Conflict: World War I
Combatants: British vs. Germans
Location: North Sea
Outcome: Inconclusive (Strategic British victory)
Determined to break the British blockade of Germany, Admiral Reinhard Scheer launched a naval offensive which escalated into a battle involving over 250 ships. Over the course of May 31st and June 1st o f 1916, the British fleet under command of Sir David Beatty lost three battle cruisers, three cruisers, eight destroyers, and suffered nearly 7,000 casualties. The Germans lost one battleship, one battle cruiser, four light cruisers, five destroyers and took more than 3,000 casualties. Jutland is noted as the last great battle in which the navies engaged one another in line of sight.
Points of Interest:
While a tactical draw, the battle is considered a strategic British victory since the blockade remained in place.
Scheer continued to plot strategies to break the blockade but never succeeded in the task. He intended a final battle against the British fleet in the final days of World War I, but German sailors mutinied against the plan.
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Sources:
Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, & Bongard, David L. (1992). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books (HarperCollins).
Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.
Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
Ellis, John, & Cox, Michael (2001). The World War I Databook. Bodmin, UK: MPG Books Ltd.
Keegan, John (2001). An Illustrated History of the First World War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
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