Jutland

World War I's Greatest Naval Battle

Michael Epkenhans, Jörg Hillmann, Frank Nägler

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2015
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780813166070
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

"The essential reappraisal of this seminal event in twentieth-century naval history . . . a 'must have' book for the Great War enthusiasts." — Lone Star Review
 
After months of skirmishes between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet and the German Navy's outnumbered High Seas Fleet, conflict erupted on May 31, 1916, in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark, in what would become the most formidable battle in the history of the Royal Navy. 
In  Jutland, international scholars reassess the strategies and tactics employed by the combatants as well as the political and military consequences of their actions. Most previous English-language military analysis has focused on British admiral Sir John Jellicoe, who was widely criticized for excessive caution and for allowing German vice admiral Reinhard Scheer to escape; but the contributors to this volume engage the German perspective, evaluating Scheer's decisions and his skill in preserving his fleet and escaping Britain's superior force.
 
Together, the contributors lucidly demonstrate how both sides suffered from leadership that failed to move beyond outdated strategies of limited war between navies and to embrace the total war approach that came to dominate the twentieth century. The role of memory—comparing the way the battle has been portrayed in England and Germany—is also examined. Jutland is "suited not only for scholars, but also for a wider audience interested in knowing more about both the war at sea in World War I and its greatest contest" (Eric Osborne, author of  The Battle of Heligoland Bight).
 
"The documentation and scholarship reflected in these articles is outstanding."—Paul Halpern, author of  A Naval History of World War I

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword to First Edition
• Preface to First Edition
• Introduction
• 1. Anglo-German Naval Rivalry, 1860–1914
• 2. Operational and Strategic Plans in the Kaiser’s Navy prior to World War I
• 3. The Impact of War: Matching Expectation with Reality in the Royal Navy in the First Months of World War I at Sea
• 4. “The Possibility of Ultimate Action in the Baltic”: The Royal Navy at War, 1914–1916
• 5. The Imperial Navy, 1914–1915
• 6. The Battle of Jutland from the German Perspective
• 7. Jutland: British Viewpoints
• 8. The Memory of the Battle of Jutland in Britain
• 9. Remembering the Battle of Jutland in Germany
• 10. The Battle of Jutland in German Film
• 11. Ninety Years after Jutland: Reflections
• List of Contributors
• Index