Jutland 1916: Clash of the Dreadnoughts (Campaign, 72)

Author Charles London has set himself a difficult task: to write a 96-page campaign summary of the controversial Battle of Jutland in 1916. This was the only major clash of dreadnought battleships before aircraft changed naval warfare, but its uniqueness and inconclusive results provide ample fodder for competing interpretations. On the whole, this volume repesents one of the very best of the Osprey Campaign series. The maps are excellent, and provide much better depictions of the action than the sketch maps usually provided in much lengthier works. The strategic level map on page 32 which depicts the opening moves is one of the best I have seen, including locations of all U-Boats and British submarines (unfortunately he did leave out Zeppelin patrol areas). Both the photographs and artwork are of excellent quality. This volume is a valuable visual companion to John Campbell's technical Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting, which lacks photos and decent maps. On the negative side, the author is rather blatantly biased toward the British. There is little or no mention of significant damage to British dreadnoughts, including the seven hits on HMS Malaya, the six hits on HMS Barham and the torpedo hit on HMS Marlborough (all three of which had close calls with sinking). On the other hand, damage to German ships is sometimes exaggerated; such as when the author claims that three German pre-dreadnoughts were hit when in fact, two were hit by one shell each (minor damage) and the third suffered one sailor killed from a shell splinter. The author alludes to the German advantage in night fighting but fails to mention that they had starshells, while the British did not. The author makes selective use of the vast technical data available on Jutland. He notes that both sides gunnery was about the same - 3% probability of hits and that the various advantages and defects of their ship designs canceled each other out. In fact, the British obtained 2.75% hits of rounds fired versus 3.39% for the Germans. In the initial battlecruiser action, the German edge was even more lop-sided: the Germans scored 44 hits versus only 17 hits for the numerically-superior British. Organizationally, this volume would have done better to provide strict time delimiters, to break the action into phases. Instead, the author uses the "flow" style, which gets very confusing after the initial battlecruiser action. The maps help to sort out the battle, but the text does not. One wonders also why the author included photographs of the Goeben, and ships sunk in the Falklands Battle two years prior to Jutland, but no photos of several major ships such as the Lutzow and Pommerm which were sunk there. Finally, the author seems somewhat unsatisfied with the indecisive conclusion of Jutland, as everyone always seems to be, except perhaps the Germans. The author uses the fact that the Grand Fleet "remained on the battlefield" the next morning to claim a victory for sea control and assert that Jellicoe would have won any follow-up engagement off the Horn Reef. Here the author's bias ignores the fact that the Grand Fleet had lost all cohesion after twelve hours of fighting; most of the destroyers were separated in the night action and three dreadnoughts had wandered off 45 miles away from the main body. Certainly Jellicoe had the strength to finish off any German cripples, but any renewed battle would have witnessed a thoroughly-spread out Grand Fleet fighting in minimal visibility conditions. Any action on 1 June would likely have been a scaled-down repeat of the previous day: ships blundering into each other in the haze and quick, furtive exchanges of gun fire. More ships might have been sunk, but without radar, air support, better navigation and improved communications, the clash of dreadnoughts could not be decisive in 1916. Despite the author's bias and certain errors, this volume is still a valuable adjunct to any Jutland collection. Just remember to keep other works handy to sort out the omissions.

This is a great book for a first orientation to this critical sea battle. Photos, art work, maps, and a step-by-step narrative. Good insights into the minds of the admirals. A quick read, and a good reference if you continue to study the battle or dreadnoughts in general.

This book does a very good job of taking a large, complex naval battle and passing on most of the essentials without getting bogged down. The book makes short mention of a lot of the fine details surrounding the battle and sticks to the essentials of having the reader understand it in general terms at the end. Pictures and maps are well placed and succeed in giving a novice reader a pretty complete idea of what happened. The books seems to try to avoid a lot of the controversy but does lean in favour of the Royal Navy but does not do this to any exaggerated extent. For those interested in a deeper, more thorough study there are many works that address the battle in more detal. For anyone new to naval history or reading their first account of the battle this is an excellent book to get started with!

Excellent short concise description of the various stages of the Battle of Jutland. Pretty much all you need to know about this monumental battle, mostly the mistakes made by both sides.

Excellent synthesis of a complex battle.

Excellent

This is a good overview of the largest naval battle of the first world war. Excellent as a reference and for begining study of this famous but little known battle of dreadnaughts and light forces.

one of the most overlooked causes of WW1,was Germany's desire to have a world class navy(which the British were determined to stop)!! This book shows how close in fact Germany was to having one.Imagine a modernized navy with all the armour,propulsion systems, and fire power but with the electronics and communications little advanced past the age of wooden ships and you have Jutland.From reading this book I wondered how much of the damage inflicted on the "enemy" was actually "friendly fire",this problem,an obvious one when one can't easily discern the opponent was never addressed in this book.Also with all of the explosive gases released by the continuous firing,there would be alot of "accidents"caused when a spark met a trapped gas pocket,not to mention crew error which becomes an even bigger factor in such confusion.This adds alot of meaning to the term "we have met the enemy and he is us".Casualty wise the Germans won,but strategically the British navy forced the Germans to limp home and concentrate more on the development of U-boats.U-boats are a poor mans catch-up weapons much like the SCUD missiles of today used by militarily weak 3rd world nations.Excellent maps and diagrams to follow although the time sequences could be questioned as well as the positions of the ships but i wouldn't have the expertise to do so,so i'll take the author's word,which is as good as the best.

Being the greatest naval battle of all time is almost an understatement for Jutland. The scale is immense, and I bought this book as a overview of the huge duel. The prelude section focuses largely on the arms race before the war and the buildup of forces, probably more than it needs to given the focus of the book being on the battle itself, I would have liked to have read a little more on the actual lead up to the battle itself as I know more on the arms race up to this point already, but I suppose for others who know less on that subject this would be a useful coverage. The coverage of the battle itself is good, of course the space of the book limits it, however there’s still first hand accounts included. Given the battle is taking place at sea and units are constantly moving it’s hard to keep up with where everyone is and what exactly the situation is, the maps are useful and there’s a good number of them but there would need to be far more to actually get a very in depth play by play of it all, which would be a feat on its own. However the major moments of action are covered in them and the dialogue covers the battle well, in all its confusion and terror. More first hand accounts would have been nice as I mentioned, but overall the battle is rather well covered in the limited space, with all the ships that where engaging and sinking getting their situation covered, nothing is skipped over. Even though it’s a non-fiction coverage of the battle it’s still engaging to read and grabs your attention with the chaos and massive scale of the action. The battle scenes paintings are cool, mostly just showing the battle lines during their large guns, but the one showing the British destroyer ramming the German battleship takes the cake capturing the melee in all its craziness. Overall good book, typical of Ospreys Champaign series, not as in depth as I’m sure some other books are that cover this action however it does a good job covering the action and also as a bonus the arms race that led to the development of the opposing fleets.

"Who won at Jutland ?" Reading the summary of this epic story with battleships looking after each other, with certain commanding officers full of certitudes, of horror of naval combats, of scadrons missing encounters repeatidly, of destroyers blowing in a few minutes... leaves you with the incertitude on a so-called better fate for the sailors in comparison with the soldiers... To recommend...

For a small book it gives a very comprehensive account of the Battle of Jutland. There are black and white photographs of the vessels involved on almost every page. There are some excellent visual aids illustrating each stage of the battle. It gives personal profiles of the opposing commanders. There are also four full colour art works showing particular incidents in the battle.

Die Bücher von Osprey sind grundsätzlich gut recherchiert und zum jeweiligen Sachgebiet auch hinreichend illustriert. Das Buch zur Skaggerak-Schlacht ist eine gelungene Darstellung mit hinreichenden Details. Die komplexen Ereignisse werden anschaulich - teils mit Grafiken unterlegt - und nachvollziehbar dargestellt. ein sehr empfehlenswertes Buch.

Yet another excellent WSWI naval book from Osprey. Informative and interesting it provides an excellent overview of The Battle Of Jutland. An ideal book for those new to the subject$, it is well illustrated with period black and white photographs and colour plates and maps.So;d at a very good price and delivered as scheduled.