Wow. It’ll be 100 years in a couple of days
It did matter strategically - because the Germans never left port effective again.
It did matter strategically, because the BLOCKADE of England failed - their submarines were not effective enough to stop trade, while the British-American-French blockade killed Germany. Stopped their army through attrition and lack of support and lack of an economy to support it.
But that same blockade and the even more hated Versailles Treaty after the war created Hitler’s dominance that led to WWII.
The Battle of Jutland did prove that both navies were still employing naval tactics devised in the days of wood and sail.
‘Ships of the line’, in the days when ‘cannonade broadsides’ were the strength, sailing in lines with ships with movable turrets with guns that could reach out in miles, instead of yards, (20,000 yards equals 3.33 nautical miles.).
Was it important, in the Monday morning evaluation of The Great War? Yes. Why? It laid the foundation of Hitler’s determination to develop the U-boat as the backbone of the German navy, with only a few ‘mega-battleship’ designs, to mess-up the chessboard a little bit.
The battle appeared to be a draw. However, Germany never ventured out to see again with their battle groups. Only submarines. (Barbara Tuchman - Guns Of August)
“dreadnought battleships and battle cruisers, ships over the twice the size of most modern surface combatants”
I don’t think so.
*****************************************
Class and type: Indefatigable-class battlecruiser
Displacement:
18,500 long tons (18,800 t)
22,130 long tons (22,485 t) at deep load
Length: 590 ft (179.8 m)
Beam: 80 ft (24.4 m)
Draught: 29 ft 9 in (9.07 m) (deep load)
********************************************************
Class and type: Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Displacement:
Light: approx. 6,800 long tons (6,900 t)
Full: approx. 8,900 long tons (9,000 t)
Length: 505 ft (154 m)
Beam: 66 ft (20 m)
Draft: 31 ft (9.4 m)
********************************************
Type: San Antonio-class Amphibious transport dock
Displacement: 25,300 t (full)
Length: 684 ft (208 m)
Beam: 105 ft (32 m)
Draft: 23 ft (7.0 m), full load
Germany needed a blue water navy for defensive purposes. They needed to 1) defend their colonies, and 2) defend their trade routes. Only the third reason for having a navy could be met by the u-boats - disrupting enemy trade routes.
Without an effective blue water navy, the Germans were unable to defend their colonies nor to maintain their trade routes.
The Germans were able to launch a series of coastal raids in Europe, but were unable to maintain their colonies nor trade routes.
It was a bad move but the politics of Britain joining the war had everything to do with Belgium and nothing to do with the German Navy.
Yes, Jutland mattered because techically it was a German victory but the poor coordination between subs and the High Seas Fleet robbed Germany of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to totally cripple the Royal Bavy and pushed Germany into unrestricted submarine warfare.
The Battle of Jutland in 24 minutes.
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2016/04/the-battle-of-jutland-animation/110697
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Germany entering into a naval arms race with Britain, by leading to WW1, was disastrous for western civilization.
Alfred Mahan’s 1890 book “The Influence of Sea Power on History” had a huge influence on the Kaiser’s and Germany’s decision to do so.
It’s one of those history-altering books.
The Jutland Battle has important ramifications for our present political contest.
The Germans had poor communications security for most of the battle.
You know, communications security. The stuff that Hillary Clinton didn’t care about.
If the British hadn’t been able to see the German communications, the battle would have been even worse for the British.
People’s lives depend on communications security and Hillary Clinton gave ours away.
One could argue that all a nation really needs for defensive purposes is a large submarine fleet. Submarines are cheaper, new diesel electrics stay down quite long and are inherently quieter than nukes. But it isn’t as sexy as having a big surface fleet of targets.
Yes it did matter;
at the time, Admiral Jellicoe was described as, “The man who could lose the war in an afternoon.”
I read a great account of that battle, and W.W.I sea battles and such. The book by Robert Massie’s “Castles of Steel”, went into great detail of all of the sea battles in that war.
It was called a text book battle, not so much one of destruction but one of tactics. In and of itself it had little effect on the war. What did happen was that the Kaiser not wanting to lose any of battle fleet never again let the German Fleet out to battle the British Fleet again.
For what it’s worth,
Adolph Hitler’s analysis (in a meeting with his Chiefs of Staff, as recorded in Winston Churchill “The Second World War, Vol. 1: The Gathering Storm”):
“If in the First World War we had had two battleships and two cruisers more, and if the battle of Jutland had begun in the morning, the British Fleet would have been defeated and England brought to her knees.”
Winston Churchill’s analysis (in a footnote to this quote):
“Hitler was evidently quite ignorant of the facts of Jutland, which was from beginning to end and unsuccessful effort by the British Fleet to bring the Germans to a general action in which the overwhelming gun-fire of the British line of battle would have soon been decisive.”
In addition, a loss at Jutland would have dealt a major psychological blow to the losing country. This might have led to peace negotiations or to an unraveling of domestic support for the war. Germany's leaders realized after Jutland that the potential for such a turn precluded ever again risking a fleet action.
Germany needed an ocean-going fleet once it had an empire; there was no way around that.
That war destroyed every empire that fought in it including the British empire. In those 2 world wars plus the Cold War - linked the way the 30 years wars or the 100 years wars were linked later on by historians - should be viewed as one large European civil war that destroyed the continent and the European peoples.