer in uniform on the sidelines uh he tells CP Scott another press Baron the Manchester Guardian again this is what Fischer is saying to the media Elite uh behind the scenes not for the record is saying that and again you find this in the CP Scott Diaries again also at the British Library I have found looking through the Diaries letters of the press Barons of Lord northcliffe Lord riddle and CP Scott very revealing because all the generals Admirals and politicians want to talk to them and put a spin on it and of course they're keeping track of what's being said uh to them and fiser says this is a defeat why because we're superior to the Germans in numbers this is an unsatisfactory result even if the losses were one to one which they weren't that would be a defeat as well again the tradition of Trafalgar is the superior British Fleet should have inflicted much heavier lopsided losses on the Germans rather than the outcome Lloyd George the upand cominging man in the political scene the most dynamic British political leader at the time he's very upset about the news that he hears about Jutland and again he says to uh um to Lord riddle uh that um that uh that the British have suffered a reverse and that he's really angry at the admiralty what's wrong with the Admiral that they haven't produced a great victory in fact Lloyd George who was in the countryside was so upset by the news of Jutland that he gave up his golf game and returned to London there he is in a painting at Walton Heath with Lord riddle again where do you talk about politics you do it on the golf course and Lloyd George tells Lord riddle I can't play golf we we've suffered a defeated sea we I to go back to London right away so again that's very serious when you give up your golf game in the countryside uh meanwhile the prime minister's wife is recording in her diary uh what she thinks about this and what has happened the Germans have won the information game they've gotten out the news ahead of time that they're the winner that they have G gained a triumphant Victory uh o over the British Fleet and it's not only in Germany but they've get gotten this to America as well uh that they have Britain has suffered a defeat and meanwhile Britain we're encourageable we're not able to get our message out our spin on this again that Britain is somehow losing the spin game of who won the battle well who do the British turn to to turn around the spin Winston Churchill Churchill is no longer in office he had been forced out in May 1915 uh from being first order of the admiralty uh in the end of 1915 he resigned his office uh another office that he had in the government and went off to serve for five months as a lieutenant colonel in charge of a Scottish Battalion on the Western Front imagine this a cabinet minister who is now a lieutenant colonel uh goes on raids uh in the No Man's Land several times comes close to being killed on one occasion uh his Dugout as command Dugout was destroyed by German artillery fire he fortunately was not in it at the time uh well anyway Arthur balur the first Lord of The Admiral he says okay H how do we deal with the spin here well he turns to Churchill and says to Churchill can you write up some glowing report about the Battle of Jutland uh not for the last time do you have Winston Churchill being called in to somehow turn defeat into Victory and he writes up a dispatch he's given inside information and the rest and this is uh the most important part of it was that one the British are still in command of the world's seaways the Strategic effects of Jutland do not favor the Germans and why wasn't there a Trafalger well the environment conspired against it hazy weather Fall Of Night Retreat the enemy runs away that that alone frustrated what our brilliant commanders Sir John gelico and batty in other words no fault should be put on the Admirals for this uh again Churchill plays a leading role in turning around the propaganda battle with regard to um the um Battle of Jutland well what are the Admirals saying about each other behind their back well Jellico is telling his wife that batty doesn't have the experience enough and he's made a lot of mistakes again you have to find this uh uh by looking at what jellico's wife is saying jelo is not going to publicly say any of this but this is what he's thinking meanwhile fiser Admiral Fischer goes to CP Scott again a press Baron and says you know what I want to call batty I want to call him balaclava batty what does that mean it's The Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of balaclava during the Crimean War in which the Light Brigade is destroyed by Russian Artillery fire you know a reckless leadership that puts their men their capability In Harm's Way in a way that they're bound to be destroyed and so fiser is calling batty like uh Lord Lucan or Lord cardigan responsible for a military disaster not for a victory on this again behind the scenes the Admirals are being very catty uh with each other and by the way you can also find in the letters of Admiral batty what does batty think uh adal Batty's wife uh Ethel who is a uh an ays of the um Marshall field Fortune American uh this is what she's writing to a friend there seems to be very little to say uh except to curse Jellico curse Jellico for not going at them in an aggressive way as her husband had done to annihilate the German Fleet he failed hopelessly and not only that but he doesn't tell the truth he's trying to cover up why he wasn't aggressive iive enough and put the blame for the losses at Jutland on her husband she doesn't like that obviously well what does batty think about all this again here's the the batty who you know is charging into battle and all the rest well one of the takeaways he has from the Battle of Jutland is I'm not doing that again uh he succeeds jelo as commander of the grand Fleet at the end of 1916 jelo is promoted to be first Sea Lord so he goes back back uh to to the center of things at the admiralty well anyway on January 9th 1918 batty writes this big long appreciation which is in the National Archives of Q and uh it's hard to read it over there on the left but that's what the title page looks like again now he's in jelo shoes and these are some of the big takeaways in theory the British still have a superior battle cruiser Force as he says 9 to6 a 3-2 Edge but in reality batty thinks that there are only three battle Cruisers that can really stand up to the Germans that the reality is that the Germans actually outn the British and battle cruiser strength he doesn't want to engage under those circumstances because the battle Cruisers are supposed to clear the way for the main battle so right away the British would fight uh at a disadvantage in addition to that one of the things that he sees as being a defect of the fleet the grand fleet was that the shell that the grand Fleet had was not able to penetrate German armor and until uh the grand Fleet gets better uh uh shell projectiles that uh that they shouldn't Engage The Enemy so at the earliest the summer of 1918 is when the grand Fleet should engage so again here's batty the very dashing batty you know who seen as wanting to bring on a battle against the Germans no uh he he's content with the stalemate and this is the concluding paragraph of uh his appreciation in which he says hey uh right now the the grand Fleet uh the the strategy of the grand Fleet uh is in uh no longer to Endeavor to bring the enemy to action at any cost this seems to be the exact antithesis of Lord Nelson and traler spirit again German uh uh the British Naval leadership uh jlin is reinforcing their caution how about the German sign they' won this great Victory but no sooner is the battle over that Admiral Sher the commander of the high sea Fleet says you know the battle Fleet ain't the decisive weapon the real decisive weapon in the war at Sea is the uboat we have to turn to the ubot here you know the big buildup in Germany the bells being rung the kais are giving the rousing speech and the Admiral saying uh we don't want to do that again cuzz if we do we're going to get destroyed so instead what do you do well you got to get around the island chains you know the first island chain is uh silt heland uh and boram the second island chain you know is England the third island chain is uh Ireland up to iseland so uh the British aren't going to come into the first island chain it's too dangerous uh the German Fleet battle Fleet doesn't want to go outside the first island chain it's too dangerous the British by the way don't really want to go inside between the first and second Island chain either but the OTS well they're ready to go out and fight and Germany now wants to unleash them out beyond the second and third island chain it's often uh I often hear people when they talk about the Anglo German naval war and rivalry they say the Germans didn't come out and fight well what they mean is they're talking about the high sea Fleet doesn't come out and fight the German Navy does come out and fight it comes out and fights hard in this uboat war so there's another whole element into this war it's a hybrid War if you will between the big surface fleets being in check with each other but then also the more unconventional asymmetric fight of German submarines going against uh uh uh international shipping again if uh Germany as a battle Fleet sinks uh 111,000 tons of British warships in a single day at jetland uh in the submarine war the uh German submarines sink almost 13 million tons of shipping during the first world war again represented symbolized by the loss of the Lucitania in the spring of 1915 again you want to reach out beyond the first and second island chain to be able to go after uh British shipping Neil Ferguson in an article in foreign affairs several years ago again highlighted that the loss of the Lucitania uh to the u20 simp symbolizes an end of globalization again something big is at stake here in this naval war well Admiral Herz andorf who's the chief of Naval staff equivalent of first seal Lord he's big proponent of the submarine war even though he knows that it will bring the United States into the war holzendorf apparently said to the Kaiser yeah I the Americans won't even get over here if you unleash the uots for the Germans um uh there's something of playing the German myth and culture uh the Great opera by Carl Maria von vber their frots uh it's a story about hunters it's for us English ear it's basically the Silver Bullet uh the guy wants to get the girl he has to win a hunting contest and he sells his soul to to the devil to be able to get the bullet that always hits its Target again that silver bullet and so they forg that bullet and uh of course to do it though you have to compromise on your morals in some way to win you're cheating why do I put this up here well again it uh this was Kaiser vel's favorite Opera you know he's predisposed toward the Silver Bullet you know what is the sil Silver Bullet well it's the OTS by the way the German Army leadership under Hindenberg and ludendorf agree with the Navy they put their weight behind the German Navy and as you can see Hunters all there you can see all the things that they're shooting behind them the Kaiser was known you know for killing lots of animals and putting their antlers up all over in the hunting lodges and all the rest so again now they're going to go hunting of international shipping bman holve he has his doubts but he can't stand up to the military and Naval leaders in this regard who have convinced the Kaiser to go over the Kaiser is hey if Wilson wants War then we'll have it well initially the German submarine campaign does well Unleashed unrestricted submarine warfare as you can see the Tage being sunk goes up to alarming levels um loss of ships beyond the uh second and third island chain jelo who's now first Sea Lord uh mismanages uh the defense of British trade this is a more serious flaw in his leadership than anything he does at Jutland he's slow to introduce convoys uh he's backed up by the new civilian head of the royal Navy sir Edward Carson Lloyd George is frustrated at the shipping losses now prime minister he moves to fire jelo first by firing moving away Carson and then bringing in a new first Lord Sir Eric Gettys who fires Jellico on Christmas Eve 19 1917 does it by sending him a letter even though they're in the same building Gettys won't walk over to jellico's office he sends him a letter saying hey it's time for you to go now uh and we have somebody new here who's going to take over so rosin Wester Weems who serves out the rest of the war as first Sea Lord uh most historians agree that Jellico had to go but a lot of people think I he was treated in a Shabby way being shown the door on Christmas Eve you know it's like Merry Christmas jelo and you're fired uh uh well anyway Eric Gettys is a ruthless man he was a businessman who made a great reputation in running Railways in fact he un snarled the British Logistics behind the Western Front Railway earlier in the war so he's a very competent man and he saw in gelico somebody who was not up to the task and so Lloyd George was glad to have Gettys there to fire uh Jellico one more consequence of Jutland is that it Spurs American Naval development at this time time in the aftermath of Jutland in August 1916 a major piece of legislation is passed in the United States to build up a Navy second to none and I I love this $2 bill that shows a battleship probably the New York on the reverse side wdro Wilson understands that because of the war that the United States has to build up its Navy and in February 1916 he gave a speech in St Louis and that's uh the takeaway from that there is no other Navy in the world that has to cover so great an area defense as the American Navy and the US has to have in his judgment incomparably the greatest Navy in the world boy that sounds like Kaiser vilhelm and turits uh here and indeed there is a buildup that takes place we were going to build battle Cruisers six big battle Cruisers over 40,000 tons with 86in guns of course they Lexington and Sak toga two of those battle Cruisers instead of being battle Cruisers were turned into these two large Fleet carriers after the Washington Naval Conference of 2122 well uh as everyone predicted the German submarine offensive uh brings the us into the war that's wdro Wilson by the way the Commerce Warfare is Warfare against Mankind and on Good Friday 1917 Wilson asked for a declaration of war which is voted by the Congress the United States the return of the Mayflower providing Naval support a battleship Squadron to Batty's Force at scapa flow Admiral Sims going over to take command of American Naval forces in European Waters one of the things I came across in his papers is a letter he wrote to his wife uh in which he has dinner with Winston Churchill uh in the letter he highlights that last night he had dinner with Lady Randolph Churchill who's Winston Churchill's mom Winston Churchill's mom lady Randolph is uh an American she was born in Brooklyn um there she is in 1917 well anyway she invited her son Winston who had been first Lord of The Admiral d That's What Churchill looked like in 1917 it's a painting from the year before 1916 Sims and church all had a long talk and what does he say the Allies meaning Britain would have been beaten if America had not come into the war again one of the key elements to understand second world war strategy is the Churchill sees the US playing a key role in Britain's ability to defeat Germany in the two World Wars well with the introduction of convoys what you can see from the graph says convoys come in German sinking losses go down the submarine gamble the vunk on the part of the German leadership betting the house it doesn't work it brings the us into the war and if you look at gdps that's the US GDP in relation to Britain and to Germany again Germany is now brought in a very powerful actor against it that Associated power now lined up with the allies and by the end of 1918 over 2 million American soldiers uh in France okay so what what are some of the big takeaways for us today well here's a couple one the pre-war arms race largely predetermined the Battle of Jutland uh Germany's not going to win any Battle of Jutland unless the British mess up big time the the surface uh uh engagements Germany shouldn't be able to win it just shouldn't and again it's already determined before the battle has been fought it's only Reckless Behavior like batty engaged in give the Germans any opportunity at all to equalize things so that has to be kept in mind the day of battle is determined largely by what happens before um it's often said about Jellico that Jellico uh was a leader who had a flawed cutless in other words the Royal Navy wasn't as good as the Germans in some way uh I I don't think that's the case at all I think you know it's a wash in some ways the Germans were better than the British many ways the British were better than the Germans when it comes to Fire Control shell all the rest uh so I I think what you have to look instead is how about the leaders well again the the pressure put on rapidity of fire explains uh some of the losses at Jutland on the British part so it's more leadership failure if you want to look at what's wrong with the Royal Navy at Jutland rather than the ships themselves um again it highlights how important it is to have leaders who um uh are uh Adept able to adapt uh at changing conditions of War uh at at this time uh another thing to take away from Jutland is just The lethality of Naval Warfare look at the number of ships sunk in a single day at Jutland it could have been worse if Sher and gelico had behaved in a more aggressive way again those are heavy losses but they heavy losses uh that are the outcome of a battle in which leaders are being risk averse what if they hadn't been risk averse willing to take on more risk there would have been even greater losses uh at at Jutland again how much uncertainty there was and how uncertainty colored the risk assessments uh of jelo in this again with greater information he would have been willing to take on uh more risk um and finally the day after one of the things I want to get across from this presentation today is that by focusing too much on the day on the day of battle you lose sight of the larger rivalry between Britain and Germany which goes back to the 1890s and would go on to 1989 19 and indeed would surface again in the second world war so you have to look at the longer longer tide of history in this regard of a longer rivalry between these countries by focusing on one day you're not seeing the bigger picture of what's going on the dynamic here of rivalries for world power between these two empires the German Empire and uh Britain in addition by focusing so much on the day of battle you forget all the other things that are taking place in the naval war at this time lots of operations not only of submarines and destroyers and Merchant ships and M layers that are going on it it uh takes us away from a lot of the naval warfare that's going on the fleet that Britain had had to be prepared not only to fight on the day but also on the day after and the day after that and the day after that again the war comes to a crisis at see with the submarine campaign uh the submarine offensive is as important more important to study when it comes to failure of command in Britain than the Battle of Jutland that's more important so again you have to see not just focusing on the episodes as churcher would say you have to look at the longer Trends the Tendencies as well this is a big attrition War at Sea is a fleet able to not only fight on the day of battle but continue to fight on the day after as well so I think that is one of the most important takeaways from studying the Battle of Jutland is not just focus on on this one day of battle but to look at the war as a whole and how important it is to command the maritime Commons over the longer Hall the Battle of Jutland again was determined largely by the pre-war rivalry going the way it was it was determined by Britain's willingness and ability to stay ahead of Germany in a naval arms race before the battle was fought and on that I'll close and take any questions that uh you all have
