It is not wealth or ancestry, but honourable conduct and a noble disposition that maketh men great.

It is May 31st 1916, just after 2pm.

Within 12 hours over 9,000 sailors will die.

The battle of Jutland.

The outcome of WW I lies in the balance. The Germans & British know that the key to this war is control of the North Sea.

- Without their fleet the British will lose the war.

- Without their fleet the Germans will be no worse off.

The German war machine is suffering adversely from the British blockade.

Their civilian population is also feeling “the pinch”.

The British Grand Fleet has stood off from a close blockade which was previously the norm. Mines, aircraft and u-boats present a great deterrent to such blockades. The British have been shrewd. Their fleet stationed at Scapa flow can move into the North Sea at a moment’s notice and meet the German fleet before it can leave the North Sea.

The Battle of Jutland will determine the outcome of WW I.

The ultimate irony is that the outcome of this battle and the fate of those who will fight in it has already been decided during the last hundred or more years. This is merely the end act. The last time Battleships will pound each other from classic broadsides. An epic conclusion ! The meeting of two great powers in a fight to the bitter death.

Two Empires have relentlessly & remorselessly prepared for this day. Even before it has occurred the Germans already refer to it as “De Tag” ( The Day ).

Let's go back in time before this day and explore the events which lead up to “the day”

Before the outbreak of WW I the British and Germans are locked in an economically suicidal race to build a fleet capable of controlling the North Sea. The British require a numerical superiority of 3 to 1 to beat the Germans.

The new Dreadnought Class of Battleship and Battle Cruisers do not us sails to move. They use coal. This means that to engage the German Fleet, and finish it off, the British need to split their fleet into three smaller parts. One part will fight the German fleet, one part will be in docks refuelling and the other will be travelling between the two.

In the years before the war the Germans have closed the gap significantly and begun to tip the likelihood of overall control in their favour.

At the outbreak of war the German Fleet remains effectively inactive.

Until the appointment of Admiral Reinhard Scheer, in February 1916, the German Navy is not much of a weapon. It keeps allied supplies from travelling through the Baltic Sea, but has not ventured in any strength into the North Sea. Scheer knows he has to lure the British Navy out of their safe harbour at Scapa Flow. He needs to engage the British Navy in small manageable lumps.

How can he split their fleet down into such chunks ?

In an effort to split the British Fleet he sends his Battleships to bombard unprotected coastal towns such as Scarborough and Lowestoft.

Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, overall commander of the British Grand Fleet, relents to public pressure to protect the East Coast's towns. He dispatches a smaller force of Battleships and Battle Cruisers under the command of Admiral Beatty to patrol the East coast of England and protect her against any further attacks by the Germans. The four Battleships will provide protection to the lightly armoured but very fast and long ranged guns of the Battle Cruisers.

Scheers plan is working. He has divided his foe. Using submarines and Zeppelins he will be able to keep the position of the two British fleets known. However, bad weather denies him his eyes over the British. He sails regardless, expecting the largest force he will meet will be that of Admiral Beatty whom he expects to blow out of the water.

Scheer is not aware that his navy's codes have been broken and for some time the British have been aware of his plans. Two and a half hours before the German Fleet sails the British Grand Fleet is at full steam sailing to meet Admiral Beatty and unite before sailing on to annihilate their German opposition.

The trap is set. The bait has been taken.

Just after 2pm Beatty spots the smoke of a merchant vessel and sails towards it to investigate. His smaller fleet is not yet united with the main force. At the same time the advanced “picket line” of the German fleet spots the same merchant vessel. The merchant vessel draws the two smaller fleets together quite by accident. When Beatty realises he is about to run into the Germans he does the only thing a British Admiral can do … he orders all his ships to engage the enemy. Inextricably in the melee of “standing too” and preparing for battle his four battleships and best form of defence, turn and sail away from him for over ten minutes.

His lightly armoured Battle Cruisers are not designed to slog it out with Battleships. They are designed to outgun anything they cannot outrun and outrun anything they cannot outgun. They are really designed to sink merchant vessels and run like hell when the battleships protecting them show up.

But you cannot tell this to the Captains and Admiral commanding them today. No today they are sailing into the history books which they had been taught are the key to British command of the high seas. Today they are to use lightly armoured Battle Cruisers in an attack on highly armoured ships capable of blowing them to pieces. The British Navy has not planned for such gung ho traits in their Captains.

The two small fleets engage in broadsides in the tradition of old sailing ships. The smaller British Cruisers pair up to take on one German Battleship. Instead of outgunning their opponents the British confuse their own gunners who are unable to know which splashes are caused by their guns. They are unable to adjust their range and lose precious minutes bringing their targets to bear. In the confusion of battle the British Battle Cruisers do not target the correct German ships and one German Battleship is left “unmarked”.

The German battleships are deadly accurate and rip into the lightly armoured British Cruisers.

It's just after 4pm and HMS Indefatigable is blown up.

The British are not too worried at this point, losses in war are to be expected.

This allows the guns previously directed at the Indefatigable to bear on The Queen Mary. The Queen Mary is giving a good report of herself. She is highly accurate and her guns are firing salvo after salvo.

At 4.25 and just over twenty minutes after the Indefatigable is blown up The Queen Mary blows up with the loss of all but 9 of her compliment of 1250 men.

The British are now in some trouble.

Their ships are not able to withstand the accurate fire power of the German Battleships and when they are hit in the turrets they simply blow up.

Admiral Beatty says

“There appears to be something wrong with our ships today”

Within twenty minutes and to Beatty's surprise the main body of the German Fleet is sighted. Beatty is given the opportunity to reprieve himself.. He turns North and sails away from the oncoming German Fleet. Thus drawing the Germans closer towards the Grand Fleet.

By now Beatty's Battleships have rejoined him and covered his withdrawal with great effect. They exchange with their counterparts and inflict some costly damage on their opponents.

The Germans are still not aware that they are sailing towards the full might of the British Grand Fleet.

The Grand Fleet is sailing towards Beatty in a pack formation. The Battleships sail in a tightly knit grid eight ships wide and six ships deep. They are surrounded by destroyer and cruiser picket lines. Jellicoe is aware of events ahead of him and has to decide if he is to deploy his fleet to his left or right. Luck is with him. He deploys his ships in a classic line waiting for the German Fleet to “cross his T”. By the time the Germans realise that they are sailing into the entire Grand Fleet it is too late. A seven mile long line of ships and guns open up on the leading German ships.

The leading German ships are torn to pieces.

Seydlitz
Lutzow
Derfflinger

Even now the British Fleet is unable to change its pre-selected luck. Invincible blows up under heavy fire.

Scheer realises he has been “ambushed” and turns his fleet 180 degrees to extricate them from the onslaught of British guns. Scheer does this with perfection.

The British Fleet does not pursue. Jellico's cautious mind fears submarines or torpedo boats too much.

What happens next merely adds to the total melee of the day.

Scheer turns his Fleet about 180 degrees yet again and sails towards the British line. He may have been confused or simply felt this was his last chance to inflict heavy losses on their fleet, particularly if he had not yet realised he was up against the full Grand Fleet.

Jellicoe remains calm and once again the British line tears into the German ships. Scheer eventually realises the enormity of his position and throws caution to the wind. He orders all his battle cruisers to charge down the British ships and ram them where ever and whenever possible. At the same time he orders his torpedo boats to launch wave after wave of torpedo's at the British line.

Jellicoe has three choices. Remain in line and dodge the torpedo's. Turn beam on and attack the German fleet, thus sailing into the oncoming torpedo's at twice the speed, or he could turn and run and leave the torpedo's behind him.

Cautious Jellicoe turns and runs. The two fleets will engage in small skirmishes for hours after this. Jellicoe needs to keep his fleet intact for another day. His overall objective is not the annihilation of the German Fleet, merely to prevent it from functioning or controlling the vital ship routes of the north sea.

The British have been out manoeuvred, out gunned and out fought. The British have suffered losses that are twice those of their German foes. Yet the Germans have not broken the British blockade Indeed their own fleet has been badly damaged and lies in docks, never to venture out again during the first world war.

But what of the British ships that kept blowing up ?

Years before the Battle of Jutland the British Navy had resolved that the fastest shot was best. This had won the day at Trafalgar. In their efforts to remain masters of the sea the British sailors courted their own demise at Jutland. They stacked cordite, the propellant used to fire the shells in their turrets ( against Navy regulations ) and they left vital flash fire cover doors open. The moment the Germans hit a turret they had a direct and precise fuse to the whole ships magazine.

In their efforts to rule the seas the designers and same forget to communicate. For this they were slaughtered in huge numbers.

In battle there are many acts of heroism. I want to talk about that shown by Jack Cornwell.

Campaign............................WW I
Age ....................................16
Nationality..........................English

Deed...................................On 31st May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland of Denmark, Boy First Class Cornwell, of HMS Chester, was mortally wounded early in the battle, but remained standing alone at a most exposed post, quietly awaiting orders, until the end of the action, with the gun's crew dead and wounded around him.

Killed.................................In the above action

VC.....................................Imperial War Museum, London, England - Publicly displayed

Jutland was a great battle fought by two empires after years of build up.

Jack Cornwell was as much of the time as he was a hero. Yet a hero he was and without such we would not know peace today.

I'm alright Jack … and for that I'm grateful to you and all those who gave their life for me.

My post opened with the words

It is not wealth or ancestry, but honourable conduct and a noble disposition, that maketh men great.

These words are the Epitaph of Jack Cornwell.

Rest in peace Jack.

Lest we forget