The Battle of Jutland - Clash of the Titans - Part 1 (Beatty vs Hipper)

[Music] [Music] it would be the single biggest clash of gun-line battle fleets the world had ever seen it would remain one of the largest fleet actions the world would ever see eclipsed only by a scarce few fought later in world war ii it is of course the battle of jutland world war one is dominated in the popular mindset by the endless slaughter of the trenches on the western front but there were many many other theaters to the conflict there were numerous engagements between various colonies of the involved powers that on their own would qualify as full-out wars if it were not for the fact that they were fought in the context of a much larger conflict that happened to be taking place at the same time there was of course the somewhat more mobile war in the east between the central powers and russia the brutal alpine conflicts on the italian border and the utterly unsurprising swirl of conflicting interests and changing sides that was the balkans there are of course numerous battles with the ottoman empire as well including gallipoli and the levant campaigns the desperate struggle between merchants and submarines in the atlantic and of course the actions of various navies across the world's oceans across the span of the war whilst is sometimes overlooked the naval conflict was no less vital than the struggle in the trenches whilst germany's war industry was formidable both it and the german economy as a whole relied on the global trade network for key resources that were not easily replaced everything from certain types of food to component materials for explosives and rare metals with access to these supplies germany would be considerably stronger without them if a decision could not be achieved on land germany was on a countdown to economic and literal starvation whilst the advent of submarines and minefields had deprived the royal navy of its traditional close blockade strategy that had served it for almost two centuries the more distant blockade it now maintained in the north sea and english channel was still a boot on the german throat that was gradually pressing down harder and harder as a counter to this stood the high seas fleet two decades earlier the german navy had scarcely been more than a glorified coastal defense force but now it stood as the second most powerful navy on the planet having eclipsed the traditional number two and number three navies for the past century france and russia to a point where on paper the high seas fleet battle line outnumbered both of these fleets combined still by 1916 even this potent force of 16 modern dreadnought battleships and five battlecruisers stood in the shadow of the royal navy's grand fleet 28 dreadnought battleships and 10 battle cruisers when at full strength so a direct challenge was out of the question however british naval strategy had weaknesses for centuries it had based its home fleets in the channel and the thames close to european enemies and also able to guard its own coast against incursion but the rapidly advancing technologies of the early 20th century had forced a sudden change the old ports were too close to the potential threats of submarines mines and rapid incursion from enemy fleets work had begun on converting a huge natural anchorage in scapa flow much further north into a secure base but at the start of the war this work was not complete and for a while the fleet had actually withdrawn as far as ireland to remain safe and even here the super dreadnought hms audacious had fallen victim to a recently laid german mine and poor damage control the grand fleet had eventually moved into scapaflow but the old reliance on the navy as the shield of the united kingdom meant that coastal defenses were generally hopelessly obsolete and in many cases pretty much non-existent this gave the high seas fleet an opportunity using the fast chips of the first scouting group they could dash out and reach the poorly defended english coast far faster than any sortie from scapa flow they could then bombard english towns with near impunity knowing that the harris force of cruisers and light destroyers stood little chance if unsupported against the cruisers and battle cruisers of first scouting group the only british formation fast enough and powerful enough to challenge them was the battle cruiser fleet so the idea was to provoke this powerful formation into coming south alone whereupon the first scouting group would fall back onto the high seas fleet which would be waiting further offshore the combined german forces would then annihilate the battle cruiser fleet along with any single squadron of battleships that might have been sent to support it leaving the british fleet without an effective fleet screen and reducing the capital ship odds from around 1.8 to 1 to a more manageable 1.3 or 1.4 to 1. in ideal circumstances the british would seek to ensure their own ship superiority over the first scouting group by supplementing the battle cruiser fleet with a squadron of battleships because they had them spare the german fleet however could still overpower this formation and the odds would be further reduced to about 1.15 to 1 if an entire battle squadron was destroyed which was almost even and at those odds the germans were fairly confident they could overcome the grand fleet especially as the other part of the plan involved the use of u-boats to damage or destroy ships in any substantial british sortie before they reached the high seas fleet which might even buy the german's numerical superiority for a given engagement assuming they'd managed to take care of the battlecruiser fleet and a supporting battle squadron first to a degree this strategy actually worked the raids forced the deployment of the battle cruiser fleet further south to the more confined anchorages in the firth of fourth and at one point the battle cruiser fleet did in attempt to intercept the first scouting group with a single battle squadron and a vice admiral warrender nearby this was the perfect scenario for the germans as the entire high seas fleet was lying in weight but matas conspired to turn this engagement into a huge missed opportunity and the british ships would live to fight another day but this strategy was to have two effects which would go on to have huge impacts in the eventual major clash of the fleets in the confined anchorage that the battle cruiser fleet now found itself in long-range gunnery practice was not anywhere near as easy as it was in scapa flow as a result emphasis was instead focused on rate of fire the theory being that if you fired enough shells quickly enough you'd find the eventual range by trial and error following which a rapid cannonade would hopefully see the enemy destroyed to this end more ammunition was needed than the shell hoists could supply on a given minute and soon flash protection doors in the system were being removed or left open to speed the passage of shells and charges and still more explosives were being piled in the turrets and handling chambers directly below in order to give a ready stock of munitions for rapid fire a set of decisions that would end up having fatal consequences further down the line on the other hand during one of the raids the battle cruiser seidlitz had taken a hit to one of its aft turrets setting off a chain reaction that saw a towering column of roaring fire turned the turret into an inferno and very nearly destroy the ship in a shattering magazine explosion only the quick and in some cases last actions of the crew saved the ship from this fate and the lessons of good ammunition handling practice were rapidly absorbed and disseminated into the rest of the high seas fleet factored into these ongoing efforts was that as 1916 started the current commander of the high seas fleet admiral von poll became ill and was replaced by admiral reinhard scheer whilst von paul had been cautious indeed many in the german navy said too cautious and he had perhaps missed a number of opportunities with the high seas fleet never straying more than about 120 230 miles from safe harbor during his tenure shia was firmly of the opinion that his ships and men were better built and better led than the grand fleet and that the high seas fleet should seek to take on the british as soon as possible of course in favorable circumstances he summarized his strategy as follows our objective must be to damage the english fleet by offensive raids against the naval forces engaged in watching and blockading the german bite as well as by mine laying on the british coast and submarine attack whenever possible after an equality of strength has been realized as a result of these operations and all our forces have been made ready and concentrated an attempt was to be made with our fleet to seek battle under circumstances unfavorable to the enemy circumstances in 1916 continued to develop at the end of april after protests from the usa and others the u-boats had been ordered to follow traditional prize rules instead of taking targets of opportunity unawares this limited their effectiveness and so shear directed that a number of them be taken from the anti-merchant campaign and instead redeployed against the royal navy additionally the scouting capabilities granted by the german zeppelin air fleet would be utilized to find and report on the location of the grand fleet giving shear the opportunity to perfectly place his forces in ambush this would result in the cascade reaction described previously that would bring the royal navy to battle on the high seas fleet's terms with the previous efforts to reduce the royal navy peace meal having failed it was hoped that this new combination of zeppelins increased numbers of u-boats and a more aggressive use of the high-seas fleet would allow victory in a single combined operation which was then scheduled for the middle of may 1916 allowing for repairs to the aforementioned seidlitz ten u-boats were deployed two to target the grand fleet and eight to torpedo the battle cruiser fleet as it emerged whilst another 10 were dispatched on a variety of scouting mine laying and flank guarding missions unfortunately delays to repairs on satellites meant that the operation had to be moved to the end of the month but this started to cause other issues the u-boats had a limited amount of endurance and that was starting to run out with a two-week delay the weather was also changing with dense spring fogs rolling in which affected both the submarine's ability to see through their periscopes as well as the ability of zeppelins to operate safely and or see anything of any benefit the sea had also abandoned any pretense of normal behavior alternating between a flat calm in which the ripple of a periscope was easy to spot and was virtually unheard of in the north sea and a more typical raging series of storms that at times threatened to physically hurl the u-boats from the depths as a result the activity of the various u-boats began to be noticed patrols were stepped up and submarines began to be chased off or damaged in operational incidents whilst the u-boat issues were not immediately realized since of course they weren't about to start radioing in their situation from just off the british coast the lack of aerial recon from the zeppelins resulted in a change of plan instead of raiding the british coast again the high seas fleet would instead head into the area of the north sea near the jutland peninsula or skagarak as the germans and other locals called it here they could lay about british merchant ships and their escorts and their position would give them more notice of british movements and due to being closer to home their own light screening forces such as destroyers and torpedo boats would be more able to conduct recon ahead of the fleet than if they were operating towards the extremity of their range thus on the 30th of may 1916 the signal was sent to begin the revised operation the next day the 31st signals were sent out to whatever u-boats were still active to be ready although they weren't to know it only two of these vessels would actually receive the signal however there was one other unknown problem with the plan the british specifically room 40 who ever since the early recovery of pretty much every german naval code book that was relevant had been happily decoding german naval radio transmissions and was therefore able to inform the royal navy that a major german fleet operation was about to commence whilst the exact details of the german plan were unknown admiral john jelico aboard hms iron duke was not about to take any chances and determined to take the grand fleet to a position just off the norwegian coast with the battle cruiser fleet scouting ahead allowing them to detect and counter almost any meaningful move that the german fleet might make due to the intercepted signals from the 30th of may telling them that the german operation would start the next day the grand fleet began to raise steam and left scapoflow at about 10 30 at night on the 30th of may ironically heading out to counter a german fleet operation several hours before the germans themselves left port in order to conduct said operation some weeks before the third battle cruiser squadron had been rotated up to scapaflow for some much-needed gunnery practice and the modern fast queen elizabeth class battleships that made up the fifth battle squadron had been sent south to make up the numbers in the battlecruiser fleet thus angelico would lead 16 battleships of the first and fourth battle squadrons and three battlecruisers of the third battlecruiser squadron out to sea two and a half hours later in the early morning darkness the second battle squadron of eight more battleships slipped into formation out at sea with the rest of the fleet as this meetup was taking place admiral hippa's five battle cruisers of the first scouting group were only just leaving the outer jade roads with hippa commanding from the brand new battle cruiser sms lutzo along with his flag officer one lieutenant commander eric reider an hour and a half later the main high seas fleet battle line headed down to sea sixteen battleships of the first and third battle squadrons led by admiral scheer aboard sms friedrich de grossa to be joined 90 minutes later by the six pre-dreadnoughts of the second battle squadron this latter force was not favored by shear who viewed their slow speed and limited armament as something of a liability but he had included them after admob move their commander had begged him not to be left out of the anticipated great battle albeit that in the rest of the fleet they were known as the minute shift or five minute ships because that was about as long as anyone expected them to last in a battle between dreadnoughts last to depart was the battle cruiser fleet being based much further south they needed much less time to reach their assigned position six battle cruisers of the first and second battlecruiser squadrons leading four battleships of the fifth battle squadron led by admiral beatty aboard hms lion all major forces were sailing in column abreast this served to keep formations closer together and enabled the quick passage of signals which were still largely executed by flags and thus required the visual sighting of the commander's communications or at least the sighting of a relay ship once they were confident of imminent combat the various fleets would adopt the standard line of battle column formation but this was a more unwieldy arrangement so it was vital that the deployment be carried out based on accurate intelligence so that the line of capital ships would intersect the enemy at a favorable angle the worst nightmare of any admiral was to find his column sailing perpendicular to the enemy line whilst that may have worked for nelson over a century earlier in the modern age of long-range gunnery and explosive shells it was an invitation to have your fleet destroyed bit by bit as the firepower of every enemy battleship on the field would be focused on a small element of your own whose wreckage would then disrupt the formation and gunnery of the next squadron that you'd be feeding into the grinder due to a number of ships on both sides being in refit repair or fitting out not every capital ship that each fleet technically possessed on paper was available for the operation on the british side four battleships hms queen elizabeth hms royal sovereign hms emperor of india and hms dreadnought herself were unavailable queen elizabeth and emperor of india were in dock royal sovereign had only just commissioned and was in the process of working up whilst dreadnought had been sent south to help guard the thames estuary along with third battle squadron which was made up of pre-dreadnoughts additionally the battle cruiser hmas australia was in dock for repairs after having collided with hms new zealand on the german side sms kernig albert was in dock for repairs to its power plant and sms bayern the sole 15-inch armed ship in the high seas fleet at this point was like royal sovereign still working up this left a total strength on both sides as follows dreadnought battleships 28 british 16 german pre-dreadnoughts no british six german battle cruisers nine british five german armoured cruisers eight british no german light cruisers 26 british 11 german destroyers 79 british and 61 german and seaplane carriers two british and no german these last two were the seaplane tenders hms engadine and campagna assigned to the battle cruiser fleet and the grand fleet respectively but when it comes to aircraft and their carriers let's ask the expert at jotlin the british grand fleet possessed two seaplane carriers in its order of battle hms compania and hms agardain before we have a look at those two it serves mentioning how the use of seaplane carriers differs from those ordinary carriers that would follow them which you are used to today unlike the post-world war one of laptops seaplane carriers would not launch their aircraft from the deck but had to lift them off the deck onto the sea where the plane then would take off itself the same applied to landings albeit reversed since the first using combat at the siege of tsingtao by the japanese seaplane carriers and the use of aviation began to be taken serious in naval warfare but the practical value was still limited in rough seas for example it was impossible to deploy a plane without it sinking or smashing against the hull of the ship hms compania perhaps the most modern of the british seaplane carriers did not sail to out towards jutland when the fleet left its anchorage campania did not most likely due to a breakdown in communication sail out from scapa flow as intended once this mistake was realized she of course set out immediately before being ordered to turn back as heading out alone was deemed too risky as her limited speed would not allow her to catch up anyway battle of jutland would thus be fought without the more capable of british seaplane carriers also missing from the british forces were the 35 destroyers and supporting light cruisers of the harris force under admiral turit stationed much further south to defend the channel along with third battle squadron but in different ports they were available to flank the german lines if the admiralty would issue the relevant orders as the early morning darkness began to show the first glimmers of sunlight the first actions of what would become known as the battle of jutland were about to begin submarine u-32 cites the cruisers hms galatia and phaeton screening elements of the battle cruiser fleet proceeding at 18 knots it fires a single torpedo which misses but the periscope jams in the raised position giving away its position one cruiser turns to evade the incoming weapon whilst the other turns to ram the u-boat forcing it to make a crash dive half an hour later when it comes back up to take another look around the u-boat commander spots part of the second battle cruiser squadron proceeding south east and reports these sightings u-66 was one of the vessels that had been forced off station by earlier british patrols now as it forges through the mists they're startled when the armored cruiser duke of edinburgh comes barreling out of the mist followed by a light cruiser and eight battleships forcing another crash dive the somewhat bewildered u-boat nonetheless works its way into a firing position but is then almost run over by a destroyer accompanying the capital ships and has to dive again and by the time it's able to come back up to periscope depth at around 0.635 it reports that the formation is heading north critically this early information gives the high seas fleet a misleading picture that plays into what they were hoping for as it seems that the battle cruiser fleet is heading towards them whilst the grand fleet is heading away from them exactly what shear was hoping for in actual fact both fleet elements were simply undertaking a zigzag course to evade u-boats and in both cases the submarines had simply found the ships on one leg or the other of their respective zigzag courses whilst this allowed the grand fleet to head out to sea without suffering any damage from submarine ambush back at home the first of a number of signal intelligence errors were being made admiral shear was known to use the callsign dk and so an officer asked the signals intel department in room 40 to tell him where dk was the reply was wilhelm's harvan and thus angelico was told that the high seas fleet was in port and thus it would only be first scouting group to deal with room 40 knew that shir would use a different call sign when he left port and if they'd been asked where shia was they would have been able to tell the officer that she was at sea but that question wasn't asked and the somewhat unpopular and arrogant officer had asked an out-of-context question for callsign dk and so he received a practically useless if technically correct reply first scouting group clears the last of the defensive minefields and heads north west the high seas fleet just over two hours steaming behind them both formations were in line ahead for this part of the passage with scouting cruisers arced out ahead of them zeppelins are preparing to deploy but the fog and low cloud is going to significantly limit their ability to see anything nothing much further of note happens for the rest of the morning and early afternoon as the various forces head for their initial target areas admiral shear has at this point received at least three separate reports citing small units of cruisers and battleships in different places and on different courses he concluded these reports give no enlightenment as to the enemy's purpose but the varied forces of the separate divisions of the fleet and the diverging courses did not seem to suggest either combined action of an advance in the german bite or any connection with our enterprise but showed a possibility that our hope of meeting with separate enemy divisions was likely to be fulfilled we were therefore all the more determined to keep to our plan the battle cruiser fleet is heading east the first scouting group and high seas fleet are heading north whilst the grand fleet is heading roughly south east at their current headings the battle cruiser fleet would cut through the aft of the first scouting group and the north of the high seas fleet trapping itself between the two german formations in a manner that would be beyond sheer and hippa's wildest dreams however the battle cruiser fleet had orders to turn north to meet the grand fleet once they hit a line 260 miles east of the british coast and as they now reach this marker they swing away from the unknown trap ahead of them the danish steamer nj fjord has been happily sailing along for most of the day but has recently come to a halt to blow off excess steam elements of bt's screen spot a calmer vapor and move to investigate meanwhile further east destroyers of the first scouting group also spot the unusual sight and they move to take a look as well the british vessels spot the incoming germans and signal that enemy ships have been spotted southeast of their position hms galatia and hms phaeton open fire on the german torpedo boats which fall back towards the formation of german-like cruisers that are coming in to support them beatty orders the battle cruiser fleet to swing south east to cut off the german formation that he knows is out there jelico would later reflect that there was now an excellent opportunity to concentrate his forces the enemy was streaking towards our battlefleet so that the loss of two or three miles by the battlecruisers was immaterial but the opportunity was not taken instead in a foreshadowing of things to come his first orders are not received by fifth battle squadron which has been allowed to drift too far away to see his flags and hms tiger at the back of bt's squadron which had been ordered to retransmit any flag orders by signal light had been taken to a position even further away from the fifth battle squadron than lion herself by the course change combined with the fact that the battle cruiser fleet was still scattered in individual squadrons this missed signal left fifth battle squadron trailing 10 miles behind the lion reducing the battle cruiser fleet advantages in numbers from two to one to six to five of which one is the relatively new and untested hms tiger and the two others are older indefatigable class battle cruisers whose speed and protection are noticeably inferior to almost every other capital ship present even worse the maximum broadside weight of the remaining ships in bt's vicinity is now fifty eight thousand four hundred pounds down from a combined total of a hundred and twenty thousand four hundred and sixteen pounds a reduction of just over fifty percent this reduction of broadside weight means that the advantage against the germans 34 268 pound broadside has gone from a crushing 3.5 to 1 to a somewhat less imposing 1.7 to one and even that is optimistic as interfaticable and new zealand are unlikely to manage eight gun salvos except at the best of bearings whereas the 11 inch armed german battle cruisers are generally speaking better laid out for crosstech firing admiral evan thomas in charge of fifth battle squadron would later state the only way i could account for no signal having been received by me was that the vice admiral was going to signal another course to the fifth battle squadron possibly to get the enemy late cruisers between us anyway if you wished us to turn the searchlight would have done it in a moment it was not until the tiger asked lion by wireless whether the signal to turn was to be made to the barum that the vice admiral seemed to realize the situation action stations were now being sounded by bugle across the ships of the battle cruiser fleet and last minute preparations were being made for action aboard barham the captain of marines in charge of x turret realizes that he's left a number of tins full of petrol in one of the ship's small boats and quickly dashes off to throw them overboard aboard war spite the first officer commander woolwin arrives at his action station in b turret only to realize he's about to go into action in a 15-inch gun turret without any ear protection luckily a helpful midshipman has plenty of cotton wool stashed away in a pocket and lends him some aboard hms new zealand captain john green also known as jimmy solemnly orders the maori warrior skirt and green pendant be brought to the bridge where he puts them on thus enabling the supernatural protection that these items bestow upon his ship first shot has gone to the british but first hit goes to the germans as sms albing of second scouting group hits the galatia at nearly the maximum range of its guns hms engadine launches a seaplane carrier for recon the first carrier launch in direct naval combat history so let's hear a bit about what happened then hms agardine on the other hand sailed with the battle cruiser force on the command of vice admiral beatty he was smaller than compagnia but slightly faster and only recently been modified to protect its aircraft with a proper hangar structure agardine carried four aircraft two short 184 recon bombers and with two additional stopworth baby scouts it was then this ship that would add an air dimension to the battle when the german fleet was spotted on the 31st of may vice admiral bt informed agardine to send up a scout to get a better look at the german force now agadene's captain did not do so without protest for the waves and haze made a launch rather difficult and a recovery of the plane later on questionable there was no stopping bt though so agardine came to a halt winched a short 184 over the side and wished the pilot and his crewman good luck with flight commander frederick rutland at the controls and george trevin acting as observer the short took off just after 3pm elements of the grand fleet begin to pick up increasing wireless traffic courtesy of the german habit of broadcasting everything at maximum power jelico orders the grand fleet to prepare for action teacups and mugs are stowed and a young prince albert the future king george vi takes his station aboard hms collingwood although the process is initially slowed by the sounding of general quarters instead of action stations but everyone gets the idea pretty soon and flags begin to flutter out to aid in spotting and target identification in the merc ships tend to fly more than one battle ensign and soon dozens of flags from small pennants to huge battle flags that could double as a smaller ship's sail are streaming from every ship for miles around a midshipman aboard hms neptune notes several ships were flying instead of the customary one white ensign three or four incense from various parts of the rigging in about 10 minutes the air seemed to be thick with white ensigns large and small silk and bunting hoisted wherever halyards could be found after one side hms blanche a cruiser acting independent of any specific squadron also added four union jacks one from each of her four funnels scattered throughout the fleet are a number of officers who were not especially well known at this point but would later lead elements of the royal navy in the next world war percy noble charles ramsey john tovi philip vegan dudley pound and a number of others are all present either in command of various destroyers and battleships or else as lesser ranks aboard the same vessels aboard hms marlborough lieutenant boyer smith in charge of why turret records the first hint we had that something might materialize this time was a message to the effect that a squadron of enemy light cruisers had been sighted some 40 miles ahead a smile stole around the guns cruise as i passed this on and a smile of mingled sympathy and grim satisfaction for a squadron of light cruisers running up against the grand fleet will probably not remain long afloat density of fog and prevailing light conditions give the germans the upper hand as far as spotting goes for the moment and at a range of about 15 miles the first scouting group spots the leading elements of the battle cruiser fleet heading their way gamely forging on through the low cloud and mist engerdin's aircraft is about to come into contact staying below 1000 feet due to clouds and haze after about 30 minutes rutland managed to spot a line of jiren like cruises and destroyers heading north west dutifully he radioed his discovery back to agadine on the more problematic side he himself had been spotted and german aa guns opened up with little practice in shooting an aircraft on the german side rutland was in comparatively little danger as most shells missed their mark but some did get close while rutland did his best to get out as much of the short as she would give which wasn't much seeing that the top speed delay well below a hundred miles per hour trevin informed agardine on the german line there the captain was in a dilemma either break radio silence warn bt but also give the germans a chance to locate a british fleet by following the signal bearings or try to send over a message the old-fashioned way by a signal lamp in the end standing orders were obeyed and the lamp was used only for the light signals to be missed by the flagship in the meantime rutland's short plane ran out of fuel as a fuel line had snapped setting her down in the sea somewhere between the germans and the approaching british battle line rutland was out of the flight while radio signals were sent to academ in the hopes of getting picked up rutland tried to get the attention of a passing british cruiser by the clever use of sema4 explaining his own predicament and the locations of the germans the ploy failed but agadee was able to hone in on the short aircraft picking up rutland now rutland of jutland his crew member and the aircraft it was the first time in history that an aircraft had been used in locating and signaling the location of an enemy fleet albeit that this contribution ran somewhat short of an ideal outcome naval aviation played no further part in the battle however the battle cruiser fleet now spots first scouting group directly and both sides now have their guns trained and watch the range calculations tick down towards a practical firing distance bt ships still trying to sort themselves into a line of battle from their two independent squadrons and completely missing the fifth battle squadron are now entering the range of the heavy 13.5 inch guns that equip lion princess royal queen mary and tiger but due to a series of errors including a catastrophic overestimation of the range aboard the lion the battle cruiser fleet does not open fire the minutes instead tick by quietly and almost a quarter of an hour where the british ships could have been pounding hippers forces without reply pass completely without incident mindful of his duty hippa orders the first scouting group to head south east towards the high seas fleet which is about two hours steaming behind them but less than an hour away if both elements of the german fleet head towards each other at top speed the british ships are still making final course adjustments when the range ticks down far enough for the german ships to open fire and hippo's guns send the first big gun salvo of the battle downrange thus begins the run to the south with the lutzeau der flinger seidlitz maltka and wanda tan ranged against the lion queen mary princess royal tiger indefatigable and new zealand hippa recorded the fact that the english battle cruises probably on account of bad light conditions or perhaps forming the line of battle too late delayed opening fire allowing us to to withhold our fire until the enemy was in effective gun range the possibility of obtaining a rapid gunnery superiority is principally to be attributed to this delay in opening fire which compelled the enemy to remain a longer time with an effective gun range the british are surprised believing their longer-range guns are still out of range and so for the first few salvos every ship except princess royal sends their shells far far over their targets thinking that they're still at extreme range only princess royal and lion are on a steady course which further impedes the firing of the other battlecruisers as their own bearing is constantly changing and early fire control equipment isn't really set up to deal with that lighting and visibility due to gunsmoke are also against the british but this is overshadowed by much larger problems the standing orders call for each british ship to engage its opposite number except the flagship lion which would add its fire to that directed against the german flagship lutzell but thanks to a second major error in signaling lion and princess royal engage lutzow but queen mary engages sadlets instead of der flinger tiger then engages new zealand's target sms moltka whilst indefatigable engages von der tan this leaves the bemused der flinger unengaged and able to fire away with practice condition gunnery which it focuses first upon lion aboard deflinger chief gunnery officer corvette and captain georg von hasser recalls what astonished me was that so far we had apparently not been hit once only quite really did a short stray near us i observed the gun turrets of our target more closely and established that the ship was not firing at us she too was firing at our flagship observed the enemy ship for a moment by some mistake we were being left out i laughed grimly and then began to engage our enemy with complete calm as at gun practice and with continually increasing accuracy with the advantage of a stable course a better idea of the actual range and superior visibility the german guns have by far the better of this part of the engagement hms tiger receives multiple hits from maltka despite the latter being attacked by two ships at once beatty sends a series of signals back to the grand fleet saying that he'd seen enemy battle cruisers that they were running southeast towards home and finally that he was engaging them notably lacking from any of this was any position information a 12-inch shell from lutzow smashes into the midship's q turret of hms lion the hit is described thus by one of the crew no further confirmation was necessary the armoured roof of the queue turret had been folded back like an open sardine tin thick yellow smoke was rolling up in the clouds from the gaping hole and the guns were cocked up in the air awkwardly all this happened within a few yards of where bt was standing and none of us on the bridge had heard the detonation the destructive power was enormous but oddly in the maelstrom of the battles completely unregistered on the bridge hms niketa a destroyer of the 13th flotilla is stuck with its fellows between the opposing battle lines leading torpedom and thorne noted the noise was deafening and being between the two fleets we soon felt the heavy shells passing uncomfortably close overhead even seeing some turn lengthwise over and over expecting every moment to be hit and blown to bits i perched on the former's torpedo tube taking a very dim view of events the smoke from the destroyers confounds the gunnery on both sides somewhat the germans concluding the positioning of the british lightcraft must be deliberate the weather is somewhat in the german's favor both in general lighting and in the form of a general west to east breeze that blows gun and funnel smoke into the view of the british rangefinders from their own ships whilst also clearing the german gun and funnel smoke from first scouting groups rangefinders hms indefatigable takes two possibly three hits aft from the same salvo courtesy of sms von der tan she shears out of line as her aft turret burns and moments later the magazine explodes albeit it's not 100 clear if the fatal hit was directly to the turret or straight through the four-inch armor and into the magazine whether it's a progressive explosion or largely vented through holes in the ship indefatigable doesn't actually die immediately but is sinking slowly by the stern with the ship's hull severed completely from ex-turret aft however another salvo screams in and two hits are registered forward one of which sets off a chain reaction that sees the forward magazine detonate instantly in a colossal explosion that sends huge pieces of the ship whirling away in all directions as well as instantly wiping out all but three crew from those who remain following the first detonation she'd sailed into action with 1019 men aboard of the survivors leading signalman farmer recounts a message came through that the flags were entangled around the mast some boy must go up so i took my sea boots off climbed up the port top went up the jacob's ladder right to the very top i have folded the flag and i sat on the wireless yard looking around i could see all the german fleet and only made up about 40 ships there were six of us and i suppose we'd bid out in action uh about hour and a half or so when a shell or something hit the magazines there was a terrific explosion the guns went up in the air just like matchsticks 12 inch guns they were and she began to settle down within half a minute or so she was gone i was thrown i suppose well i was about a 180 foot up you understand and uh i was thrown well clear of the ship otherwise i would have been sucked under farmer would later find abel seaman elliott and the ship's badly wounded captain charles sobery alive in the water but sobery died of his wounds before a german destroyer happened to find them the rest of the british line appears to lose formation as reports of torpedo tracks cause the ships to undertake evasive action that further throws out the calculations of the fire control computers and requires them to be reset with new data far to the north learning of the unfolding action jelico orders third battlecruiser squadron to increase to full speed and drive south to assist bt admiral hood aboard hms invincible accompanied by hms inflexible and hms indomitable the oldest battle cruisers in the fleet and indeed in the world now plunge south to try and assist was the grand fleet accelerates to 20 knots aboard hms lion the surviving turret crew and some of the other nearby sailors were clearing up some of the wreckage and fires that were in and around q turret when a shell and charge in the breech block of one of the guns falls out and the unburnt cordite charges ignite blowing many off their feet with the fireball traveling down the loading cages and into the handling room making a beeline for the magazine but even as the fireball races both skywards and downwards the mortally wounded major francis harvey royal marines crawls over to a voice pipe despite the loss of both legs and orders the magazines locked down and flooded it's his last act on this earth his body will be found later next to the voice pipe but it saves the ship and the thirteen hundred plus men still aboard her for this action he will receive a posthumous victoria cross aboard hms warspite commander woolwin is keeping a close eye out when something bears out of the merc sighted four columns of smoke in the mist and gave orders to load commenced firing on what seemed to be four light cruisers could not see well from b turret lookout hood blast from a turret struck me as worse than usual number two light cruiser suddenly obscured by massive smoke and flame turned to starboard and engaged battle cruisers on port bow could hardly see anything to lay on spotting very bad timer flight watch keeper was first-rate and could nearly always identify splashes where they came down saw several salvos splashed just short of us trying to see next-to-head valiant but could not see her through the slit only just caught her wake through the corner of my eye the light cruisers rapidly turn into the rest of first scouting group and the pendulum begins to swing as huge columns of water erupt close by the german battle cruisers unheralded by either side the racing ships of fifth battle squadron have finally caught up in contrast to the scattered shooting of the battle cruisers the scapper-trained gunners aboard valiant warspite malaya and barham actually have the opposite problem the german crews observe a fall of shot with groupings that are so tight that salvos are landing less than a ship's length away but without any shells hitting ironically a slightly wider spread more in line with normal gunnery standards would probably have scored hits almost from the first salvo nonetheless within 60 seconds of opening fire a 15-inch shell from hms barham slams into sms von der tan hitting the belt armor just below the water line although the shell explodes before penetrating the sheer force of the impact and detonation buckles the almost 10 inch thick steel plate rupturing the hull and allowing 600 tons of water to flood in the shock wave also disabled the steering gear and the german battle cruiser falls out of line to port only frantic work below dex restores the steering in time to prevent vondertan looping back on itself straight into the guns of the entire fifth battle squadron a crewman aboard von d'etan recalls that the hit made the hull vibrate like a tuning fork five or six times the ship's ends weighed back and forth and the bending of the ship damaged the radio antenna between the masts over the course of the next few minutes the rest of the queen elizabeth's draw into range and begin to open fire admiral shear recorded this made the situation critical for our cruisers the new enemy fired with extraordinary rapidity and accuracy with greater ease as regards the latter as he met with almost no opposition as our battle cruisers were fully engaged with admiral beede's ships hms queen mary is performing the best of all the british battle cruisers with a steady rapid and accurate series of salvos aimed at sms seidlitz and she'd already scored three hits destroying saidlitz's rear turret starting a number of small fires and knocking out part of the secondary battery taking two hits in return to little immediate effect however with the lion being lost to sight after the battering inflicted on it by ludzow the der flinger had switched targets and both it and seidlets are now firing at queen mary three shells from the iron dog and two from seidlets hit within moments of each other and almost immediately thereafter the forward magazines detonate blowing the ship in two under the bridge what's left of the midship's and aft section begins to roll over and sink practically immediately with further explosion sounding from inside the hull hms tiger following is forced to take emergency evasive action to avoid the wreck which takes 1 266 men with her and leaves fewer than a dozen struggling in the water commander von hasser the first gunnery officer aboard deflinger describes what he sees thus a vivid red flame showed up from her four part then came an explosion forward followed by a much heavy explosion of midships immediately afterwards she blew up with a terrific explosion the masts collapsing inwards and the smoke hiding everything two of the survivors gave a more detailed account the first explosion shook the ship and those in x turret noted the hydraulic gauges that monitored the turret's training mechanisms dropped suddenly another explosion threw two men under one of the guns which then fell off its mountings and crushed them even as the force of the explosion buckled the floor upwards deciding that their turret was done the remaining crew opened the hatches to help man the four inch secondary battery only to find the aft four-inch guns turned into shrapnel and the whole ship listing badly to port realizing this lieutenant ewit in charge of the turret went back inside to tell the men in the working chamber magazines and shelram to get out men began to fall down the deck and into the water and petty officer francis who managed to climb the starboard rail crawled over the edge and down the hull into the water last out of the turret was midshipman owen who was by now able to stand on the back of the turret noting the red-hot stern with hull plates missing and glowing frame girders the bow then erupted in one massive explosion shaking the ship and throwing him off into the sea despite having opened a fair distance between himself and the ship petty officer francis found himself sucked back and under as the ship went down managing to fight his way back to the surface with the aid of a hammock he encountered that was heading upwards which along with some wood managed to keep him afloat until a destroyer eventually found him midshipman owen was still recovering his senses in the water which gave him an unusual waterline perspective as the fifth battle squadron steam passed in a perfect order firing continuously the enemy's shells were falling a good deal short of the squadron but one of them must have exploded in the water close to me causing me to lose consciousness i have no more recollection of what happened until i found myself on the forecast or the laurel the fog of war surrounding these events is evident in admiral shir's account written just after the war weaver the destruction was the result of artillery action or was caused by torpedo from battle cruises or by torpedo from the torpedo boat flotilla 9 can never be a certain for certain but most probably was due to artillery action which caused an explosion of ammunition or oil aboard the enemy vessel there was also considerable confusion in the german fleet as to whether fifth battle squadron was made up of four or five ships with shear giving the opinion even in 1919 that there must have been five based on the number of reports that he'd received in battle to this effect another german salvo either hits hms princess royal or lands very close and the ship vanishes amidst the spray smoke and fragments aboard hms lion a crewman reports that she too has blown up this report prompts beatty to remark to his flag captain chadfield there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today ironically enough princess royal is in fact very much alive powering out of the smoke and spray a few moments later major harvey's last act proves providential again as the heat embers from the fire and what is left of lion's q turret ignite multiple further charges stored in the working chamber the flash racing down into the ship but finding only sealed doors and sea water thus saving the ship from the same fate as her half-sister queen mary fragments of whom are still falling from the sky the leading ships of the high seas fleet site the funnel and gunsmoke of the battlecruiser action and shortly thereafter the second light cruiser squadron screening ahead of bt's force spots the high seas fleet dodging madly to avoid the torrent of heavy caliber fire sent their way in an effort to ascertain exactly what it is they've spotted and report back the enemy strength aboard southampton the encounter is remembered thus we saw ahead of us first smoke then masts then ships 16 battleships with destroyers around them on each bow we hung on a few minutes to make sure before confirming the message then my commander efficient and cool said if you're going to make that signal you had better make it now sir you may never make another the cruiser wheeled about reporting the 16 dreadnoughts and six pre-dreadnoughts heading towards the battlecruiser fleet the battle line consisting of sms kernig grosser kurfurst cron prince mark marcraft kaiser prince regent leadpolt kaizerin friedrich de grosa osfritzland thringen helgoland oldenburg posen rheinland nassau westfalen deutschland hessen pomern hannover schliesen and schleswig holstein in both the grand fleet and the high seas fleet the flagship is positioned more towards the center of the formation admiral shear explains why this is when there is a question of leading several squadrons it is not advisable to take up a position at the head of the enemy line as it is not possible from there to watch the direction in which the fight develops being bound to any such opposition might lead to the commander-in-chief finding himself at the rear instead of at the head of the assembled line during the whole time that fighting was going on i had a clear look out over the whole line and was able to signal with great rapidity in both directions as the fighting line of warships was more than 10 kilometers long i should not have been able to overlook my entire line from the wing thanks to the previously mentioned miscommunications ashore with room 40 this is the first news that the royal navy at sea has that the high seas fleet is at sea as 15 minutes after the first funnel smoke is spotted jelico receives the following from southampton urgent priority course of enemies battle fleets north single line ahead composition of van kaiser class bearing off center east destroyers on both wings and ahead enemies battle cruisers joining battle fleet from northward my position latitude 0.56 degrees 29 minutes north longitude 6 degrees 14 minutes east torpedo and thorne aboard hms niketa records we saw ahead the german destroyers coming to attack our battle cruisers commander bingham of the nestor never deviated but led us straight at the enemy destroyers who broke away as we charged through the formations were so dislocated that their attack on our battle cruisers never materialized some reverse course to pursue us but our speed put us ahead nomad was hit in the engine by a large shell which brought her to a dead stop both nestor nakata fired two 21-inch torpedoes each but before anyone could see if they hit we had swung around to rejoin the battle cruisers now some 10 miles distant practically every available destroyer in the two battlecruiser forces screens is now engaged in a boiling palmell battle between the two capital ship firing lines with torpedoes thick in the water from multiple launches both sides battle cruisers break away from the incoming weapons evading them all with the exception of seidlets which will catch a torpedo from hms pitard at 16 57. although the ship manages to not slow down from the hit it is still taking on water it's for a relatively good day for the patard which also hits v29 sinking it other destroyers managed to v27 which is abandoned and sunk by its own side the overall light force's engagement therefore ends in favor of the british but hms nestor and hms nomad are left immobilized albeit still afloat that state of affairs won't last however since the high seas fleet is bearing down on the position and will shortly finish off both small vessels deep in the bowels of seidlets oft-forgotten heroics are being undertaken the stalkers and cauldrons deserves the highest price jose had to wear their samples mostly in the dark often up to their knees in water without knowing where did come from and how much it would rise unfortunately we had very bad goals that formed so much lags that sapphires had to be cleaned after half the usual time and the crates burned through and fell into the aspects the spare ones had to be altered and sick as a battle because even the beams supporting the greats were bent by the heat elsewhere on the ship seidlitz's helmsman previously demoted for habitual drunkenness is carefully steering the ship as best he can he'll end up being at this post for 24 hours straight without relief becoming the only non-officer in the high seas fleet to receive the iron cross first class for his efforts in the battle both now and later on as pretty much the savior of the ship at a range of about 12 miles bt spots the incoming german battleships and orders a full 180 degree turn back towards the grand fleet even at full strength the battle cruiser fleet is not capable of engaging such a force and still less after the loss of indefatigable and queen mary unfortunately more poor signaling means that the fifth battle squadrons still sailing hard south don't see any signal and come pounding past the bemused battle cruisers and straight at five times their number of enemy battleships as commander woolwin aboard war spite records suddenly so are battle cruisers coming the opposite way and felt rather anxious to know what was up at this stage of the fighting the first scouting group has landed about 42 hits on the battle cruiser fleet and fifth battle squadron with the battle cruiser fleet scoring a mere 11 hits in return fifth battle squadron despite their late arrival and short engagement period have already managed six hits on first scouting group and plan on adding a lot more further north jelico has received the second light cruiser squadron signal as well as bt's notice of his reversal of course he signals the entire grand fleet that fleet action is imminent and orders the fleet to action stations but he faces one major decision the fleet is still in columns good for cruising terrible for fighting he can order them to form a battle line by turning to port or starboard but one choice will lead him to cross the enemy tee a perfect position the other will at best result in a passing engagement at worst leave his rear most ships exposed to most of the high seas fleet's gunnery it all depends on if the germans are chasing beatty on his port or starboard quarter as well as bt's own location heading and speed abisi of course is not telling jelico anything in this regard leaving his superior to make an educated guess at maximum range the high seas fleet's leading units opened fire on the battlecruiser fleet making the worst of an already bad situation as the queen elizabeth's come thundering past bt orders them to turn in succession meaning the lead ship will turn and then each other ship will follow that same course as if they were all on a rail track which means that with every ship that makes the turn the high seas fleet will be closer and closer to that turning position leaving successive ships ever more vulnerable moving slowly and broadside on to the mast enemy guns a much better order would be turned together with each ship simultaneously turning effectively flipping the line around in a quarter of the time and on top of all of this flag signaled orders are only supposed to be carried out once the signal is acknowledged and the original signal is hauled down the signal to execute bemused flag officer seymour watches the pride of the grand fleet steam headlong into the entire german navy but leaves the signals up therefore technically refusing them permission to make even the less than adequate turn in succession further north but closing and satisfied that his ships are making themselves ready jelico informs the admiralty in london that battle is about to be joined whilst still agonizing over which direction he should be turning his fleet as the fifth battle squadron comes into the range of the high seas fleet admiral evan thomas who so far has dutifully followed beatty's orders or lack of them has finally had just about enough he can see the danger plain as day as the high seas fleet's leading elements open up a barrage with every gun they possess he therefore issues his own squadron orders to expect to have to make sudden course changes and to follow his lead before ordering the wheel hard over and slewing barham around valiant and war spite move to follow replicating the turn in succession order whilst the trailing hms malaya sees the oncoming danger and prepares to turn as soon as it possibly can without crashing into war spite the four embattled ships give as good as they're getting crashing out 15-inch broadsides at shears vessels even as shells of every caliber the germans possess pour into the sea around them whilst others will soon inevitably begin to find their mark interestingly admiral shear believes that this maneuver is a deliberate ploy by the british to cover the withdrawal of the battlecruiser fleet having spent almost an hour steaming south admiral hood aboard hms invincible signals bt asking for location course speed and heading so that third battle cruiser squadron can assist he receives no reply and has to press on based entirely on guesswork and the rolling sound of gunfire from somewhere further south bt now deprived of fifth battle squadron again through his own actions finds himself with four battle cruisers in various operational states from the near crippled lion to the remarkably intact new zealand facing off against hippa's five ships so he orders the range opened to avoid further losses to his command even as fire pours in from every working gun on hipper's ships battering lion and tiger still further but this is of less than no help to fifth battle squadron as war spite and malaya find themselves fighting at the entire high seas fleet solo barham and valiant are now under assault from hippa's battle cruisers for extra fun war spite is also targeted by hippa as well as shir giving it the dubious honor of having likely been at least a passing target for every single german capital ship to ever have range of it during the battle thirteen hits are distributed over three of fifth battle squadron's ships valiant comes out a bit unscathed barham and warspite at this stage are hit by the first scouting group whilst malaya takes seven hits from the heavy guns of the high seas fleet starting a dangerous fire on her starboard casement passageways knocking out the entire battery and causing heavy casualties but despite the odds the fifth battle squadron gives back better than they get dealing out 13 hits in return to first scouting groups battle cruisers and another 5 to the high seas fleet's battleships the four ships engaging a total of nine separate enemy targets between them at this time lieutenant brind is in charge of malaya's b turret the enemy continued to fire rapidly at us during and after turn but did not really get near us until after 5 15 pm when their salvos began to arrive thick and fast from my position in the turret i could see them falling just short and just over several times and a great column of black water fall on top of the turret i was trying to make out our target but expected at any moment we would get a nasty knock and that if any of these shells falling all around us should hit us in the right place our speed would be sadly reduced and we should not stand a very good chance the salvos were coming in at a rate of about six to nine per minute at 5 20 pm i saw a large column of water rise between my guns and felt the turret shake heavily we had been hit abreast the turret below the water line so heavy was a shock that i feared that our fighting efficiency had been gravely impaired not so much that a shell had pierced any part of the turrets but that the shock of the impact had seriously damaged our loading arrangements i went into the gun house to inquire whether all was well below and received a report that they had been somewhat shaken by the blow but that everything seemed alright this proved too optimistic because when the main cage arrived in the working chamber it was found that shell could not be withdrawn and there was a proper jam up i dashed down and we had to work like anything to clear it after what seemed an age but could not have been very long we succeeded and managed to get to a cage back into the working order during this time the secondary method of loading was in use for the right gun and although five rounds have been loaded in this way the turret never missed the chance to fire i found everyone very cheery and full of go they had no fault that we should come off worse than the enemy but wanted to know how many german ships were left afloat requiring to be finished off until about 5 40 pm the enemy's fire continued to be very brisk and fell all around us the visibility had been getting steadily worse and we had very rarely been able to see anything but the flashes of the german guns during this time we were several times hit to what extent i could not tell but we had a bad list of starboard war spike was being even more roughly handled commander woolwind noting very soon after the turn could see leading ships of the high seas fleet hardly discernable but counted six or eight long lines of orange flames seemed to ripple along continuously and realized they were firing at us felt heavy shakes but didn't think much of it last of either it blew water into my eyes and it was very uncomfortable in the hood then received the message from the captain to leave the turret and go after once to see what the matter was as we've been badly hit called coats and told him to take charge that all was well and we were in primary control thought for half a minute should i go out over the upper deck or down through the shell room decided i ought to go over midshipman grenfell at that moment opened the door and bowed to me which decided me and i jumped out telling walken to go down through the trunk the other way and meet me on the mess deck out of the turret in a bit of a funk and ran a turret fired as i was half down the ladder at the side of the turret but i was on the lee side ran off and down the port superstructure ladder tried to get into the door with all the clips were on so i climbed over the second cutter shell came through the after funnel and spattered everywhere put my collar up and ran like a stag down through the door to the battery deck marines in the compartment were all right but they had the door half open luckily for me told them to shut it at once all piece below went right aft along the mestech port side after down by the spirit room door through lobbies saw nothing number six fire brigade patrols reported everything all right went forward again and met walk and grinning all over sent him to the captain to say all was well below and nothing the matter as far as i could see as a matter of fact we had been holed in the side by direct hit below the water line which flooded captain engine flat but of this could see nothing cross cook's lobby the port side and was just going forward to the fossil deck when 12-inch came in through the starboard side and burst with a terrific sheet of flame impenetrable dust smoke stink and everything seemed to fall from everywhere at once call for number two fire brigade and several rushed out and we got fire out fairly easily the place was full of smoke and several men were sick awful stench went after portside again and right after lobbies found water pouring through admiral's doorway was told we'd been badly hit after water was then 12 inches deep one of the engineers aboard hms fullmeth part of the third light cruiser squadron and in turn part of the battle cruiser fleet screening force popped his head out of a hatch to see the german fleet in pursuit and recorded that i began to be a bit anxious about the engines as i knew that if we broke down we should very shortly have been in the center of the high seas fleet where we would have been in a similar position to the proverbial cottonwool rabbit being chased through hades by an asbestos terrier along with the third battle cruiser squadron rear admiral arbithno's first cruiser squadron made up of older armored cruisers forming the leading screen for the grand fleet are now entering the combat arena one of its ships hms black prince sites third like cruiser squadron bt's forward screen as it heads towards them this visual sighting is the first concrete information that the grand fleet has received about the position and heading of the battle cruiser fleet with the haze working against him and a surge of british light cruisers and destroyers heading towards him hippa breaks off the action i had to work against the blinding sunset in the western sky and devastating enemy artillery the sun stood deep and the horizon was hazy and i had to fire directly into the sun i saw absolutely nothing of the enemy who was behind a dense cloud of smoke the gunnery officers could find on target although we made a superb one ourselves there was nothing else to do but to take the ships out of the battle for a while this would also give her scouting group some time to repair the damage that fifth battle squadron had dished out as well as get some disabled guns working again and so with that pause in the fighting we're going to leave the battle of jutland there for this week tune in next week for part two as we see what happens when first scouting group rejoins the action and then the high seas fleet and the grand fleet meet up in the clash of the titans that's it for this video thanks for watching if you have a comment or suggestion for a ship to review let us know in the comments below don't forget to comment on the pinned post for dry dock questions

Channel: Drachinifel

Views: 447,663

Rating: 4.9054017 out of 5

Keywords: wows, world of warships, Battle of Jutland, World War 1, Admiral Jellicoe, Admiral Beatty, Admiral Scheer, Admiral Hipper, Grand Fleet, High Seas Fleet, Battlecruiser Fleet, 1st Scouting Group, 5th Battle Squadron, Windy Corner, Run to the South, Run to the North

Id: TkR2HpkrJ2c

Length: 74min 45sec (4485 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 15 2020