A hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Jutland

[magnus]

The Germans did score better with hits.

The reason that the German BCs were hit so many times is that twice they charged the RN in a death ride to save the rest of the fleet.

From what I have read the RN always knew exactly where the German forces were.

As someone stated the RN was under way before the German navy was even clear of the minefields.

[MengJiao]

I stand corrected! O0 Even so at least the basic idea about the bad battle communications wasn't too far adrift...  despite my eye watering explanation, which you could sea through... ;)

    Andrew Gordon's amazing book on Jutland (and a lot of other things), the Rules of the Game, takes one of Beatty's really badly done signals (to Evan-Thomas at about 4.40) and uses it as the starting point of a explanation of how 100 years of not having a major fleet action made the RN do weird things with signals.  So, yes, Beatty's flag signals at Jutland and Dogger Bank were so poorly done that they were a major factor in letting the Germans get off relatively lightly.  Fortunately, by the time of Jutland, some of Beatty's squadron commanders had learned to ignore a lot of the finer points of signals made by the Flagship of the Battlecruiser Fleet.  Unfortunately, Evan-Thomas was not one of them since he had not sailed under Beatty's command before.

[smithcorp]

That's a great book.

[Boggit]

I stand corrected! O0 Even so at least the basic idea about the bad battle communications wasn't too far adrift...  despite my eye watering explanation, which you could sea through... ;)

    Andrew Gordon's amazing book on Jutland (and a lot of other things), the Rules of the Game, takes one of Beatty's really badly done signals (to Evan-Thomas at about 4.40) and uses it as the starting point of a explanation of how 100 years of not having a major fleet action made the RN do weird things with signals.  So, yes, Beatty's flag signals at Jutland and Dogger Bank were so poorly done that they were a major factor in letting the Germans get off relatively lightly.  Fortunately, by the time of Jutland, some of Beatty's squadron commanders had learned to ignore a lot of the finer points of signals made by the Flagship of the Battlecruiser Fleet.  Unfortunately, Evan-Thomas was not one of them since he had not sailed under Beatty's command before.

Lol! A good point. O0 It sounds like a lot of Beatty's captains knew him well and emulated Nelson at Copenhagen by looking at the signals with their blind eye! ;D

[mirth]

By most modern accounts, Beatty's Flag Lieutenant was incompetent.

[ArizonaTank]

I think SES is essentially defunct now. The forums are dead and I don't think there's been any updates or new product for a long time.

I agree...but the part of SES that takes your money is still working...   >:D