Battle Of Jutland

The Battle of Jutland, dubbed the "Greatest Naval Battle of the First World War," took place on the 31st of May and 1st of June in 1916, pitting the British against the German fleet of "dreadnought" battleships. It was a brutal conflict involving 250 ships and around 100,000 soldiers. The engagement took place in the North Sea, and German Admiral Reinhard Scheer intended to include both Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battlecruiser Force and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's Grand Fleet in the conflict. Scheer's strategy was to annihilate Beatty's force before Jellicoe arrived. According to Imperial War Museum documents, this was prevented when the British were forewarned by their code-breakers and sent their forces to sea early. Those first encounters between Beatty’s force and the German high seas fleet caused losses of several ships.

The Germans sank HMS Indefatigable and HMS Queen Mary, as well as Beatty's flagship, the HMS Lion. After German shells hit their ammunition magazines, they blew up. Beatty retreated in defeat until Jellicoe arrived with the main fleet. The outgunned Germans withdrew back to their homeland. The British suffered 14 shipwrecks and 6000 casualties, while the Germans suffered 11 shipwrecks and over 2500 casualties. The Germans never really threatened British control of the North Sea after that. It also ensured British control of maritime waterways, allowing Britain to establish a blockade that led to Germany's defeat in 1918. The Battle of Jutland was the subject of many documentaries, the most recent of which was broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2016.

When: 1916