First World War at Sea by David Wragg

Author:David Wragg
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750956901
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

The Grand Fleet had twenty-eight Dreadnought-standard battleships, nine battlecruisers, eight armoured cruisers, twenty-six light cruisers and seventy-seven destroyers, as well as a seaplane carrier. The High Seas Fleet had sixteen Dreadnought-standard battleships, six pre-Dreadnoughts, five battlecruisers, eleven light cruisers and sixty-one destroyers, as well as a force of U-boats. The Grand Fleet totalled 1,250,000 tons with 60,000 men, while the High Seas Fleet totalled 660,000 tons with 45,000 men.

While the scouting force on both sides had battlecruisers, the Grand Fleet’s battlecruiser force also had four of the new Queen Elizabeth-class battleships and the seaplane carrier HMS Engadine, a converted Channel packet, as well as light cruisers and destroyers.

Admiral Sir John Jellicoe commanded the Grand Fleet aboard HMS Iron Duke, with Vice Admiral David Beatty in his flagship Lion heading the battlecruisers, while their opponents were Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer in his flagship Friedrich der Grosse and Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper in his flagship Lützow.

On 31 May 1916, the German battlecruisers left harbour at 1 a.m., followed by the main battle fleet at 2.20 a.m. The plan had been for the battleships to provide cover for the battlecruisers in another raid on English towns, in this case the shipbuilding centre of Sunderland. Poor weather had deprived the Grand Fleet of aerial reconnaissance, so Hipper was ordered to take his ships to patrol the Skagerrak, as if threatening British warships and merchant shipping off Norway.

Early in the afternoon, the British light cruiser Galatea turned to investigate a Swedish merchantman, just as a German light cruiser did the same. The two ships spotted one another and soon both fleets were on the alert, although neither was aware of the other’s presence. At 3.10 p.m., Engadine flew off a seaplane on reconnaissance for the first time in naval history.

Decrypted signals by the Admiralty’s Room 40 meant that they knew as soon as the Friedrich der Grosse left port, but the ship used a different reporting signal when at sea. When Captain Thomas Jackson, the Admiralty’s Director of Operations, asked the location of ‘DK’ – the ship’s harbour call sign – he was assured that it was still at Wilhelmshaven because, after leaving, Scheer had the call sign transferred to another ship. Jackson’s failure to ask if Scheer, or the Friedrich der Grosse, was still in port meant that Jellicoe could not be warned that the High Seas Fleet was heading towards him.

I WAS THERE

All the lights were out, both main and secondary. I managed to get my pad over my face, and those still alive got on the top of the turret, to find the foremost part of the ship blown off, and the after part sinking rapidly. I had got my coat off and one shoe, when the after magazine went up and blew us into the water.

Midshipman J.D. Storey, Q turret aboard HMS Queen Mary, May 191610

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