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Map of the North and Baltic Seas (labeledNord-See and Ostsee) from a folding postcard of five battlefronts: the Western and Eastern Fronts; North and Baltic Seas, Mediterranean and Black Seas; and the Serbian-Montenegro Front.
The 12th company advancing through shell fire to supply the 1st Battalion, 32nd Landwehr Infantry Regiment. A watercolor painting by Otto Oettel of the German 32nd Landwehr dated September 29, 1916.
A squadron of the German Imperial Navy under the eye of a Zeppelin off the North Sea island and port of Helgoland.
German postcard celebrating "the great German victory over the English" off Jutland, May 31, 1916. The Battle of Jutland (or of the Skagerrak) was the largest naval engagement of the war. Although, as on this card, the Germans declared victory, the outcome was less clear, and the German surface fleet did not again contest British control of the North Sea.
Portrait postcard of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe of the Royal Navy. Appointed Commander of the British Home Fleets on August 2, 1914, Jellicoe was criticized for his leadership of the British fleet during the May 31, 1916 Battle of Jutland in which he failed to decisively defeat the German High Seas Fleet. He was made First Sea Lord later that year. The card was postmarked from Glasgow, Scotland, on January 7, 1915.
"It was against this background of raid and counter-raid with both sides baiting traps—Jellicoe to catch the High Sea Fleet away from its coast and Scheer to catch an isolated portion of the Grand Fleet—that the great naval battle of the war occurred almost by accident. At the end of May [1916], Jellicoe decided to send two light cruiser squadrons around the Skaw into the Kattegat on 2 June to sweep as far south as the Great Belt and the Sound. There would be a battle squadron in the Skaggerak in support, and Jellicoe and Beatty would be to the northwest with all their forces ready to intervene if the High Sea Fleet moved north out of the Bight. British submarines would also be off the Dogger Bank and south of the Horns Reef, and the minelayer Abdiel would extend the minefields laid on 3–4 May. The seaplane carrier Engadine, escorted by a light cruiser squadron and destroyers, would be off Horns Reef to watch for Zeppelins." ((1), more)
". . . today's colour effects were a sheer joy to watch. According as a shell burst in coal, chalk, or soil, there was a dust fountain of black, white, or terra-cotta, or a mixture of two of these; and there were woolly air-bursts that rolled out in whorls—grey-black, pure white, and lemon. Sometimes there was a hint of the human soil on which shells were falling when a largish, flaccid thing rose in the spout, and one was sorry for the men there, whichever side they were on." ((2), more)
"Hipper and his battle cruisers sailed from the Jade at 1 A.M. on the 31st [May, 1916], and Scheer and the main portion of the High Sea Fleet sailed from the Jade and the Elbe shortly afterward. The British were already at sea. Room 40 had been able to warn the Admiralty that the Germans were preparing to put to sea, and at 5:40 on the afternoon of 30 May, the Admiralty ordered Jellicoe, who along with Beatty had already been alerted, to concentrate in the Long Forties. By 10:30 the Grand Fleet had sailed from Scapa Flow and the Moray Firth, and Beatty sailed from the Firth of Forth at 11:00." ((3), more)
"The Defence was heavily engaged, salvoes dropping all around her. At 1815 a salvo hit her abaft the after turret and a big red flame flashed up. The ship heeled, then quickly righted herself and steamed on. But almost immediately another salvo struck between the forecastle turret and foremost funnel, and she was lost to sight in an enormous black cloud which, when it cleared, showed no signs of a ship at all." ((4), more)
"During the night the British heavy ships were not attacked, but the Fourth, Eleventh and Twelfth Flotillas, under Commodore Hawksley and Captains Charles J. Wintour and Anselan J. B. Sterling, delivered a series of very gallant and successful attacks on the enemy, causing him heavy losses.It was during these attacks that severe losses in the Fourth Flotilla occurred, including that of Tipperary, with the gallant leader of the Flotilla, Captain Wintour. He had brought his flotilla to a high pitch of perfection, and although suffering severely from the fire of the enemy, a heavy toll of enemy vessels was taken, and many gallant actions were performed by the flotilla. . . .At daylight, June 1st [1916], the battle fleet, being then to the southward and westward of the Horn Reef, turned to the northward in search of enemy vessels and for the purpose of collecting our own cruisers and torpedo-boat destroyers . . . I was reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Sea Fleet had returned to port." ((5), more)
(1) In May, 1916 Admiral Sir John Jellicoe commanded the British Grand Fleet, Admiral Reinhard Scheer the German High Sea Fleet. With a superior navy, Britain had cleared the high seas of German warships in the first months of the war, and blockaded the North Sea, constraining the activity of the German surface fleet. On April 25, 1916, German warships had shelled the coastal town of Lowestoft, one of the raids our author refers to, destroying 200 houses, killing three and wounding twelve. The Skaggerak and Kattegat are straits between the North and Baltic Seas, north and east of Denmark's Jutland peninsula. Dogger Bank is a fishing ground in the North Sea, and site of the January 24, 1915 Battle of Dogger Bank as well as an encounter on February 10, 1916. Admiral David Beatty commanded a squadron of battleships that would be used as a lure in the coming days.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, pp. 314, 315, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(2) Extract from the entry for May 29, 1916 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Dunn was in Cambrin Right, the front line at Cambrin, west of La Bassée, France,in Artois. The previous day he recorded rumors that his unit was moving to Vimy or the Somme.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 202, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) At the end of May, 1916, the German and British moved into the North Sea with similar plans and deployments: a squadron of half a dozen ships to lure the enemy into the guns of a large battle fleet. Admiral Reinhard Scheer commanded the German High Sea Fleet, and Rear Admiral Franz Hipper his smaller battle squadron. Their British counterparts were Admiral John Jellicoe commanding the Grand Fleet, with David Beatty at the helm of his squadron. Room 40 was home to the British Admiralty cryptographers armed with copies of German code books, one that had been found on the body of a German officer by the Russians. The Jade and Elbe Rivers lead from the ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven to the North Sea.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 315, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(4) At the end of May, 1916, the British (May 30) and German (the 31st) fleets moved into the North Sea with similar plans and deployments: a squadron of half a dozen ships to lure the enemy into the guns of a large battle fleet. Admiral Reinhard Scheer commanded the German High Sea Fleet, and Rear Admiral Franz Hipper his smaller battle squadron. Their British counterparts were Admiral John Jellicoe commanding the Grand Fleet, and David Beatty the squadron. Hipper's and Beatty's squadrons first exchanged fire at 3:48 PM. By 6:00 PM both fleets were engaged in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Defence had a failing shared with other British ships: its magazines were dangerously close to, and unprotected from, the gun turrets, and a direct hit on the turret could lead to the ignition of the magazine. Defence sank with all hands at 6:20. The British suffered heavier losses in the battle: 14 ships and 6,097 men to Germany's 11 ships and 2,551 men, but the British fleet remained the stronger, and the German surface fleet did not again contest control of the North Sea.
Naval Battles of the First World War by Geoffrey Bennett, page 181, copyright © Geoffrey Bennett 1968, 1974, publisher: Pan Books, publication date: 1983
(5) Excerpt from the June 24, 1916 official report of Admiral John Jellicoe to the British Admiralty on the May 31st Battle of Jutland between the British Grand Fleet and German High Sea Fleet. Although battle squadrons had first exchanged fire at 3:48 PM on the 31st, the battle fleets were not engaged until 6:00 PM. Dusk and smoke concealed ships on both sides, but allowed the smaller German fleet to slip away and return to port, dashing Jellicoe's hopes to re-engage on June 1. Flotillas of destroyers used their small-caliber guns and torpedoes to damage the fleeing Germans through the night, but at the cost of several destroyers including Tipperary.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 176-177, 178, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
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