What would the battle of Jutland look like it began at 10 am, not 2 pm?
What would the battle of Jutland look like it began at 10 am, not 2 pm?
Sheer timed his sorties against the English coast so that, if he encountered the main British battle fleet, he would be able to disengage in the fading light.
What would the battle of Jutland look like it began at 10 am, not 2 pm?
The High Seas Fleet was twice a few minutes from being pounded to scrap. Good luck, superb tactics, high quality training, Admiral Beatty, Admiral Beatty, Admiral Beatty, Admir...,poor fuses and confusion between the Battlecruisers and the Grand Fleet let the HSF escape. If Jellicoe has more daylight or just a teensy bit of good luck and Beatty falls off the gangplank pished before the BCsquadron sails then the German fleet is Trafalgared.
The HSF did do well, although the manoeuvre that led to the second T-crossing seems to have been a gross mistake.
But what is Beatty's role in the failure to decisively defeat the HSF? Yes, he lost some battlecruisers and his signalling was awful, but, despite all that, Jellicoe deployed the GF perfectly and Beatty led an astonished HSF right into its jaws. Or is it that better communications from Beatty would have allowed the battle to take place sooner, giving more time before dark?
Interesting. Has anyone ever done a realistic, and I stress the word realistic, timeline where different choices and orders are made and given so that things go much better for the British and worse for the Germans?According to Massie's 'Castles of Steel', there were quite a few lost opportunities:
[SNIP]
It gave the Grand Fleet every advantage it could wish for, cutting the Germans from their base, crossing their T as they advanced north-easterly, ensuring the advantage of the light, of the wind and of the visibility for gunnery. It also ensured that the whole fleet would be in line in four minutes and at a sufficient distance from the German van to prevent its own van from becoming embroiled in a torpedo boat melée. As the line was forming Beatty was steaming easterly across its front belching funnel and gun smoke, a squadron of Jellicoe's cruisers was bearing down to finish off the cruiser Wiesbaden, which Hood's battle cruisers had previously stopped and set ablaze, and at the rear the Warspite of the Fifth Battle Squadron was circling towards the Germans with a jammed rudder. So Hipper was denied any sight of the Grand Fleet as he steamed up at the head of Scheer's battle line. It was not until these distractions had dispersed and he had come within 12,000 yards of the British van that he gradually became aware that the battle cruisers he had been engaging had been reinforced by a much larger fleet. The ships of the fleet were invisible though; all he could make out were their gun flashes which stretched in a ring from the north-eastern to the north-western horizon, and as he closed to 9,000 yards the salvoes rained thickly about his ships. Still so little was visible that his gunnery officers could only reply by ranging on the enemy flashes, and he shortly turned south, reporting to Scheer 'TURNING AWAY BECAUSE OBSERVATION AGAINST THE SUN IMPOSSIBLE.'
The HSF did do well, although the manoeuvre that led to the second T-crossing seems to have been a gross mistake.
But what is Beatty's role in the failure to decisively defeat the HSF? Yes, he lost some battlecruisers and his signalling was awful, but, despite all that, Jellicoe deployed the GF perfectly and Beatty led an astonished HSF right into its jaws. Or is it that better communications from Beatty would have allowed the battle to take place sooner, giving more time before dark?
This is quite possibly true - though it should be remembered that Beatty was not a simple caricature either. While his actions were undoubtedly materially a considerable problem for the Royal Navy (from demanding that a QE class ship was made his flagship while at Grand Fleet, because he'd always wanted one - thus splitting up the 5th BS - to everything that's already been mentioned) he did in fact come through at the critical time, at Jutland.Beatty was perhaps the most successful social climbing, incompetent, opportunist in the Edwardian period
Lets not forget though that for all the German bluster and the criticism of the Grand Fleet Jutland was a British strategic victory that kept the High Seas Fleet hiding in port until the end of the war.