The Battle of Jutland - Clash of the Titans - Part 2 (Jellicoe vs Scheer)

[Music] [Music] so when we last left them hippa's first scouting group had just broken off the action briefly to repair and reorganize bt's battle cruisers had just run into the leading elements of third battle cruiser squadron and the grand fleet and high seas fleet were coming ever closer to each other let's pick up the action immediately hms chester part of third battle cruiser squadron screen runs into the four light cruisers of the second scouting group which are screening hippa's first scouting group on their own way north outnumbered four to one chester is hammered by the german ships and frantically attempts to signal for help fire back maneuver and evade all at the same time two minutes later admiral hood notices gunfire coming from chester's last known heading and alters course to intercept in the merc some of the larger british cruisers are mistaken by the german ships for considerably nastier units with shear being informed that hms agincourt is for some reason operating with the light cruisers with the remaining ships of the battlecruiser fleet having joined up with the fifth battle squadron again bt's command once more holds a numerical advantage at a considerable firepower advantage with the light and relative positions having shifted they also enjoy much better visual conditions with their targets highlighted and themselves obscured thus they re-engage first scouting group hippa realizes that with several ships damaged and the heavy accurate fire of most of fifth battle squadron zeroing in he has a little chance of accomplishing much more and turns back towards the high seas fleet at about the same time hms lion is spotted from hms iron duke jelico and bt are now in visual range and the grand fleet's admiral continues to demand reports from bt as to the location of the german fleet they must be close as bt is firing at something angelico can see bt the time left to deploy the grand fleet is fast running out bt doesn't reply even as the cruisers and battleships of jelico's own forces arrayed on his starboard flank which is slightly ahead of his own ship in the center begin to relay their own reports of german ships being sighted albeit that these reports are sporadic and somewhat self-contradictory in a slightly lighter moment the paymaster of hms new zealand heads up on deck for some fresh air unaware of the recommencement of action he stretches takes a deep breath and suddenly has his trousers blown off by p turret firing across the deck suitably embarrassed he beats a hasty retreat third battle cruiser squadron looms up out of the merc and the tables are now turned on second scouting group the time in scapper has been well spent and within three minutes invincible's guns have crippled the light cruiser sms wiesbaden and forced the rest of second scouting group to break off saving the chester wiesbaden largely crippled nevertheless refuses to sink for the moment and will become something of a steel pinata for passing british capital ships over the next few hours whilst throwing the odd torpedo back in retaliation second scouting group assumes that third battle cruiser squadron is the vanguard of the grand fleet and turns back towards first scouting group and the high seas fleet in order to lead them onto the big german guns third battle cruiser squadron's destroyers fight a savage action with first and second scouting groups torpedo boats amidst the drifting mist and smoke clouds with the three old battle cruisers dodging and weaving through a number of waves of german torpedoes in a display of excellent ship handling during this the destroyer hms shark is disabled in much the same way as wiesbaden and like the german ship will keep up sporadic fire against random german targets until it eventually sinks bt finally responds to the repeated signals from his superior officer although still without any course or speed data angelico whilst he's been pondering the single biggest decision for his career for quite some time now has about 60 seconds to decide the fate of an entire empire the pressure is huge doubly so without the proper scouting information from the battle cruiser fleet as on this decision could rest the fate of the war and indeed the fate of britain itself get it wrong and at best the grand fleet would go off in the wrong direction leaving only damaged battleships and exploded battle cruisers to show for the battlecruiser fleet's efforts at worst he could send the grand fleet into a trap from which only a few might escape his forces were currently in cruising formation with the various divisions of the different battle squadrons arranged in six columns each consisting of four ships he's keeping admiral sturdy the victor of the battle of the falklands but something of an unorthodox thinker next to him in the heart of the formation to prevent him from doing something unexpected but to fight most effectively and utilize their full broadside firepower of the world's largest collection of capital ships jelico needs to change this into a battle line he has a number of options to hand he could order the fleet to deploy to port or to starboard which would take them in completely opposite directions he could form a single line and head south directly he could even order the fleet to split up either as they deployed or after they deployed he could even according to some tactics deploy as one column see what the enemy is doing and then deploy the rear columns in a different direction to form a pincer movement he knows admiral sturdy is greatly in favor of breaking off a portion of the grand fleet to form this pincer movement and that's exactly why sturdy is in the middle of the formation where he can't go anywhere without jelica's authorization and of course there are numerous permutations on each of these major options depending on exactly where jelica believes the high seas fleet to be as you can see calculating the outcomes of all these options could not be done in a minute or so but by 1815 jelico had made his decision and was issuing his orders the grand fleet would deploy to the east using a slight variation of the standard deployment patterns the left-hand most division headed by the battleship hms king george v will effectively stay on its south east course whilst the rest of the fleet's divisions will turn to port forming up heading in a slightly northeasterly direction before turning around the point where king george v division has passed and falling in behind said division thus forming something of an arc this would according to what information he had as well as his own tactical intuition allow him to cross shia's tea whilst deploying every gun he commanded against a portion of the high seas fleet the vanguard additionally as the sun sank in the west the germans would be back lit and the british obscured in the mist and darkness exactly the same situation admiral von spaey had inflicted on admiral craddock at the battle of coronel only with the sides now reversed if all went to plan individual squadrons of german ships would be feeding themselves into the meat grinder of several hundred heavy guns with minimal ability to reply faced with this shear could run or he could die the signal flags sang up their lines and acknowledgment signals rippled throughout the fleet then the flags rippled down the signal to execute iron duke let out two short blasts on its siren and almost as one the leading half-dozen battleships all slewed to port sounding their horns as well with the guns simultaneously training to starboard as the spotters atop the masts and sitting behind the lenses of rangefinders strained to spot the first sign of the high seas fleet behind them in sequence the grand fleet began to deploy the high seas fleet unknown to both sides is only 7 miles away and the british battle line itself is 6 miles long even when sailing in close formation with the turn to port the line begins to settle in a slight arc and the single largest battle line of steel warships ever assembled is ready for action the names of many ships steeped in history from the front of the line to the back are king george v ajax centurion eren orion monarch conqueror thunderer iron duke royal oak superb canada benbow bellerophon temeraire vanguard colossus collingwood neptune saint vincent marlborough revenge hercules agincourt barham valiant warspite and malaya even as the grand fleet sets itself up for combat somewhat further south things are not going so ideally whilst fifth battle squadron has managed to extract itself northwards and append itself to the stern of the grand fleet fighting between the two closing fleets is still ongoing in other areas first scouting group has rejoined the high seas fleet and they are all now heading north to try and re-engage beatty they genuinely have no idea the grand fleet is at sea let alone practically on top of them in fact at this point she's thoughts were some steps would also have to be taken to shake off the english line forces before the darkness fell in order to avoid any loss to our main fleet from noctural torpedo board attacks whilst shear suspects that the grand fleet might be now at sea somewhere he thinks they're probably going to show up in this area the next day and is mainly concerned with ensuring that his fleet is ready to face them at that point and to be fair there are a few closer issues to attend to between the two fleets bt's battle cruisers are crossing the face of the deploying grand fleet to try and link up with third battlecruiser squadron and obscure any site that the high seas fleet might get of the british battleships whilst the bulk of 5th battle squadron is continuing north as it drops in on the rear of grand fleet's overall formation but as all this is going on lookouts aboard lion spot the armored cruisers of first cruiser squadron cutting in front of them hms warrior is narrowly missed by lyon seemingly fixated on the drifting wiesbaden admiral arbothno has chosen possibly the single worst time to lead his ship south ahead of the capital ships in an attempt to finish off the lone crippled german cruiser nor is this the only near collision the various other cruisers and destroyer units of the grand fleet have had to get out of the way of what is anticipated to be a very hot zone in the next few minutes and they're trying to establish an order of battle astern of the battleships to the south west with occasional units coming under fire from various german ships as a number of far-flung units come within gun range of each other the bemused battleships look on as their escorts try to extricate themselves from the sudden traffic jam and get into some semblance of order admiral arboth knows luck truly runs out as hms defense and hms warrior enter gun range of wiesbaden at about the same time as they also enter gun range of the leading elements of the high seas fleet and first scouting group a steel rain of 11 and 12 inch shells pours in and within moments hms defense's magazines detonate in yet another colossal fireball visible from both the grand and high seas fleets she vanishes beneath the waves with all hands perhaps the most egregious casualty of the day hms warrior is then subject to the same treatment and is hit badly but at the last possible moment resput arrives in the most unlikely form shrugging off spray splinters and shells hms war spite looms out of the setting sun with her steering gear motors overheated and her rudder jammed in a 10 degrees turn to starboard stopping would be suicide and so warspite instead powers on at full speed inadvertently pulling a series of circles near and around the crippled warrior presented with a much more valuable target the germans dutifully switch most of their fire to the war spite which takes over a dozen direct hits for its troubles but remains an infuriatingly difficult target relative to the amount of firepower being directed at it eventually warspike regains control of her steering and warriors somewhat bemused crew watches their unexpected savior struggle off to the north but by that point the germans have other issues to deal with apart from a single damaged armored cruiser warspike gradually brings herself back into some semblance of order and heads away at a reduced speed eventually being ordered back into port for repairs nonetheless the germans believe all three armored cruisers and war spike to be sunk at this point with shears post-war account mentioning the lattice suppose sinking several times and at points appearing to be almost personally insulted at war spite's temerity in failing to slip beneath the waves even as all this was going on to the port quarter of the german formation first scouting group has come into range of third battlecruiser squadron as well as regaining contact with bt and the rest of the battlecruiser fleet the visibility is at first in the royal navy's favor a microcosm of what jelico is planning whilst third battle cruiser squadron is made up of older battlecruisers that are vulnerable to german capital ships regardless of ammunition handling practices if they can't be seen they can't be hit and their recent training at scapper pays off hms indomitable rapidly scores four hits three on der flinger and one on seidlets however it's lutzel who really catches the short end of the stick as she comes under fire from lion inflexible and invincible ten hits smash into the german flagship and it is in fact invincible the oldest battle cruiser present and indeed the first of its kind that seals the ultimate fate of the newest battle cruiser present when it puts two of the eight shells it delivers to luxo in about as many minutes just below the line forward causing catastrophic progressive flooding that includes a breach of the large torpedo flat that controls the ship's submerged bow tubes it's a mortal blow but that death will take a while to come invincible's fate however is somewhat faster in coming a gust of wind briefly clears the smoke and murk exposing it to the clear view of hippers ships and both ludzow and dear flinger open up three salvos each ring out and within a minute and a half it's all over a shell smashes into her nearest midship's turret and moments later an all too familiar flash of magazine detonation lights up the evening as 1026 officers and men lose their lives in moments almost all of the few survivors were a handful of men atop the main mast which is blown clean off the ship with them still at their stations amazingly one of the others is from q turret the one that was hit hms princess royal takes a couple of hits from sms mark but the action breaks off shortly thereafter ludzow has many systems offline and is taking on water fast admiral hipper is therefore forced to take to sms g39 a torpedo boat and go looking for a working battle cruiser to lead from as amongst other things the radio systems aboard lutzow have been one of the many casualties the reason for the break-off of the renewed battlecruiser action was rapidly obvious to all sides for even as the clash had looked like the german battleships were coming into play against the at british battle cruisers to quote admiral scheer it was now obvious that we were confronted by a large portion of the english fleet the entire ark stretching from north to east was a sea of fire the flash from the mussels of the gun was seen distinctly through the mist and smoke on the horizon although the ships themselves were not distinguishable the mixture of low light mist and drifting smoke both from funnels and guns had worked to completely obscure the entire grand fleet battle line from the germans right up until the moment that dozens of flashes followed shortly by fountains of water and fire began to erupt in the gloom the high seas fleet is caught completely off guard confronted with an opponent they were up until this moment convinced was still in port or at least only just out of it speaking of being caught off guard the cruiser hms galatia is still trying to find its place in the formation and is just sailing past hms agincourt when the battleship fires a full 14-gun broadside stunning the command crew of the hapless cruiser and leaving them feeling as if their whole ship had been briefly lifted out of the water and dropped back in again but the time for disbelief on all sides is quickly over as hits begin to register on the german ships in particular hms iron duke with jelica aboard not only is the first ship to spot the high seas fleet but then lands seven hits within a handful of salvos on the hapless sms koenig so long is the grand fleet's battle line that not all ships are able to open fire not helped by bt trying to bring his battle cruisers to the head of the line and getting in various squadrons way but the concentration against the lead elements of shia's forces is still overwhelming and the level of fire grows as the range closes and more british battleships are able to range on their targets sheer rapidly appraises a number of factors one only his vanguard are in a position to return fire and even then with only a limited number of their main battery guns two their ability to do so is going to rapidly degrade in the immediate future as they take more and more hits three his ships still can't see much if anything the grand fleet outside of gun flashes and hazy outlines is still pretty much invisible four it's a trap five he has no idea what else could be out there for example if british doctrine was anything like his own then even at this moment dozens of british destroyers might be swarming towards him about to envelop his forces in a maelstrom of torpedoes and the first thing he'd know about it is when things start exploding well even more than they already are now angelico's call has been about as close to perfect as it's possible to be in this kind of engagement he has sheer exactly where every admiral since the dawn of the line of battle has wanted their opponent to be shear is faced with a terrible quandary if he keeps going his force is going to be picked apart squadron by squadron if he turns to engage in a broadside battle he's simply outnumbered the turning point would become a focus anyway to in use to batter incoming ships and his lead ships are already suffering and even a conventional turn away to escape would see almost every ship under his command battered and broken before they managed to pull out of range the german ships are nonetheless quick to recover from the surprise and begin returning fire as best they can a midshipman aboard hms collingwood writes shots fell around us and we were straddled more than once one short shot ricocheted swerving to starboard the shell was plainly visible a reddish brown probably an armor piercing when i saw the shelf lying towards us i remarked to midshipman stoneham that shell is going to hit a turret it did not it passed over the forecastle and fell into the sea close on our port side history avoided major change by a matter of only a few feet for inside that turret was the future king george vi then prince albert and later to be father to queen elizabeth ii difficult though the situation is sheer didn't get to be commander of the high seas fleet by writing in for a competition or winning it in a cereal packet he had in fact thought about this kind of problem beforehand and made preparations and so he didn't need long to both realize what he had to do and how to do it within a couple of minutes of this phase of the battle being opened he ordered his fleet to execute a gefex care vendong knacked stir board or battle about turn to starboard fortunately the flags were slightly shorter than the german words this involved every ship simultaneously making a hard 180 degree turn varying each ship's rudder angle and speed to keep station with its fellows as ships of different classes had different performance characteristics when making this maneuver this allowed the entire line to reverse course within minutes and maintain their line formation it was a high precision action that required the highest levels of skill and expertise from the ship's commanders and crews all along the high seas fleet battle line but practice makes perfect and a few minutes after the order was given the high seas for elite faded back into the mists and darkness away from the grand fleet's guns jelico is now faced with his own quandary he could follow the high seas fleet and try to finish them off but this would come with a number of risks for a start it would even the playing field when it came to visibility and further it would expose his ships to the possibility of waves of torpedoes that may have been fired to cover the high seas fleet's tracks this latter problem was more of a concern retaining the cover of the mists was a major advantage but even in an equal visibility scenario jelica had more ships and more and bigger guns and so the torpedoes were the more proximate concern his battleships were now sending reports in of torpedoes in the water and taking the necessary evasive action and so as a result the grand fleet headed south in roughly the same direction as they'd been going previously but not in a direct chase keeping sheer to the west and also retaining the gunnery advantage of the light and mists hms marlborough in the rear division of the battle line is hit by a torpedo seeming to further reinforce the wisdom of jelico's decision in hindsight the torpedo was probably from the crippled but still afloat smsv's barden which was still defying everything in the vicinity but this hit will gradually drop marlborough's speed over the next few hours but for now she kept formation as the fleet slowed to a cruising speed with the captain merely ordering that the guns be elevated higher to compensate for the list away to the west shear knew that full darkness was some time off and he did not know if he was being pursued and if so how closely with the pre-dreadnoughts of rear admiral moe of squadron slowing him down if jelico was closing in to finish him off then there was nothing he could do to escape except perhaps sacrifice the stragglers and hoped that a dog a bank style feeding frenzy developed or possibly simply be somewhere else thus he decided to head east this was because a pursuing enemy would at best run past shia's western flank with his ships hidden in the darkness and if the pursuit was off by a few degrees and they still managed to spot the high seas fleet it could fall further back east into the gathering night and make an escape for good if the course of pursuit was off by a few degrees to the west they'd miss the high seas fleet entirely now if the enemy was significantly to the east already shir also viewed it to be better to force them to use their destroyers and torpedo boat payloads before nightfall when the high seas fleet still had a chance to spot and dodge these weapons in his own words at the time if the enemy followed us our action reversing cores would have been classed as a retreat and if any of our rear ships were damaged we would have to sacrifice them still less was it feasible to disengage leaving it to the enemy to decide when he would meet with us in the morning unfortunately for shear jelico wasn't following him but was as mentioned heading south which meant that shia had managed to extract himself from the grand fleet crossing his tea once only to now unintentionally be driving his fleet headlong into exactly the same trap with the british holding exactly the same advantages only now shear's own ships were damaged and there was an even greater visibility disadvantage compared to before as the sun continued to set emphasizing just how spread out this battle had become not only were the four main formations of the two fleets out there so too were a number of crippled ships hms warrior hms warspite smsv's barden and the destroyer hms shark to name but a few the latter now caught up in her own small fight with four german torpedo boats and despite the odds she put up a heroic resistance disabling sms v48 before sms s54 put a torpedo into her after about five minutes sending the valiant shark to the bottom second light cruiser squadron is once again the first part of the fleet to notice the returning germans and commences evasive action whilst signaling that well the high seas fleet is back again even as the shells begin to splash down around them evoking memories of a few hours earlier shear finds himself in a familiar and unwelcome position for the second time that day the horizon lights up in flames this time it's the eastern one and unlike the previous encounter jelico has had a bit more time to bring his line into a closer formation as compared to the previous barely deployed arc and the incoming fire rapidly begins to tell within the space of a couple of minutes the five leading german battleships have all been hit along with a number of other following vessels the whole purpose of shia's turn east was to evade the grand fleet not smash his damaged vanguard headlong into it once again and so shear orders the about turn once more but unlike the previous instance he has some major problems with hits sending fire and debris all over the place the forward elements of the high seas fleet are beginning to lose cohesion and even though the turn will preserve most of the middle and rear divisions it's going to leave half a dozen battleships under fire of four to five times their number of capital ships as they lose speed in their turns something that a number of german dreadnoughts are quite bad at doing a third squadron in the lead along with first scouting group is already getting badly hit and so shear plays his last card all destroyers and torpedo boats six flotillas with over 200 torpedoes still aboard are ordered forward for a torpedo assault and any surviving operational battle cruisers are ordered headlong at the british to distract them from the high seas fleet itself although recognizing the situation some of the german torpedo boats have already headed into the attack on their own initiative hippa is still stuck between ships and can so can only watch as the iron dog der flinger leads the three other operational german battle cruisers into a point-blank charge against 4.5 to 1 odds whilst the high seas fleet hauls about behind them although the maneuver is much more disorganized this time with some ships turning to port instead of starboard others turning early and still others finding themselves squeezed out of the line and forced to run parallel to their comrades until everything can be sorted out this set of maneuvers will become known as the death ride of the german battle cruisers a bold german strategy that actually works in their favor so many british ships are firing at so few targets that working out whose shells belong to which ship becomes remarkably difficult and the german ships are almost perpetually hidden in columns of water smoke and spray vastly reducing the odds of actually getting the range correct nonetheless quantity does have a quality all of its own and 37 large caliber hits tear into three of the four battlecruisers for its trouble in leading the attack two of deftlinger's turrets are wrecked and in exchange a pair of 11-inch shells from seidlets hits hms colossus causing superficial damage and further heavy damage is inflicted on the rest of the german battle cruisers even the by now heavily listing marlborough scores a number of hits as the german ships wheel about to make their own escape this is covered by the follow-up assault by the destroyers and torpedo boats rather diverting british attention iron duke once again takes an incredibly accurate aim and casually obliterates sms s35 which was angling for a torpedo spread on the grand fleet flagship but 31 torpedoes make it into the water and in order to preserve the fleet jelica orders his ships to turn away from the incoming weapons again in this he is successful in avoiding damage although a number of bemused sailors are able to watch the torpedoes motoron past them close enough to make out details of their construction whilst the escorting british vessels also managed to bag sms v48 with the torpedo threat over angelico wheels the fleet about again but the delay has cost what was left of the daylight and opened the range significantly sheer has once more slipped away into the night despite progressive flooding boya smith aboard marlborough seemed content with matters everything seemed splendid we were doing a good 17 knots list and all with a boiler room on the point of flooding outright at present there was six feet of water in it we were keeping our place in the line and the grand fleet was still between them and home and with a whole day before us this time make a job of it one way or the other the outlying elements of the two fleets exchange a few final salvos the trailing battered german battle cruisers are set upon by their pursuing british counterparts a single hit on princess royal is compensated for with eight further hits on the german ships but just as it looks like the battered and slowed german battle cruisers have finally been run to the ground out of the gathering gloom comes the pre-dreadnoughts of the high seas fleet second squadron which engaged the british in a short but fierce gunnery duel it's quite one-sided the pre-dreadnoughts falling back under fire within minutes but they've done their job holding up the british chase just long enough for the german battle cruisers to gain cover in what is now definitely the night as the sun had set at 200 hours without knowing it these ships have fired the last shots that will be exchanged by british and german capital ships until the second world war angelico now has a big decision to make he can steam on into the gloom of night in battle line formation visibility was poor during the day and it's terrible now but from the last few encounters he does have a rough idea of where shear might be for the next half hour or so but this risks exposing the grand fleet to a night action where the limited visibility will curtail his ability to use the full numerical advantage of the grand fleet and will also conceal destroyers and cruisers making torpedo runs angelico also knows that the high seas fleet has spent a lot more time practicing for a night engagement than he has whilst filing away a mental note to change that he resolves instead to angle the grand fleet to sail in the direction of where shear has to be going home in order to cut him off and force a renewed action at dawn where the sun rising behind his ships will illuminate the germans for his gunners whilst blinding shears the only issue is where to go the approaches to the german coast are heavily mined but the british know that there are four safe routes through the one that both sides discount immediately was going around denmark and into the baltic then coming back via the kiel canal it was by far the longest route and although it would break contact most cleanly with the british there were a number of ships such as seidlets which would not likely survive the trip and thus shir has completely disregarded this already the three routes that involve heading south involve going via the heligoland bite the north frisian coast or the horns reef shear has also ruled out going via helical and bite as this requires entering the minefields that start well out to sea and with only dead reckoning available there's no way he can guarantee showing up at the entrance the germans had already lost enough ships to their own mines without running the whole high seas fleet into them the next choice was to head for the friesian coast and then double back behind a minefield into the jade estuary this course diverged from the british route somewhat but was still relatively close the final option the shortest was south by southeast to the horns reef it was the shortest route by at least 100 miles but it would involve cutting back across the course of where shear now knows the grand fleet to be with a sighting that put the high seas fleet on a west south west course angelico concluded that the friesian coast was the most likely option it matched the sighting of the high seas fleet and it also matched shir's apparent desire to stay away from the grand fleet in theory if given enough warning heading in this direction would also allow him to switch course to the horns reef which should come if the germans tried to break through his lines as the destroyer and cruiser squadrons were distributed around the grand fleet for exactly this tripwire purpose with the grand fleet enjoying both a cruising and maximum speed advantage courtesy of rear admiral merv's pre-dreadnoughts in the high seas fleet he could still beat sheer to either destination as long as he had enough timely information angelico orders the fleet into knight formation the battle line is replaced with four parallel columns that reduce the fleet's overall footprint making it easier to form an escort cordon and reducing the chances of being found by german torpedo boats and destroyers in the third column poor old marlborough flagship of the division was gradually falling back having taken the torpedo hit earlier she was sure she could keep 17 knots but the list was slowly increasing and her speed was slowly dropping for the moment she was keeping vaguely in contact but it was looking more and more dicey as time went on the remains of the battle cruiser fleet were stationed ahead and to starboard which was the best location for them to head off the lead german ships if they were heading where jelico thought they were weirdly this meant that within 10 minutes unknown to anyone the battlecruiser fleet actually became the lead element of the high seas fleet which was motoring along almost eight miles directly behind them in the darkness one cruiser squadron was placed at each compass point around the grand fleet except to the west where two were stationed to ensure that the battle cruiser fleet had enough support with the destroyers all sent to follow the fleet to guard the back of the british formation as well as keep the fire lanes ahead and to the sides clear should an engagement develop aboard the various ships there is finally time for crews to be taking something of a break aboard hms barham midshipman frampton noted we were allowed to take it in turns to leave the turret and find what we could to eat my dismay can be imagined when i saw the gun room which of course i expected to find as usual it was a complete shambles both inside and out and there was obviously no hope of getting anything to eat there i remember among other things the butter dish which been blown with its contents out the pantry and stuck to the bulkhead the wardroom was intact and were invited to take part in the feast such as it was some tongue biscuits and a drink was about all it revived us poor boyer smith in marlborough had to make do with a biscuit that he'd stashed in the turret before the action commenced while lieutenant brynden malaya was slightly more fortunate i was very glad of a sandwich of bread and tin salmon which was served out nothing warm could be obtained as the gallery was out of action the men managed to get some sleep during the night but i was not so fortunate as my perch was not very comfortable and i hardly dared sleep for it seems so necessary to be absolutely ready the germans meanwhile proceeded in line ahead now changing course to just a fraction south of southwest although the westfalen seems to have had some trouble complying and meanders back and forth across nearby bearings for a little bit until it can sort itself out in preparation for having to break past the grand fleet shear had previously ordered commodore mickelson of sms rostock who was in charge of the high seas fleet's destroyers to prepare to attack the british forces his first task was to actually find some and then work out if they had any torpedoes in so doing he found sms regensburg whose own commodore was in charge of first scouting group's destroyers between the two of them they gathered together various destroyer formations but a number of initial forays were spotted in the failing light and abandoned when the vessels came under fire with their boilers increasingly clogged due to poor quality coal and visibility worsening some of the destroyers were now fired at by the high seas fleet's own battleships which further complicated matters all of this meant that the destroyers were being slowed up which in turn meant that they'd miss the grand fleet and run into the british destroyers and cruisers at the rear of the formation instead shear realized that the somewhat bruised and battered pre-dreadnaughts of the second battle squadron were leading the high seas fleet not exactly what he wanted if he was going to potentially run into jelico for a third time here the first chance for a night action occurred as whilst trying to follow shia's order to drop out of line and rejoin at the rear sms hanover spotted a light ahead along with a number of large vessels this was in fact hms shannon of the second cruiser squadron without that light in place which should have been out there was a good chance that the pre-dreadnoughts could have walked right into second cruiser squadron and their torpedo and gunfire and that would have most definitely alerted the grand fleet to yet another t-crossing opportunity but with the light scene the german fleet held back and gradually fell behind into a position where they would cut across the back of the grand fleet instead of running headlong into it in another lucky mistake fourth scouting group assigned to the starboard bow quarter of the high seas fleet ended up on the port bow quarter thus also avoiding a course into the rear elements of the grand fleet's battleships there was further confusion at the rear of the german lines shear had ordered first scouting group to drop in behind the pre-dreadnoughts due to the damage that they'd taken but hippa had by now only just managed to find a new command sms maltka and missed the signals instead trying to take his ships back into the lead ludzow was still afloat but taking on water fast der flinger was doing a good impression of an underwater swiss cheese and von der tan was cleaning out her boilers from built up soot and ash and so only malka and believe it or not the battered seidlitz could actually manage to get to the front lines shear repeated his orders as he noticed two of first scouting groups battle cruisers passed by but by that point the two more seaworthy cruisers had reached the front line and would then have to make their own way forwards sms frankfurt and sms palau spot the 16 ships of 11th destroyer flotilla although at first they think that it's actually five cruisers either way torpedoes are fired off into the night but shortly after firing them the germans recognize the destroyers for what they are and they decide that bringing 16 hostile destroyers backed the high seas fleet is not such a good idea and refrain from firing guns or using their searchlights however the 11th destroyer flotilla is heading for a station rear of the british battleships and so completely unaware of what's going on doubles back to assume their station thus inadvertently causing all the torpedoes to go wide ten minutes later a formation of german destroyers spots fourth destroyer flotilla and once again launches a stealth attack with torpedoes only to once again see the british do a smart about face to assume escort positions and so yet again the torpedoes go wide although jelico is fairly convinced he's got his approximation of the german course and speed right just in case the mind layer hms ab deal is sent to lay her minds off of the horns reef approach as the bedraggled elements of the high seas fleet begin to cross the wake of the grand fleet the first of many sporadic encounters breaks out second a light cruiser's squadron's flagship hms southampton spots five ships at point blank range after some back and forth with challenge signals and misidentifications both sides opened fire with most german ships of fourth scouting group gunning for hms southampton whilst one takes aim at hms dublin hms nottingham and hms birmingham have no lights running and thus remain unseen southampton takes a withering barrage but manages to get a torpedo off which deals a fatal blow to sms frown lob which takes all but five of her 330 man crew to the bottom the action breaking off almost as quickly as it began southampton's torpedo lieutenant relates the action at about 10 15 pm that appeared on our starboard beam scarcely 1500 yards distant a line of five ships steering in the same direction as ourselves we intersected them carefully from the bridge and the officers in the after control position also observed and reported their presence to us the next few minutes were full of suspense the newcomers being as unwilling to disclose their identity as we were meanwhile to curse a cautionary order were passed to the guns and the searchlights and i have the order to flood the starboard torpedo ready for firing then the two squadrons almost simultaneously decided the other was hostile and opened a violent fire each of the five german ships switched on two groups of lights and opened fire at least three ships very speedily concentrating on southampton which with searchlights burning made an excellent target the others finding an engaging dublin are nexus stern either nottingham nor birmingham show any lights with the result they remained undiscovered they were unable to pour a heavy fire onto the enemy at almost point blank range on the bridge the full glare of the searchlights of the leading enemy ship was on us and we could see nothing but i had already received enough an impression of the general direction of enemy advance for the purpose of torpedo fire so i passed down the order to the torpedo flat and waited impatiently for the reply when it came through the report ready i fired the group of hostile searchlights which were the only things visible the commodore came over to my side and asked if i had fired i told him i had and the tube crews were reloading i began to look round it was impossible to distinguish the firing of our own guns from the noise of the bursting shells i remember the continuous screaming noise apparently caused by overs but i could see nothing of the results of our own firing going to the glare of the searchlights i received no definite impression that the ship had been struck by shells only a confused uproar i did not find out the truth affairs of the states on deck until it was all over i observed that a fire had been started on board somewhere aft which was hidden by another which shot up just up after the bridge near nearly to the four top our firing and the enemies now became too desultory and there were brief periods of calm where there was little else to do but watched the fire which was in a few feet of the bridge screens and having seen the three ships blow up earlier in the day i wondered how long it would be before we made the fourth and what it would feel like just as we have made up our minds that another few minutes would surely see the end of southampton the searchlights from the leading enemy ship went out and she sheared off to starboard she had been torpedoed and was sinking though we did not know it at the time eleventh destroyer flotilla is spotted again by fourth scouting group along with elbing and rostock this time the approach is different during the earlier encounters the british challenge signal issued by searchlight at night had been observed and so by using this the germans were able to pretend to be an approaching royal navy formation until they get to about a mile away at which point all searchlights and guns are lit up and the 11th destroy flotilla is taken under fire torpedoes are soon in the water and surprisingly the action breaks off as both sides withdraw hms castor being hit repeatedly whilst some hits were scored on sms hamburg elbing has a lucky escape for now as a deep running torpedo is spotted passing right underneath the ship 11th destroyer flotilla reports the contact to jelico but lists the enemies as light forces i.e torpedo boats which is pretty much what jelica was expecting angelico receives a room 40 report from the admiralty which indicates that based on a german signal from just after 2100 the high seas fleet is headed for horns reef unfortunately jelico is highly skeptical and disregards it which is another huge missed opportunity but from his perspective at the time there's actually good reason for this action that morning he'd been told by the admiralty that the high seas fleet was still in port and that had been a result of failures on the part of bad multi officers not actually asking room 40 the right questions but jelica of course didn't know that he'd also received another signal half an hour previously that gave a completely different and obviously wrong position specifically it suggested that the high seas fleet was somehow south of the grand fleet which angelico knew for a fact was wrong since all the sighting reports from his own ships were coming from the north and the signals reported position would have required the high seas fleet to have uniformly been capable of well over 30 knots a number of other signals had been intercepted by room 40 which would have confirmed the report that he just received but the admiralty had unforgivably left a junior officer on duty who had little idea what he was looking at and so these other signals were not forwarded to jelico these included a request from shear for zeppelin reconnaissance in the morning over horn's reef if they had been then at least the weight of similar sounding reports might have led jelico to changing course and perhaps changing history it wasn't just inconsistent admiralty signals that played into this decision there were also citing reports from the grand fleet and battle cruiser fleet that seemed to go against this as well as other admiralty signals that seemed to have been borne out for example just before 2200 jelico had received an intercepted signal detailing she's instructions for a nighttime torpedo boat attack which seemed to coincide with the reports that were reaching him from his own forces such as 11th destroyer flotilla's identification of torpedo boats attacking them of course we know 11th destroyer flotilla was wrong but jelico didn't know that additionally his own cruisers had reported seeing german capital ships heading southwest this was technically correct but practically wrong the ships they'd seen were indeed heading southwest but they were only doing this briefly as they turned to head to the rear of the german line but the sighting which had only briefly spotted the german ships thus gave a mistaken idea that this was where all german capital ships must have been going in any case after jelica received the signal claiming that the high seas fleet was heading for the horns reef room 40 was also in receipt of the following one a message from shir confirming that he was on a course of south east by south two a message from shear ordering torpedo boats to assemble at o200 at horns reef or to take another course home if they couldn't make that rendezvous and three as the night wore on further reports from shear as his course and position sent at 2306 2330 2336 0043 and 0103 each of them decoded within about half an hour of shares sending them none of these signals were passed on to the grand fleet conversely some of the few british signals from the grand fleet were picked up by the germans which allowed shear to understand that clashes with british destroyers meant that he was passing behind instead of in front of the grand fleet but whilst we're on the subject of shi's intentions to get home let's learn a little bit more about that zeppelin reconnaissance he'd asked for unlike the british the germans decided to field zeppelins in order to help the kaizalgi marina locate the enemy while larger sluggish and a bigger target zeppelins had advantages over aircraft they had greater range more crew to assist with spotting able to bear more equipment and fuel autonomy zeppelins were also greatly favored by the german navy over conventional aircraft with officers and captains having gone through the officer schools for the kaiserlike marina the germans deployed five zeppelins on the 31st of may to find the british fleet and seems to have come close to doing so albeit a little bit too late during the night of the 1st of june between 3 15 and 3 45 am multiple british ships reported hearing engine sounds the zeppelins were close but the night and later the same poor visibility that had forced rutland on the british side to stay low prevented the germans from getting eyes on the royal navy the british of course did not notice angelico seems to have assumed that perhaps the germans had indeed spotted his fleet yet the zeppelins were unable to play much of a part in the battle or assisted kaizen himarina the airships returned to their mooring stations on the 1st of june 1916 at dawn one airship l elf or l11 was sent out again this time it was able to spot the british fleet taking some pot shots as a reward but slipping away without any damage by this point the battle was over seeing no damage strugglers that could be picked off by the german navy l11 retired playing no further part in a battle that was already long over fourth destroyer flotilla was the westernmost unit guarding the rear of the grand fleet and was made up of two flotilla leaders hms tipperary nhms broke and a balance of acasta class destroyers hms garland fourth in line reported unknown ships approaching these were duly challenged but the response from 600 yards away was simply a hail of gunfire it was actually fourth scouting group again this time just ahead of the leading high seas fleet battleships and at almost the same time sms vestvalen and sms nassau also opened up with their secondary batteries recognizing themselves as hopelessly outgunned the leading six destroyers fired torpedoes and turned away this was another golden moment as the rest of the flotilla was still fully loaded but even at this almost point blank distance in the darkness and many of them were unsure if this was actually enemy forces or a bad case of friendly fire and so none of the other destroyers launched torpedoes and those that had fired had only fired one or two each to preserve their loads in case of future action still sms l bing's luck now well and truly ran out she was hit by one of the torpedoes and slewed around losing speed only to be promptly rammed by the oncoming sms poison which sealed her fate in exchange the flotilla leader tipperary was aflame and disabled hms spitfire next in line decided to move to assist but now sms nassau loomed up out of the gloom aiming to ram the british destroyer spitfire took last minute evasive action prompting nassau to try and blast it from the water with its main battery but the range was so close that the 11 inch guns could not depress far enough and they only blew part of the mast and funnel overboard as well as doing some serious redecoration of the superstructure the two ships then hit each other almost head-on a spitfire scraping down the side of the much larger german ship her own hull crumpling but also ripping open the side of nassau as the two ships parted a 20-foot chunk of nassau's armor plating was torn away landing on spitfire's faux castle with engine power still available the rather bedraggled spitfire limped away towards home with her prize firmly on deck hms broke now took over command from tipperary but did not report the encounter to jelico another missed chance but 25 minutes after the first gunfire they had more ships to worry about as a vest violin appeared and opened fire at less than a ship's length distance broke was shattered in moments the close range preventing the return fire of her own torpedoes and the crippled ship swerved out of line and hit hms sparrowhawk which was trying to line up its own torpedo shot the captain of sparrowhawk saw the collision coming shouted a warning and then was knocked off his feet and into unconsciousness by the impact coming to a few minutes later and finding that he'd been forcibly transferred to the deck of broke as the officers tried to figure out which ship was worse off and thus whose crew should evacuate to the other ship hms contests rolled up behind them and took a bit out of sparrowhawk's stern before proceeding on her own way with a sheepish apology after some time the two ships were able to separate broke missing her bow slowly meandering back home over the next few days whilst sparrowhawk could only go in circles as they went round and round through the night they spotted the abandoned and drifting sms albin come past and sink before sparrowhawk was eventually taken in tow but then deliberately sunk the following day due to increased flooding as the seas built hms akates took command of what was left of fourth destroyer flotilla but still made no report to jelico next in line was 13th destroyer flotilla made up of the light cruiser hms champion and a number of m-class destroyers minus a few that had been lost or damaged earlier in the day but plus hms termigant and hms turbulent from the 10th flotilla champion spotted the fighting fourth destroyer flotilla was stuck in and tried to head for a better view but forgot to tell the rest of the ship's information who were all traveling without lights and following the next ship in line thus only the first two following destroyers actually realized what was going on and followed champion but the next squadrons further east saw champions movement and likewise moved themselves this opened up a gap for the high seas fleet to pass through and once again both the observed fighting and the repositioning of ships were not reported to jelico maltka and serglitz were making their own way home said let's because she was so badly damaged that with progressive flooding she was beginning to fall behind and maulka because she'd gotten lost she'd already almost run into second battle squadron although hms thunderer had both not fired on her nor reported the sighting she tried to break through twice more both times almost running into the grand fleet and so after an exchange of messages shear ordered mulker to proceed at speed south and loop around the front of the british forces which he would eventually manage to do the last action of the 31st of may was once again characterized by a failure to act or to report sadlits wandered into range of first battle squadron and was seen by marlborough agincourt and revenge the first two did nothing and revenge challenged the stranger got an incorrect response but then chose to do nothing about it two light cruisers pretty much did the same and so the shattered battle cruiser was able to crawl past on her way to safety hms black prince a survivor of admiral arbuthno's ill-advised charge earlier in the battle has become lost seeing a line of battleships she tries to join up again only to find she's actually sailing alongside the high seas fleet which opens up a massive cannonade at point-blank range that sees the ship suffer the same fate as hms defense blown up with all hands lost the german ships now start passing through a line of destroyers made up of a couple of combined flotillas and some from 13th destroyer flotilla who'd gotten lost after being left behind and joined up with the first british unit they'd found sms vestfallen again featured running hms turbulent down as the destroyers once again did not report the sightings thanks to the damage inflicted earlier on hms marlborough her part of first battle squadron had fallen back and 12th destroyer flotilla had likewise dropped back to stay at escorting distance thus instead of having the german ships run through them the 15 destroyers instead see ships passing ahead of them they fail to respond to challenges properly and the flotilla under captain sterling begins an attack in the pre-dawn darkness the high seas fleet responds with a heavy barrage that drives back almost two-thirds of the attackers but half a dozen managed to get into torpedo range before having to turn about minutes later sms pomern is hit aboard hms obedient an officer records write a midship in the palmer appeared a dull red ball of fire it spread foreign after and flared up the mass in big red tongues of flame uniting in a black cloud of smoke and sparks then one saw the ends of the ship come up as though her back was broken before the mist shut it out of you for a change the lead officer does attempt to alert jelico but sterling's efforts are frustrated by either damaged his own radio aerials or possibly german jamming and three reports all fail to get through this is the last encounter where there is still time for the grand fleet to hook around and block the high seas fleet but it too is an opportunity missed although this time not for lack of trying elsewhere in the darkness the lutzer's crew are forced to give up their fight to save the ship with the torpedo flat flooded the bow has sunk so far down that the propellers at the other end have emerged from the water and she's lost practically all speed a number of destroyers take off the crew and she is torpedoed to hasten the end the leading ships of 13th destroyer flotilla have regrouped and headed south 10 minutes later they spot the last few german ships but again failed to report it and break away instead of engaging with the exception of the tail end vessel hms moresby which fires a torpedo before following the rest of the flotilla into the eastern darkness one of the last four ships in the german line sms von der tan spots the torpedo and has to make an emergency turn to starboard to avoid it and even then only just manages it as you might imagine all of this caused a semi-constant rolling cannonade punctuated by explosions to the north of the main grand fleet throughout the night but many dismissed it as actions between opposing destroyer flotillas after all if it was the german fleet then surely the squadron commanders in the rear units would tell jelica what was happening and well be asking for help meanwhile those squadron leaders assumed that for some reason angelico had x-ray vision and could see what they could see and so radio signals or signal guns were a completely unnecessary risk since obviously if jericho wanted them to fire then surely he would fire himself as a result various parts of the grand fleet watched as one german unit after another sailed quietly past at ranges where any actual gunfire would almost certainly have resulted in the german ship's destruction aboard the german fleet it's estimated that they've managed to sink another battle cruiser and damage several more as well as the various smaller craft the sheer size of some of the more regular armored cruisers coupled with incomplete information regarding which ships were actually part of the grand fleet further exacerbates this reporting issue and post-war finding out just how close to the grand fleet they came shia can't believe he got away with it any more than many other historians do finding himself at a loss to explain how or why the various british units he just plowed straight through or was observed by had never told jelico what was happening by means of further signals intercepts and reports finally filtering through to the fleet angelico now learns where shear is but it's too far to the northeast now for the grand fleet to intercept the high seas fleet before it reaches horns reef with the german fleet now safely over to the eastern side of the grand fleet shear has a clear run to head for the horns reef and safety but now sms ostrich land hits a mine luckily after a few minutes she's able to get underway again a battered high seas fleet begins to make its way into port saidlitz badly damaged and low in the water grounds trying to cross the shallow bar that lies outside safe harbor after some emergency lightning procedures and pumping assistance from tugs and a toe she eventually makes it over at high tide limping into her berth at 07 30 the next day the 2nd of june where she promptly sinks the last few feet to the sea floor far away to the northwest the grand fleet and what's left of the battle cruiser fleet are likewise heading for home preceded by the damaged ships detached earlier the previous day marlborough war spite spitfire and others the battle of jutland is over so the guns had fallen silent the ships were back in port the battle of jutland was done but who had won what would the outcomes be longer term and what lessons had been learned tune in next week for part three to find out 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: 401,144

Rating: 4.9325991 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, Battle Turn-away, Night Action

Id: MffyRgq23ps

Length: 68min 54sec (4134 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 05 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/FlapjaxIsDead]

The dude with the cock piercing?

[u/Eran-of-Arcadia]

. . . and tits?

[u/sw04ca]

I mean, hundreds and hundreds of yards. He served in the First Battle Squadron, which was hit by only two high explosive eleven-inch shells during the entire battle. Moreover, the ship hit was Colossus, not Albert's ship, Collingwood.

Basically, the prince was in the most powerful concentration of warships in the world at the time. When the German commander realized that he'd accidentally run his fleet into the entire Grand Fleet (which had been very capabably deployed by its admiral), he prompty turned around and ran away, using the darkness of night to slip through the British attempt to cut him off and made it home. The only way that Albert would have been in danger would have been if the British had guessed right on the route that the Germans were going to take to get home and had cut them off in front of Horns Reef at around 4am on a Glorious First of June.