Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916)

German High Seas Fleet

The German fleet commander was Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, and the battlecruiser commander was Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper. There were 16 battleships, five battlecruisers, six obsolete pre-dreadnoughts, eleven small cruisers and 61 torpedo boats involved. It should be noted, however, that the German torpedo boats came close to matching the sizes of the British destroyers.

British Grand Fleet

The British fleet commander was Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, who had 99 mostly heavy units in his force. Squadron commander of the battlecruisers was Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, who commanded 52 units. There were a total of 28 battleships, nine battlecruisers, eight armoured cruisers, 26 light cruisers and 80 other British ships involved.

Important factors

The Grand Fleet was outnumbered about 8:5. The British ships were generally also equipped with larger calibers, which had a higher effective range to boot. The German guns, on the other hand, had a higher muzzle velocity, which increased the stability of the bullet trajectory and the impact energy on the target. The good visibility that prevailed in the late afternoon enabled the British ships to exploit their range advantage and extend the combat range to 14 kilometers. Effective fire control at the time required that one could observe one's own shell impacts in order to correct the alignment of one's guns accordingly. The British fired complete salvos, observed the impacts and then corrected the firing distance by a standard value of 400 yards and fired again. So it could take some time until one could shoot covering (bracket system). The Germans used only three shots, each at a different distance. Their firing in was correspondingly faster (ladder system).

Another advantage would have been the naval airships of the Germans. Admiral Beatty said of this after the battle, "The enemy still has the monopoly of the best air reconnaissance in good weather, where one Zeppelin can do as much as five or six cruisers." However, on May 30, 1916, wind conditions prevented airships from launching, while on May 31, the airships deployed could not get closer than 30 nautical miles to the fleets.

The leadership of the German High Seas Fleet had relied on the generally only moderate visibility - about 7 kilometres - on the North Sea and had equipped the ships built at the same time as British units in each case with somewhat smaller, less long-range guns, in favour of higher rate of fire and full-sized medium artillery. The High Seas Fleet compensated for this disadvantage with more penetrating shells, better range-finding equipment, and better armor and other protection. Consequently, the German hit rate of 3.3% was significantly higher than the British 2.2%. The British were aggravated by the fact that their shells had less penetrating power. They tended to detonate on impact with the armour rather than penetrating it first. In other cases, while they succeeded in penetrating German armor, they were so damaged in the process that they failed to detonate due to their weaker construction. Therefore, while they could cause leaks, they could not endanger the entire ship through fires and secondary explosions.

Until January 1916, the German High Seas Fleet, in accordance with its operational orders, behaved defensively in accordance with its inferiority. Individual advances against the British coast by shelling coastal towns remained largely fruitless. When Vice Admiral Scheer replaced Admiral Hugo von Pohl, who had fallen ill, as head of the fleet in January 1916, he obtained permission from the German Kaiser Wilhelm II for more offensive naval warfare.

The plan was to provoke individual British fleet elements by battlecruiser attacks on coastal towns and destroy them with the numerically superior High Seas Fleet waiting in a reception position. This was to be supported by submarines and mines off the British bases. After a balance of forces had thus been achieved, a naval battle was to be brought about between the main forces of the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet.

However, the already prepared fleet advance against the British coast was cancelled due to bad weather, as no aerial reconnaissance by zeppelins could take place. Instead, the German fleet commander decided on a merchant war venture off the Norwegian coast to lure the British from their bases.