History’s Greatest Naval Battles, Ep.6: Jutland

2021-04-06

The Battle of Jutland was the shuddering earthquake that released the seismic tension of the Anglo-German naval arms race of the last decade. What was at stake was the blockade and starvation of the vanquished. The German High Seas Fleet aimed to destroy a large enough part of the British Grand Fleet to allow it to break out to the Atlantic where it would effectively blockade the commerce and supplies Britain utterly relied on to survive, let alone fight. If that happened, Britain would be forced into...

The Battle of Jutland was the shuddering earthquake that released the seismic tension of the Anglo-German naval arms race of the last decade.

What was at stake was the blockade and starvation of the vanquished. The German High Seas Fleet aimed to destroy a large enough part of the British Grand Fleet to allow it to break out to the Atlantic where it would effectively blockade the commerce and supplies Britain utterly relied on to survive, let alone fight. If that happened, Britain would be forced into submission.

No wonder then that Winston Churchill said of the commander of the British Grand Fleet, Admiral Jellicoe: “He is the only man on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon.”

Churchill was right. This one battle, more than any other, would decide the outcome of World War One, and with it the likelihood of a World War Two. The future of the world rested on Jellicoe’s shoulders.

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