@@historigraph It was really good. Video is a good format for showing how the different formations move relative to one another, and Jutland is a confusing battle which you make much clearer. If you ever want to make sense of an even more confusing battle, then WWII's Operation Crusader would be a great one.
yeah way better than those documentaries that say what the ships are doing but just show stock footage of guns shooting while you sit there trying to understand wtf is going on.
@@samarkand1585: Maybe the Brits have very high standards so "good enough" means a lot. (Maybe it was quite appropriate that Beatty wasn't named Goodenough.)
Not really, apart from Beatty's ships which lacked the proper facilities, most British battleships shot as well if not better than the Germans. The newer British rangefinders were markedly superior the German ones but not yet fitted to all ships. The position of the ships relative to the sun, and smoke, were major factors in achieving hits. Arguably the main reason the German fleet wasn't decimated was due to faulty British shells. I can't remember the exact quote but one of the German commanders said after the battle that it would have been a disaster if the British shells had penetrated more reliably.
@@historigraph Did Royal Navy learn from their powder charge mistakes from Jutland? You said that the British ships that detonated were keeping too many charges near turrets. It seems German Dreadnoughts could take a harder beating because they had better storage? In WWII, USS Arizona detonated and it too was a WWI era Battleship
@@nagasako7 The problem was incorrect storage not design by itself. They kept propellant in unsafe places, between the magazines and the turrets, which could result in a chain reaction if a shell landed in the right spot. The storage was better on German ships but it's the bad quality of British shells that saved them. Arizona was caught off guard and took a direct hit to its magazine. It was unlucky, not a design problem.
Fun fact- Major Francis Harvey of the Royal Marines Artillery was a senior gunnery officer on the HMS Lion, his section suffered a direct hit blowing off both his legs but despite this he still had the prescence of mind to order the powder magazine be flooded- preventing the entire ship from exploding and saving over a thousand lives. He died shortly afterwards from his injuries, but was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry
A very good synopsis; I just finished Massie's "Castles of Steel", goes quite in depth (pun intended). You left out the periscope Beatty supposedly saw that no one else did, or any mention of subs. The Brits didn't learn their lesson from this, and left the ammo hatches open on the Hood when engaged with Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.
@@schaferhundschmidt1798 where the hell did you hear that? The British very much learned the lesson after this and actually became pretty paranoid about detonations, so much so that in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the one where Hood was lost, Prince of Wales was having trouble firing its guns in part because its ammo hatches were too tightly built and they couldn't open as the ship flexed in its turn. The Hood exploded because it took a penetrating hit to its magazine, and flash doors are there to prevent FLASH from starting larger fires and explosions. If the magazine is breached and starts burning short of it flooding there's little that can stop the force of the entire thing going up and taking the ship with it.
"Captain, the Germans are slipping by behind us and slaughtering our destroyers in their way! Shouldnt we radio the Admiral?" "Do we have explicit orders to radio the Admiral?" "Well...no, sir." "Then its kind of a stupid question, isnt it?"
MareTranquil At lectures after the war, Jellicoe pointed out the fallacy of that kind of thinking. Not one report reached him that the HSF was breaking through at the tail of his fleet. If anything, he put it down to light forces scrapping. In the morning the sea was empty and the chance of a great victory was gone.
Jutland seems like a naval Battle of Antietam. The Germans inflicted more damage and casualties, but were forced to retire, where the British came off worse but maintained a good position in the naval war.
A good position? Good isn't strong enough. The British maintained a wonderful position. Germany was still blockaded and running out of supplies right at the moment their allies began to need help. Jutland, despite the British taking heavier losses was a big defeat for the Germans. They were forced into bad position by the British and were forced to resort to submarine warfare, which just made things worse
The only reason the Germans had less losses on the day is because they were closer to port, any further out and many more ships wouldn't have made it back. Even though they were kept afloat, they were so heavily damaged that they were out of action for the rest of the war.
@@walterfielding9079 Not exactly - Jutland scared off Britons from North Sea and Baltic and limited their action there only to mine duties. Germans later were able to put Russian fleet out of action, perform several landings in Baltic States and liberate Finland from Russia and Britons barely could do anything to prevent that.
Although the Invincible class carrier HMS Invincible caused complete terror for the Argentine forces during the Falklands war so maybe that wins some respect back to the name
@@Peoples_Republic_of_Devonshire sthu. You just couldn’t go one video without bringing up politics. Why do you alienate your political opponents so much?
A very confusing and frustrating battle, for those taking part and historians. I read a very good book about it when I was at school which left a deep impression on me. One has to feel sorry for Jellicoe, who had a tremendous amount of responsibility on his shoulders, and who was very poorly served by Beatty and by the light cruisers whose job it was to report the position of the enemy fleet. I think the aptly named Commodore Goodenough was the only one to send accurate and regular reports. One thing which is rarely mentioned is that the British used a volatile form of propellant for their guns - one which tended to burn violently, causing uncontrollable "flash fires" when ignited by nearby shell hits. German cordite burned but did not explode in similar circumstances. This is one reason why German ships did not blow up - despite repeated hits - at the Falkland Islands, Jutland and later in World War Two.
Also there was an emphasis with the British on fast gunnery, and most British ships kept a massive amount of spare charges for the guns heaped in corridors and nearby the guns, also leaving a lot of doors open so that when they were hit this set them off and created a chain reaction. I'm sure there's a more technical explanation of this, this is just something I read or saw in a documentary somewhere so can't quite remember the exact details.
@@rupertbaskerville Promotion from First Officer to Captain within the Royal Navy was predicated upon how smart the ship looked, discipline was God. Any chipped paint, torn uniforms, or worn bedding could cost someone their chance at the big chair, so no expense was spared in maintaining the entire fleet in parade readiness rather than combat readiness. Not only would a ship's discretionary budget be weighted heavily towards esthetics, but a well-off First Officer would often dip into their own pocket to fund another paint job. Promotion became a matter of wealth and connections as much or more than merit. Even the training budget wasn't spared the need for ever more textiles, meaning that Royal Navy gunners often couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Doctrine was adjusted to compensate, with rate of fire overruling basic safety. There isn't a single elevator running ammo up from the magazine to turret. Rather, it's a series of small, one story elevators, basically dumb waiters, interconnecting the decks between. Propellant is loaded into one dumb waiter, the armored shutter is closed, the propellant gets sent up, another shutter is opened, propellant retrieved, shutter closed, propellant sent across the room into another dumb waiter, and on up the height of the ship's interior to the turret. In theory. In practice, those shutters were just left open at all times in combat, meaning that any detonation could potentially consume the entire turret, magazine, and the barbette (turret vertical shaft) between. Those Battlecruisers weren't bad ships, it's just that they'd already accomplished their mission. In the pre-war years the British performed a naval study regarding wartime shipping, and concluded that any major power could annihilate British shipping across the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean just by deploying a couple dozen cruisers as commerce raiders. Meanwhile escorting every merchant ship would take a couple hundred cruisers, so passive defense wasn't an option. Enter the Royal Navy Battlecruiser, a vessel specifically designed to hunt down and sink any commerce raiding cruiser. Hunting the hunters. This strategy was entirely successful, despite some early successes the German merchant raider fleet had been comprehensively neutralized by the time of Jutland. Too bad for the Battlecruisers, who lacking any other mission got sent North to fight German Battleships whose guns could completely overmatch Battlecruiser armor. Firing a Battlecruiser main battery naval shell required 3 things: the projectile, from one to six propellant bag(s), and the primer bag. Propellant was remarkably resilient, able to withstand major shocks without detonating. Simply trying to fire it out of the cannon wouldn't have resulted in detonation. This was deliberate so as to prevent an internal magazine explosion from consuming the entire ship, in theory only those propellant bags physically inside the blast would ignite. The primer bag was small, roughly the size of an envelope, and mas meant to be loaded inside the gun after the final propellant bag. In Royal Navy service though, and in the name of rate of fire, primer bags were sowed directly onto the backs of propellants. Completely defeating the whole premise of having separate primer sacks. This of course meant that if for whatever reason a propellant bag rolled off a shelf or out out of someone's hands, and landed primer on the deck primer end down it would likely detonate, consuming everyone nearby with it. With Battlecruiser armor having no way to keep Battleship scale violence outside, with an unmeritocratic culture of pretension leaving every armored shutter securely in the useless position, and with that same culture placing every propellant bag in the vessel already ready to detonate with it's own integrated primer, any single hit could potentially take out the entire vessel. Then they got hit.
@@rupertbaskerville Yes. The British had been so dominant at sea for over a century, that in their training they had started to value the wrong things. How good the ships looked and how clean things were, had often taken precedence over shooting practice, as gun blasts damaged things and created a lot of dirt and marks. And drills that could be done without actually firing the guns, like the focus on loading times, had taken on too much importance. But then the Americans were even worse in a lot of those aspects.
9:27 There was some method to Scheer's madness here. Having retreated from a previous sticky situation, he knew that in the remaining hours of daylight the Grand Fleet, with a several knot speed advantage, could outrun him and cut him off before he'd get back to Germany. Thus, rather than just running away immediately, he judged it better to go for another spear jab which should have crossed Jellicoe's T from behind (no metaphor intended) had the British turned South-West to pursue the Germans as expected. Unfortunately for Scheer, Jellicoe had cautiously decided not to run them down immediately for fear of losing ships to the German flotilla's torpedoes. This meant that he took a wider approach leading his fleet away and then Southward. Thus Scheer accidentally attacked straight back into the British battleline thinking he was out-manoeuvring it, and it was in that arse-openingly terrifying realisation that he lost his nerve and ordered his battlecruisers to charge while he retreated as quickly as he could. It was Churchill I believe who later reflected that Jellicoe was the only man who could have won or lost the war in an afternoon. Great video ! Have a sub!
Very good video a love naval history and play a lot of naval games so Thump's up on good work so sad that hood died just like the battle cruiser named after him in a face of with Bismarck and prince Eugene
He turned back in oder to buy time for his pre-dreadnoughts to escape, also Churchill said, Jellicoe was the only man who could have lost the war in an afternoon. If the British had of destroyed the German fleet it would not change the status quo. But if Jellicoe had lost his fleet Britain could not continue the embargo against Germany. So the war would have been lost.
@@TayebMC Technically the destruction of the High Seas Fleet could have had MASSIVE impacts on German morale for the people and the land Army. Your entire Fleet of Warships has just been pummelled into the ground and the British blockade is still at full strength. The morale impact that would have would be insane.
My grandfather told me about my great grand father "When he heard the canons it was like lightning that just keept going and going" Btw if you are Intrested I would like to reccomend the Jutland museum in Thyborøn in Denmark
I must say, though I have seen a number of good videos about naval warfare and a few good ones about this particular battle, no other channel comes close to the quality and especially the clarity of your videos. I already had a pretty good idea about how this battle went down, but a few things i never quite understood, until I watched this. Thank you for making such excellent content, I love what you're doing!
Fun Fact: The then Prince Albert was on board HMS Collingwood during the battle. Why is he so important? In 1937 he would become King George VI the father of Queen Elizabeth II
At Jutland the Brits lost several large warships (along with most of their crews) to massive internal explosions in their ships' magazines. For good reason, the ship's magazines were one of the best armored sections of a warship, as a spark or fire in that area would almost certainly destroy the entire ship from within. In addition, Royal Navy battlewagons were built with "flash doors" to minimize the chance that their propellant stocks of Cordite would touch-off accidentally or in the heat of battle, subsequently destroying the ship. Unfortunately, the British gunnery officers placed such a high value on rapidly reloading and firing their ship's guns, that their gun crews tended - or were even encouraged - to ignore safety instructions to keep their propellant room flash doors closed between shots. It's suspected that this dangerous habit contributed to the loss of so many British warships at Jutland.
No, the British gunnery Officers DIDN'T place high value on rapid reloading. Beatty did, He told his inexperienced crew to stack cordite near the turrets for faster reloading, something the Grand Fleet never did. Beatty's BC Squadron had not had time to sail with the Grand Fleet and practice gunnery skills, something that would have been invaluable in this battle, since Beatty's Squadron outranged the High Seas Fleet and could have easily pounded them until the Grand Fleet showed up to deal the killing blow. TL'DR: Beatty was a retard.
@@historigraph Actually, there was a RN rear admiral in charge of Room 40 but you are correct, there were civilians doing the code breaking. However, what was lacking was the knowledge of how to properly interpret the decoded signals as the Admiralty forbade direct communication between Room 40 and vessels at sea. You mentioned the advice from the Admiralty saying Scheer was in port - that came about because an officer walked into Room 40 and asked where a particular German call-sign known to be used by Scheer was. It was in port where it always was because he changed call-signs when he sailed. Room 40 was not given the opportunity to explain or clarify. It was one of many RN failures that day.
@@peterlovett5841 You're absolutely right. What I said in the video was an attempt to compress the implication of that event (Cpt Jackson's actions in relation to Room 40) into a single sentence, for the purposes of brevity.
@@historigraph Understood. The history of Room 40 makes fascinating reading and it makes me believe that the UK was far ahead of the Germans in both world wars in cryptography and the breaking thereof.
Thank God by the Second World War the code breakers were mostly trusted. There was problems but with people like Churchill in charge, the code breakers were mostly appreciated and able to prove themselves and their art. And it can be argued that the British code breakers won World War II
Germany has always been like: „Quality over Quantity“ UK has always been like: „Oh look, a single German Warship! Let the entire Navy, Air Force and Army Force hunt it“
@KuBa Bala especially if it's the Americans going after the single Taliban 😂 but then a again you country does have the money to waste bombs willy nilly
It always baffled me why Beatty was lionised and Jellicoe maligned after this battle. Beatty led a poorly trained battle cruiser squadron recklessly into battle. He could have kept Hipper at arms length while he pummeled him with 13.5in and 12in shells but instead inexplicably let the Germans fire first. Jellicoe maneuvered his fleet expertly, and had he been better informed by both Beatty and naval intelligence, would have won a decisive victory.
Beatty was extremely wealthy and had 'influence' in the right places. Also, as Jellicoe's successor as commander of the Grand Fleet, and later as First Sea Lord, he was in a position to censor the official record, and ensure that it said the right things about him.
The best and clearest explanation about what happened at Jutland. I have watched other videos about the topic, yet this one is the best. Congratulations on a job well done! You earned a new sub!
After this one the Germans were not so keen as to get into another one. With correct handling of ammunition and better shells on the part of the RN the out come would have been very different. The High sees fleet got lucky and they knew it.
I was rewatching Drachinifel’s fantastic 3 part series in Jutland and was looking for a animated map to get a slightly better top down view of the battle. After sorting through a very few battle maps I found on TH-cam and thinking about how garbage they all were I saw a channel I was already subscribed to had a video on the battle (one that I had even watched already years ago). I guess my brain is running a bit slow this afternoon but this was exactly what I was after and I had forgotten how well made this video actually was. Between this and the Drachinfel videos I have gotten the Jutland fix I was craving today. So thanks for this and next time I will make sure to check here first for a video on whatever military rabbit hole I find myself in. Cheers
*Video Notes + Links:* If you'd like to help support the production of these videos, consider becoming a patron of the channel: www.patreon.com/historigraph 1. Distances between ships and the positions of them should not be seen as to scale. If they were to scale, you’d barely be able to see the ships. 2. The signal to Jellicoe at 1pm on May 31st is sometimes said to have cost an hour or two or fighting time- I don’t believe this to be the case, having read Gordon’s breakdown of the time it would have taken Jellicoe to reach Scheer if the signal at 1pm had confirmed the German fleet was at sea. 3. This video is not a full analysis of the battle, I may well do a video assessing the tactics of it at a later date. 4. To be clear on the World of Warships footage in the main video, anything that's not part of the two ad sections is in there as my own creative choice. ► Twitter: twitter.com/historigraph ►Facebook: facebook.com/historigraph/ ►Instagram: instagram.com/historigraph ►Patreon: www.patreon.com/historigraph ►Discord: discord.gg/f8JZw93 ►My Gaming Channel: th-cam.com/users/Addaway ►My Twitch: www.twitch.tv/addaway Sources: Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War Ben Wilson, Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel Andrew Gordon, Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command www.naval-history.net for factual information
I am two years late to this video and this is by far the best explanation of what happened at Jutland, thank you and keep up the great work, working my way through the WW2 Norwegian campaign currently
Great video. Fun fact. There is a single surviving ship from the battle of Jutland and one of only 3 WWI warships surviving today. C-class light cruiser HMS Caroline. She’s an absolutely gorgeous ship after been lovingly restored in recent years and opened as a museum ship in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast. Being over there for a Noel Gallagher gig last year and looking for something to do. Me and my ma just spontaneously ended up going on the tour of her and I ended up staggered. If you ever find yourself in Belfast for a weekend, I wholly suggest you get yourself aboard. It’s a shame the British government hasn’t make more of an effort to preserve surviving ships of both World Wars, I mean 1 of the other 2 ships left (HMS Saxifrage/President) is privately owned and there are/were fears that she might end up getting scrapped without funding.
I've binge watched this series for a few days now and my only complaint was the simple battle graphics..... it makes sense now and is easier to understand. Well done Sir!
@@mircomartinez2666 I never said they didn't. That is completely irrelevant to the point I was making. Nice try. I was literally just saying that the only reason they even had Dreadnoughts, was because they stole the idea of the design. Stop twisting what I'm saying. I never said the Germans didn't have their own doctrines. I'm just pointing out that Dreadnoughts came from Britain first. HMS Dreadnought (1906) ''Lmao'', really? You laughed your arse off over your own attempted strawman? Cool story bro. Merry Christmas.
@@ThePalaeontologist Lmao you're literally sperging out because you're proven wrong. British dreadnoughts had nothing to do with Germans ones except for both being bigger and having bigger guns. Especially your comment about espionage is such bullshit since countries like France had Dreadnoughts before Germany.
Great video man!! Congrats! The mix of game footage, archive, animation to perfectly understand the maneuvers invoked in the battle… keep it up! 🫶🏻🫶🏻 cheers from Colombia, South America
I truely appreciate the detailed individual battles that take place during an unfortunate war. It’s far more intriguing than just they won and they lost
Fantastic video as usual! Jutland is so interesting because it was such a massive, epic clash of the two largest navies in the world, yet in the end it was essentially indecisive. The British took heavier losses, but the Germans were unable to break the blockade.
Anders Schmich Very true, but if you look closely at the figures, the Germans lost more ships as a percentage of their original fleet. It could be pointed out that while the HSF achieved a tactical victory, Grand Fleet achieved the more important strategic victory. Jellicoe returned to Scapa Flow, refuelled and re-ammunitioned his fleet and reported he was ready for sea again in short order. The Germans came out once or twice more, but never took on Grand fleet again. After the battle, 5 more new ships (battlecruisers) joined Grand Fleet and damaged ships (eg HMS Warspite) were repaired and when the US joined the war a complete battle squadron went to Scapa Flow. The Germans added two battleships in that time and most of the High Seas Fleet was lost in the mass scuttle at Scapa Flow in 1919.
The battlecruiser was another brainchild of the great Admiral Fisher. He advocated them as the solution for the amoured cruisers that were in vogue at the time as commerce raiders. They were as large as dreadnouts with the same big guns. They sacrificed armour for speed. They were never meant to face off in battle with battleships, but being used as scouts, they would, inevitably, come into contact with battleships and the rest is history. The latest post war battle cruisers were converted to aircraft carriers by most powers before WW2.
Slight error: Scheers call sign WAS still operating at port, but he was using a different call sign when at sea. The British intelligence knew this, but answered a question on where the call sign was without warning they knew the German admiral and fleet were at sea
That was the most concise and well written summary of Jutland I’ve ever watched/listened. Nicely done! Edit: Have I mentioned I actually studied up on British Dreadnoughts and can attest that you got the flash fire thing in a pan eh. geddit? XD
A good example of tactical vs strategic victory if I've ever seen one. The British fleet was massive and well-developed. They could afford to take losses despite the German gunnery. At the end of the day, they put more ships in the water than the Germans and that decided a significant part of the war.
No mention how Warspite's out of control actions saved HMS Warrior by attracting the guns originally firing at her, to Warspite which allowed Warrior to escape, which sure she did still sink soon after leaving but the crew had plenty of time to evacuate and was picked up by Warspite as she sailed back while also slowly sinking but did make it to port in time to save the ship, which is a good thing they did since Warspite became an absolute legend of the seas later on.
What a perfectly wonderful concise portrayal of the the Battle of Jutland and as you correctly state the last and sensational battle at sea between surface fleets. Makes the United States emergence in the later 1900s all the more spectacular after this finale to the 159 years of British industrial 🏭 innovative might. Bravo Sir. 🇬🇧😎
makes me wonder how much damage the Bayern could have inflicted on the british if she was involved but she want cuz she was still being build but i assume a lot with those 15inch buggers
Probably not much more than was done already. The problem with the British battlecruisers was their battle practices (they left safety doors open in battle). The British had 6 15" gun vessels available at the battle (4 Queen Elizabeth and 2 Revenge class battleships) If you're thinking of "what if this was a year later", then the British would have also had 2 15" gun battlecruisers (Renown and Repulse); the 5th Battle Squadron could have been at full strength (5 Queen Elizabeth class battleships (QE herself was in dock during the actual battle)) and they'd have had another couple of Revenge class ships for the battle line.
Battle of Gallipolli next maybe? Also map is wrong in 0.40 German- Danish border was further north, Germany had to give up land to Danmark even though they did not join the war.
Alright next up: 1) Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal 2) Battle of the North Cape 3) Battle of Surigao Straits 4) Battle of Cape Matapan or Battle of Calabria
It really should not be a surprise that the German ships took more punishment. Grand Admiral von Tirpitz famously said, "The first duty of a warship is to remain afloat."
Could you *imagine* the conversation in the bridge of that German fleet? "Sir, we've just had our ass handed to us. We can't see exactly where the enemy is in many places, and all we really know is that we are horrifically outgunned and out of position." "Alright. Tell everyone- turn back around, and *let's do it again.*"
This is another very good and exciting video provided by historigraph!! the voice narration(story telling) is clear,direct and simple to understand and most importantly its non 'BIAS!' "it is as what it is" and i love it!! the animations also very nice too! i like watching simple history videos like this!!not too many fancy effects!not just me..my kids love it and can understand the story too because of its simplicity. watching your videos makes my eyes and ears glued to the screen till the end of it,and then always makes me say: "O wow..so thats what really happens!!now i know!on to next vids!"lol😄 not like some historical videos that makes me kinda confused,bored and sometimes angry because of..(you know what i meant.im not going to comment about it here.)im lucky to stumble on 1 of your video and now im one of your subscriber! KEEP IT UP HISTORIGRAPH CREWS!! PLEASE dnt stop Making more simple and exciting videos like this!! HISTORIGRAPH ROCKS!!💪👍💓😊 p/s:i will surely tell my buddies to subscribe you and so sorry for the long comments..😅
So to sum up, Beatty was horrifically incompetant really fucking things up for the Royal Navy but because he was an aristocrat and Jellicoe was a professional, Jellicoe got all the blame and Beatty was given Jellicoe's job
Good explanation - thx! It is not an art with superior power to win in this way. How the Germans, on the other hand, lured, fought and came back safely against this superior force, very well! Excellent German seamanship.
I wonder how different things would have been if jellicoe was properly informed of the high seas fleet's manoeuvre for the reef. It seems absurd that the destroyer screen didn't radio him when they were engaged.
Thank You! I am so happy to finally see someone actually correctly asserting, that after all was said and done, the Germans lost the Battle of Jutland. Way to many people try and assert that the Germans were somehow the winner at Jutland just because the Brits lost more ships. Plenty of victories see the victor take more casualties, more British ships may have sank at Jutland, but they inflicted significantly more overall damage on the German fleet, and the Germans were left in a worse strategic positions than they started in.
Indeed. While many at the time were hoping for another Trafalgar, all the British needed to do to win the war at sea was keep the High Seas Fleet in port and maintain their blockade of merchant shipping, which they did.
@@seskal8595 - it wasn't that it was a German tactical or operational victory. As the last lines of the video said, the Germans estimated that they would need two MONTHS of rebuilding in order to sortie again - the British signalled that they were at four hours notice to sail (the time it takes to start the engines) two DAYS after the battle. If you really wanted to get into the semantics of what is strategic, operational and tactical; and what victory means in a prolonged naval campaign, you could say it was a British tactical victory (they had control of the sea on 1st June) but a German strategic victory (their fleet was still 'in being') In reality, on 2nd June, both sides knew who had won and who had lost
9:26 Scheer turning around reconnecting with the British forces was accidental as he had misjudged where the Grand Fleet would be and accidentally steamed right back into it
Obviously, USS Johnston wasn't around at the time, but if she was I'm sure she would have loved to take on the entire Highs Seas Fleet. Great video by the way. Love your channel.
Being from Denmark (from Jutland, even) I've seen hundreds of graves of often unnamed British and German sailors that washed up on the Western shore of Jutland in the days and weeks following the battle. Their history still lives on in little village churchyards far from their homes, and local associations often ensure the date is marked and the graves are generally nicely tended to. Often there'll just be half a dozen graves in a single churchyard, but in a few places there are scores of them. As a child I never quite understood what all those British and German sailors were doing in Denmark during a war we had no part in - and I never really got much more than a weaving explanation about something with big ships and guns and... Yeah, as you'd perhaps try to explain a large sea battle to a small child. So it's nice whenever I come across something that contextualises all those simple graves;
Correction: I just double-checked, and it seems at least the British graves are in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I suppose something equivalent might also be the case for the German graves, but I don't know.
9:58 The sheer bravery! just imagine what it must have been like on the lead German ship: charging forward against the heaviest broadside in history. Against a row of more than 30 of the world's strongest battleships perfectly lined up in an arch spanning from horizon to horizon, many equipped with 8 x 15in guns firing 2 ton shells. Plus a myriad of smaller calliber guns and smaller enemy vessels. All these ships can perfectly see you while you can barely see any of them against the dark sky. And all of these guns on all of these ships are trained on YOU.
I remember reading in a book, I can't remember the name but when one of those British dreadnoughts exploded the actual turret fixture lifted higher then the the ships bridge.
So basically, if Beatty hadn't been such a knobhead, the entire High Seas Fleet could have been baited into the Grand Fleet and destroyed? Jesus Christ...
The only thing I really understood about Jutland before this video was from Nimitz's biography, where Jellicoe's fleet formations were criticized and called unweildly. Now I know why. Anyways, great video
Nice video. I think it's ok to call the battle of Jutland a "strategic British victory", but i personally think you have to keep the following in mind: The German fleet did only exist for about 45 years (since 1870), so it was less experienced and smaller compared to the British fleet. But it was still able to inflict higher casualties on the British fleet and escape without being destroyed. The battle itself was a (tactical) German victory. In the end the battle didn't change the strategic situation and a lot of German ships were heavily damaged. But I think it is not fair only to mention that Jutland was a strategic British victory and not mention that it was a tactical German victory. I'm not sure where you are from, but when watching this as a German, one could get the impression that your view is a little bit biased towards the British fleet.
I think you also have to take into account the design floors that wiped out at lease two British ships. Its worth remember that these ships were not destroyed by german gunnery but by exploding magerzines. Of course the real heavyweight contest would have seen the German big ships take on their British counterparts but the German fleet obviously mindful of taking a beating never sought out the sort of confrontation that would have decided the issue for good. It certainly not the response of a victorious navy.
I'd love to make my own detailed videos on subjects like this, Jutland is a huge topic that could be made into it's own mini-series. This is a very concise overview of the battle though, and I can't commend it enough for achieving that on this subject.
The ships you can see at the Churchill Barriers aren't German. They are blockships, old merchant ships sunk by the British to block the eastern entrances to Scapa Flow before the Barriers were built. The scuttled German fleet, what's left of it, is in deep water further west.
This was a very clear and concise summary that I wish had been readily available during my high school study of WW1... While it had been a strategic victory for the British, many blamed Jellicoe for not decisively destroying the German fleet. However, as we see here Admiral Jellicoe was hampered by bad intel from the Admiralty as well as terrible communications from his own fleet. With the amount of fire power Jellicoe had, I doubt the German High Seas fleet would have survived had Jellicoe been able to properly ascertain the location of the Germans.
Admiral Hood being killed in a magazine explosion is ironic to say the least given the fate of his namesake...
Daniel no shit
HMS Hood that sunk by Bismarck were named after Napoleonic war figure,Admiral Samuel Hood actually
Andros The Conqueror Fun Fact: He Is Nelson's Teacher
Different Admiral Hood though...
A different admiral, but the surname is the same.
Counts for the irony factor rather well.
This is the clearest explanation of Jutland I've ever seen.
thank you!
@@historigraph It was really good. Video is a good format for showing how the different formations move relative to one another, and Jutland is a confusing battle which you make much clearer.
If you ever want to make sense of an even more confusing battle, then WWII's Operation Crusader would be a great one.
yeah way better than those documentaries that say what the ships are doing but just show stock footage of guns shooting while you sit there trying to understand wtf is going on.
The Great War channel also made a good video about the battle.
@Kriegsmarine Raum Schlactschiffe Executor I love this a bit more
Imagine being so mediocre that you're literally named "Goodenough."
Still it means you deserve whatever position you have because, even if you're not the greatest, you're still Goodenough.
And yet he proved himself to be among the most apt British commanders in this battle
@@samarkand1585: Maybe the Brits have very high standards so "good enough" means a lot. (Maybe it was quite appropriate that Beatty wasn't named Goodenough.)
'Goodenough' for the British is equal to 'Superlative' for everybody else.
Well you can say he was goodenough
So in a nutshell the british gunned poorly, especially at the start, but maneuvered wonderfully
That’s a good way of putting it
Not really, apart from Beatty's ships which lacked the proper facilities, most British battleships shot as well if not better than the Germans. The newer British rangefinders were markedly superior the German ones but not yet fitted to all ships. The position of the ships relative to the sun, and smoke, were major factors in achieving hits. Arguably the main reason the German fleet wasn't decimated was due to faulty British shells. I can't remember the exact quote but one of the German commanders said after the battle that it would have been a disaster if the British shells had penetrated more reliably.
@@historigraph Did Royal Navy learn from their powder charge mistakes from Jutland? You said that the British ships that detonated were keeping too many charges near turrets. It seems German Dreadnoughts could take a harder beating because they had better storage? In WWII, USS Arizona detonated and it too was a WWI era Battleship
@@nagasako7 The problem was incorrect storage not design by itself. They kept propellant in unsafe places, between the magazines and the turrets, which could result in a chain reaction if a shell landed in the right spot. The storage was better on German ships but it's the bad quality of British shells that saved them. Arizona was caught off guard and took a direct hit to its magazine. It was unlucky, not a design problem.
@@colobossable "It was nothing but the poor quality of their bursting charges which saved us from disaster." Hipper.
Fun fact- Major Francis Harvey of the Royal Marines Artillery was a senior gunnery officer on the HMS Lion, his section suffered a direct hit blowing off both his legs but despite this he still had the prescence of mind to order the powder magazine be flooded- preventing the entire ship from exploding and saving over a thousand lives. He died shortly afterwards from his injuries, but was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry
By far more understable than anything Ive ever seen on the Battle of Jutland
thank you!
A very good synopsis; I just finished Massie's "Castles of Steel", goes quite in depth (pun intended). You left out the periscope Beatty supposedly saw that no one else did, or any mention of subs. The Brits didn't learn their lesson from this, and left the ammo hatches open on the Hood when engaged with Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.
he did not mention any of the 11 German ships sunk. go read a history book WHY ???
voided
@@schaferhundschmidt1798 where the hell did you hear that? The British very much learned the lesson after this and actually became pretty paranoid about detonations, so much so that in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the one where Hood was lost, Prince of Wales was having trouble firing its guns in part because its ammo hatches were too tightly built and they couldn't open as the ship flexed in its turn.
The Hood exploded because it took a penetrating hit to its magazine, and flash doors are there to prevent FLASH from starting larger fires and explosions. If the magazine is breached and starts burning short of it flooding there's little that can stop the force of the entire thing going up and taking the ship with it.
"Captain, the Germans are slipping by behind us and slaughtering our destroyers in their way! Shouldnt we radio the Admiral?"
"Do we have explicit orders to radio the Admiral?"
"Well...no, sir."
"Then its kind of a stupid question, isnt it?"
MareTranquil At lectures after the war, Jellicoe pointed out the fallacy of that kind of thinking. Not one report reached him that the HSF was breaking through at the tail of his fleet. If anything, he put it down to light forces scrapping. In the morning the sea was empty and the chance of a great victory was gone.
@@Wombat1916 So basically you're saying his thinking is a fallacy but then you go on agreeing with his joke. Fascinating
@@samarkand1585 No, you just failed to understand what he said.
Buy the Admiral didn't believe the 10:40 message though.
Jutland seems like a naval Battle of Antietam. The Germans inflicted more damage and casualties, but were forced to retire, where the British came off worse but maintained a good position in the naval war.
A good position? Good isn't strong enough. The British maintained a wonderful position. Germany was still blockaded and running out of supplies right at the moment their allies began to need help. Jutland, despite the British taking heavier losses was a big defeat for the Germans. They were forced into bad position by the British and were forced to resort to submarine warfare, which just made things worse
The only reason the Germans had less losses on the day is because they were closer to port, any further out and many more ships wouldn't have made it back. Even though they were kept afloat, they were so heavily damaged that they were out of action for the rest of the war.
@@walterfielding9079 Not exactly - Jutland scared off Britons from North Sea and Baltic and limited their action there only to mine duties. Germans later were able to put Russian fleet out of action, perform several landings in Baltic States and liberate Finland from Russia and Britons barely could do anything to prevent that.
Este comentario de Firehead es breve y conciso y lo mejor ke he leido en mi vida como compendio de la batalla.
Kise escribir Fiireheart
2:20 there’s an error. You said Beaty steamed west, but he steamed east, unless he drove his ships onto England.
Good catch- I misspoke
River Yang "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today"
"That might be because you've driven them onto land, sir"
@@LordDim1 yep
@@LordDim1 im dying xD
Thus the first landships were created which would be used to break trough the german lines at the Somme and ended the war before Christmas.
Though this was a british victory it must be embarrassing when one of your ships that was sunk was literally called "invincible"
The big bob probably to promote self confidence and pride and install fear into the enemy. These names were really cool
Although the Invincible class carrier HMS Invincible caused complete terror for the Argentine forces during the Falklands war so maybe that wins some respect back to the name
I’m fairly certainly the Naussaus ended killing more German ships than the British did
Well, you know Britain's luck with ships labelled as 'invincible'
Oof
Sailor: Sir the German fleet is tearing through our destroyers!
Commander: **looks at large German fleet** eh probably fake news
@@Peoples_Republic_of_Devonshire sthu. You just couldn’t go one video without bringing up politics. Why do you alienate your political opponents so much?
@@PanzerkampfwagenausfTschechosl this is the world we're living in today
Jellicoe wasn’t told about the attack on the destroyers.
@@Peoples_Republic_of_Devonshire this is a video about british fleet vs german fleet not some usa political debate area
A very confusing and frustrating battle, for those taking part and historians. I read a very good book about it when I was at school which left a deep impression on me. One has to feel sorry for Jellicoe, who had a tremendous amount of responsibility on his shoulders, and who was very poorly served by Beatty and by the light cruisers whose job it was to report the position of the enemy fleet. I think the aptly named Commodore Goodenough was the only one to send accurate and regular reports. One thing which is rarely mentioned is that the British used a volatile form of propellant for their guns - one which tended to burn violently, causing uncontrollable "flash fires" when ignited by nearby shell hits. German cordite burned but did not explode in similar circumstances. This is one reason why German ships did not blow up - despite repeated hits - at the Falkland Islands, Jutland and later in World War Two.
Also there was an emphasis with the British on fast gunnery, and most British ships kept a massive amount of spare charges for the guns heaped in corridors and nearby the guns, also leaving a lot of doors open so that when they were hit this set them off and created a chain reaction. I'm sure there's a more technical explanation of this, this is just something I read or saw in a documentary somewhere so can't quite remember the exact details.
"Sponsored by World of Warships"
Ah, Really?
@@rupertbaskerville Promotion from First Officer to Captain within the Royal Navy was predicated upon how smart the ship looked, discipline was God. Any chipped paint, torn uniforms, or worn bedding could cost someone their chance at the big chair, so no expense was spared in maintaining the entire fleet in parade readiness rather than combat readiness. Not only would a ship's discretionary budget be weighted heavily towards esthetics, but a well-off First Officer would often dip into their own pocket to fund another paint job. Promotion became a matter of wealth and connections as much or more than merit.
Even the training budget wasn't spared the need for ever more textiles, meaning that Royal Navy gunners often couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Doctrine was adjusted to compensate, with rate of fire overruling basic safety.
There isn't a single elevator running ammo up from the magazine to turret. Rather, it's a series of small, one story elevators, basically dumb waiters, interconnecting the decks between. Propellant is loaded into one dumb waiter, the armored shutter is closed, the propellant gets sent up, another shutter is opened, propellant retrieved, shutter closed, propellant sent across the room into another dumb waiter, and on up the height of the ship's interior to the turret. In theory. In practice, those shutters were just left open at all times in combat, meaning that any detonation could potentially consume the entire turret, magazine, and the barbette (turret vertical shaft) between.
Those Battlecruisers weren't bad ships, it's just that they'd already accomplished their mission. In the pre-war years the British performed a naval study regarding wartime shipping, and concluded that any major power could annihilate British shipping across the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean just by deploying a couple dozen cruisers as commerce raiders. Meanwhile escorting every merchant ship would take a couple hundred cruisers, so passive defense wasn't an option.
Enter the Royal Navy Battlecruiser, a vessel specifically designed to hunt down and sink any commerce raiding cruiser. Hunting the hunters. This strategy was entirely successful, despite some early successes the German merchant raider fleet had been comprehensively neutralized by the time of Jutland. Too bad for the Battlecruisers, who lacking any other mission got sent North to fight German Battleships whose guns could completely overmatch Battlecruiser armor.
Firing a Battlecruiser main battery naval shell required 3 things: the projectile, from one to six propellant bag(s), and the primer bag.
Propellant was remarkably resilient, able to withstand major shocks without detonating. Simply trying to fire it out of the cannon wouldn't have resulted in detonation. This was deliberate so as to prevent an internal magazine explosion from consuming the entire ship, in theory only those propellant bags physically inside the blast would ignite.
The primer bag was small, roughly the size of an envelope, and mas meant to be loaded inside the gun after the final propellant bag. In Royal Navy service though, and in the name of rate of fire, primer bags were sowed directly onto the backs of propellants. Completely defeating the whole premise of having separate primer sacks. This of course meant that if for whatever reason a propellant bag rolled off a shelf or out out of someone's hands, and landed primer on the deck primer end down it would likely detonate, consuming everyone nearby with it.
With Battlecruiser armor having no way to keep Battleship scale violence outside, with an unmeritocratic culture of pretension leaving every armored shutter securely in the useless position, and with that same culture placing every propellant bag in the vessel already ready to detonate with it's own integrated primer, any single hit could potentially take out the entire vessel.
Then they got hit.
@@rupertbaskerville Yes. The British had been so dominant at sea for over a century, that in their training they had started to value the wrong things.
How good the ships looked and how clean things were, had often taken precedence over shooting practice, as gun blasts damaged things and created a lot of dirt and marks. And drills that could be done without actually firing the guns, like the focus on loading times, had taken on too much importance.
But then the Americans were even worse in a lot of those aspects.
Germany didn't use cordite iirc. It was only used by the UK.
History teacher: If you're interested in history read a book over the holidays
Me: Nah I'll just watch this it's better
Imergence if u cant enjoy books thats really sad
IllICITGRYNE if you can write an interesting history book please do. The ones they give us now are boring as shit.
IllICITGRYNE Lol my history teacher uses simple history's videos to teach us about history
IllICITGRYNE I'm reading a 700 page book on Vietnam lol
ItzTheDude that’s very depressing
9:27 There was some method to Scheer's madness here. Having retreated from a previous sticky situation, he knew that in the remaining hours of daylight the Grand Fleet, with a several knot speed advantage, could outrun him and cut him off before he'd get back to Germany. Thus, rather than just running away immediately, he judged it better to go for another spear jab which should have crossed Jellicoe's T from behind (no metaphor intended) had the British turned South-West to pursue the Germans as expected.
Unfortunately for Scheer, Jellicoe had cautiously decided not to run them down immediately for fear of losing ships to the German flotilla's torpedoes. This meant that he took a wider approach leading his fleet away and then Southward. Thus Scheer accidentally attacked straight back into the British battleline thinking he was out-manoeuvring it, and it was in that arse-openingly terrifying realisation that he lost his nerve and ordered his battlecruisers to charge while he retreated as quickly as he could.
It was Churchill I believe who later reflected that Jellicoe was the only man who could have won or lost the war in an afternoon.
Great video ! Have a sub!
Very good video a love naval history and play a lot of naval games so Thump's up on good work so sad that hood died just like the battle cruiser named after him in a face of with Bismarck and prince Eugene
Yeah ok that makes more sense, thank you.
He turned back in oder to buy time for his pre-dreadnoughts to escape, also Churchill said, Jellicoe was the only man who could have lost the war in an afternoon. If the British had of destroyed the German fleet it would not change the status quo. But if Jellicoe had lost his fleet Britain could not continue the embargo against Germany. So the war would have been lost.
@@TayebMC
Technically the destruction of the High Seas Fleet could have had MASSIVE impacts on German morale for the people and the land Army.
Your entire Fleet of Warships has just been pummelled into the ground and the British blockade is still at full strength. The morale impact that would have would be insane.
i've heard real accounts about this, they we're driven out and that's why their admiral is called admiral portside and vice admiral ran away.
This is an incredible video. Can scarcely imagine how much work went into it. Kudos
7:37
[GERMANS SWEAT NERVOUSLY]
it's like the Kul Tiras fleet arriving at Boreas...
Like the imperial jumping out of hyperspace in return of the jedi, except the germans lost.
How many British ships were there for each german ship? 10?
@@El_Presidente_5337 No the gap was not quite that big I believe it was something like 2:1 British:German (dreadnoughts not overall ships)
SSH-40 *b r i t a n n i a r u l e s t h e w a v e s*
Good to see this great battle is finally getting the attention it deserves.
Likely wouldn't have without World of Warships sparking interest and sponsoring content.
You say that like it wasn't widely known beforehand lol. It's been one of the most well-known naval battles of all time for a full century now.
Goodenough?
Geezus the Brits. Gotta love it
I actually lived on a road named after that man I thought the council had pulled a name out of its arse till I did some research on the name
There seem to be something wong with our bloody ships today
: that goodenough
*What name should I give to my newborn son? HMMMM*
@@davidliu2243 badenough
Goodgrief
My grandfather told me about my great grand father "When he heard the canons it was like lightning that just keept going and going" Btw if you are Intrested I would like to reccomend the Jutland museum in Thyborøn in Denmark
I currently live in Jutland. I really want to visit this museum!
I must say, though I have seen a number of good videos about naval warfare and a few good ones about this particular battle, no other channel comes close to the quality and especially the clarity of your videos.
I already had a pretty good idea about how this battle went down, but a few things i never quite understood, until I watched this. Thank you for making such excellent content, I love what you're doing!
Questionmark I was going to say the same thing. Very well done.
Still don't understand what the germans sailed into the line after retreating.
Fun Fact: The then Prince Albert was on board HMS Collingwood during the battle. Why is he so important? In 1937 he would become King George VI the father of Queen Elizabeth II
Amazing video as always 🤓
reference lu salah satu nya dari sini ya bang wkw
Beatty did EXACTLY what Scheer wanted him to do. Beatty made just about every boneheaded decision that he could.
That's because he was an idiot.
... and Jellicoe's plan saved Beatty's bacon.
The Battle of Jutland was always confusing. Your presentation makes it crystal clear. I've watched it 3 times. Thanks!
At Jutland the Brits lost several large warships (along with most of their crews) to massive internal explosions in their ships' magazines. For good reason, the ship's magazines were one of the best armored sections of a warship, as a spark or fire in that area would almost certainly destroy the entire ship from within. In addition, Royal Navy battlewagons were built with "flash doors" to minimize the chance that their propellant stocks of Cordite would touch-off accidentally or in the heat of battle, subsequently destroying the ship. Unfortunately, the British gunnery officers placed such a high value on rapidly reloading and firing their ship's guns, that their gun crews tended - or were even encouraged - to ignore safety instructions to keep their propellant room flash doors closed between shots. It's suspected that this dangerous habit contributed to the loss of so many British warships at Jutland.
No, the British gunnery Officers DIDN'T place high value on rapid reloading. Beatty did,
He told his inexperienced crew to stack cordite near the turrets for faster reloading, something the Grand Fleet never did. Beatty's BC Squadron had not had time to sail with the Grand Fleet and practice gunnery skills, something that would have been invaluable in this battle, since Beatty's Squadron outranged the High Seas Fleet and could have easily pounded them until the Grand Fleet showed up to deal the killing blow.
TL'DR: Beatty was a retard.
Crazy to think that a generation before, ships of the line were built of wood and had sails. They would be in that same exact formation. Amazing.
Truth is the British admirals treated the code brakers with contempt and they didn't bother passing on the info to the fleet.
Yeah- there was a lot of snobbish behavior towards those civilian code breakers
@@historigraph Actually, there was a RN rear admiral in charge of Room 40 but you are correct, there were civilians doing the code breaking. However, what was lacking was the knowledge of how to properly interpret the decoded signals as the Admiralty forbade direct communication between Room 40 and vessels at sea. You mentioned the advice from the Admiralty saying Scheer was in port - that came about because an officer walked into Room 40 and asked where a particular German call-sign known to be used by Scheer was. It was in port where it always was because he changed call-signs when he sailed. Room 40 was not given the opportunity to explain or clarify. It was one of many RN failures that day.
@@peterlovett5841 You're absolutely right. What I said in the video was an attempt to compress the implication of that event (Cpt Jackson's actions in relation to Room 40) into a single sentence, for the purposes of brevity.
@@historigraph Understood. The history of Room 40 makes fascinating reading and it makes me believe that the UK was far ahead of the Germans in both world wars in cryptography and the breaking thereof.
Thank God by the Second World War the code breakers were mostly trusted. There was problems but with people like Churchill in charge, the code breakers were mostly appreciated and able to prove themselves and their art. And it can be argued that the British code breakers won World War II
So:
HMS Defence did an offensive charge.
Goodenough was.. well, good enough.
HMS Invincible wasn't so invincible.
🤣
Germany has always been like: „Quality over Quantity“
UK has always been like: „Oh look, a single German Warship! Let the entire Navy, Air Force and Army Force hunt it“
You can't protect a globe-spanning empire with a small number of ships regardless of how good the individual ships are.
İt was in WW2,Germans had a big surface fleet in WW1 unlike WW2.
@KuBa Bala Multiple hidden explosives between you and the tent.
@@seneca983 The ships had to be equal or superior in quality.
@KuBa Bala especially if it's the Americans going after the single Taliban 😂 but then a again you country does have the money to waste bombs willy nilly
Excellent. I have read many written accounts of the battle, but the visuals make this so much clearer. Thank you.
8:25 You forgot to mention that the Warspite's rudder getting hit and making circles actually saved the Warrior from being annihilated by the Germans
HMS Warspite was lucky in many situations even in WWII
It always baffled me why Beatty was lionised and Jellicoe maligned after this battle. Beatty led a poorly trained battle cruiser squadron recklessly into battle. He could have kept Hipper at arms length while he pummeled him with 13.5in and 12in shells but instead inexplicably let the Germans fire first. Jellicoe maneuvered his fleet expertly, and had he been better informed by both Beatty and naval intelligence, would have won a decisive victory.
Beatty was extremely wealthy and had 'influence' in the right places. Also, as Jellicoe's successor as commander of the Grand Fleet, and later as First Sea Lord, he was in a position to censor the official record, and ensure that it said the right things about him.
The best and clearest explanation about what happened at Jutland. I have watched other videos about the topic, yet this one is the best. Congratulations on a job well done! You earned a new sub!
Lovely presentation! I'm always fascinated by ship battles like this. Surprising that there were not more of them in the first world war.
After this one the Germans were not so keen as to get into another one. With correct handling of ammunition and better shells on the part of the RN the out come would have been very different. The High sees fleet got lucky and they knew it.
@@TayebMC If you say so.
I was rewatching Drachinifel’s fantastic 3 part series in Jutland and was looking for a animated map to get a slightly better top down view of the battle. After sorting through a very few battle maps I found on TH-cam and thinking about how garbage they all were I saw a channel I was already subscribed to had a video on the battle (one that I had even watched already years ago). I guess my brain is running a bit slow this afternoon but this was exactly what I was after and I had forgotten how well made this video actually was. Between this and the Drachinfel videos I have gotten the Jutland fix I was craving today. So thanks for this and next time I will make sure to check here first for a video on whatever military rabbit hole I find myself in. Cheers
*Video Notes + Links:*
If you'd like to help support the production of these videos, consider becoming a patron of the channel: www.patreon.com/historigraph
1. Distances between ships and the positions of them should not be seen as to scale. If they were to scale, you’d barely be able to see the ships.
2. The signal to Jellicoe at 1pm on May 31st is sometimes said to have cost an hour or two or fighting time- I don’t believe this to be the case, having read Gordon’s breakdown of the time it would have taken Jellicoe to reach Scheer if the signal at 1pm had confirmed the German fleet was at sea.
3. This video is not a full analysis of the battle, I may well do a video assessing the tactics of it at a later date.
4. To be clear on the World of Warships footage in the main video, anything that's not part of the two ad sections is in there as my own creative choice.
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Sources:
Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War
Ben Wilson, Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy
Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel
Andrew Gordon, Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command
www.naval-history.net for factual information
AND THE DREADNOUGHTS FEAR NOTHING AT ALL!
I am two years late to this video and this is by far the best explanation of what happened at Jutland, thank you and keep up the great work, working my way through the WW2 Norwegian campaign currently
Great video. Fun fact. There is a single surviving ship from the battle of Jutland and one of only 3 WWI warships surviving today. C-class light cruiser HMS Caroline.
She’s an absolutely gorgeous ship after been lovingly restored in recent years and opened as a museum ship in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast.
Being over there for a Noel Gallagher gig last year and looking for something to do. Me and my ma just spontaneously ended up going on the tour of her and I ended up staggered. If you ever find yourself in Belfast for a weekend, I wholly suggest you get yourself aboard.
It’s a shame the British government hasn’t make more of an effort to preserve surviving ships of both World Wars, I mean 1 of the other 2 ships left (HMS Saxifrage/President) is privately owned and there are/were fears that she might end up getting scrapped without funding.
I've binge watched this series for a few days now and my only complaint was the simple battle graphics..... it makes sense now and is easier to understand. Well done Sir!
7:34 Maybe it's the music, but this game me the tinglies like the arrival of the Golden Armada.
Remarkable video. Very well done!
Full credit to that legendary German engineering
Yeah the German Battlecruisers particularly were very well engineered. Incredibly survivable ships.
@@historigraph Only even got that far though by stealing the Dreadnought concept from the British via espionage
@@ThePalaeontologistLmao Germany had a complete different naval doctrine and understanding of a Dreadnought than the UK.
@@mircomartinez2666 I never said they didn't. That is completely irrelevant to the point I was making. Nice try. I was literally just saying that the only reason they even had Dreadnoughts, was because they stole the idea of the design. Stop twisting what I'm saying.
I never said the Germans didn't have their own doctrines. I'm just pointing out that Dreadnoughts came from Britain first. HMS Dreadnought (1906)
''Lmao'', really? You laughed your arse off over your own attempted strawman? Cool story bro. Merry Christmas.
@@ThePalaeontologist Lmao you're literally sperging out because you're proven wrong. British dreadnoughts had nothing to do with Germans ones except for both being bigger and having bigger guns. Especially your comment about espionage is such bullshit since countries like France had Dreadnoughts before Germany.
Great video man!! Congrats! The mix of game footage, archive, animation to perfectly understand the maneuvers invoked in the battle… keep it up! 🫶🏻🫶🏻 cheers from Colombia, South America
"Chatfield, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today."
I truely appreciate the detailed individual battles that take place during an unfortunate war. It’s far more intriguing than just they won and they lost
Why the hell has no one made a movie about this???? From the perspective of one side or both this would still be an excellent movie
agreed
Fantastic video as usual! Jutland is so interesting because it was such a massive, epic clash of the two largest navies in the world, yet in the end it was essentially indecisive. The British took heavier losses, but the Germans were unable to break the blockade.
Anders Schmich Very true, but if you look closely at the figures, the Germans lost more ships as a percentage of their original fleet. It could be pointed out that while the HSF achieved a tactical victory, Grand Fleet achieved the more important strategic victory. Jellicoe returned to Scapa Flow, refuelled and re-ammunitioned his fleet and reported he was ready for sea again in short order. The Germans came out once or twice more, but never took on Grand fleet again. After the battle, 5 more new ships (battlecruisers) joined Grand Fleet and damaged ships (eg HMS Warspite) were repaired and when the US joined the war a complete battle squadron went to Scapa Flow.
The Germans added two battleships in that time and most of the High Seas Fleet was lost in the mass scuttle at Scapa Flow in 1919.
Amazing,your videos are always extremely enjoyable and really interesting.
The battlecruiser was another brainchild of the great Admiral Fisher. He advocated them as the solution for the amoured cruisers that were in vogue at the time as commerce raiders. They were as large as dreadnouts with the same big guns. They sacrificed armour for speed. They were never meant to face off in battle with battleships, but being used as scouts, they would, inevitably, come into contact with battleships and the rest is history. The latest post war battle cruisers were converted to aircraft carriers by most powers before WW2.
After some years, I just had to rewatch this video.
incredible video about an incredible naval battle.
Thank you, my friend :)
Fun fact: jellicoes son was in the SAS and formed the SBS.
Really?!!
Slight error: Scheers call sign WAS still operating at port, but he was using a different call sign when at sea.
The British intelligence knew this, but answered a question on where the call sign was without warning they knew the German admiral and fleet were at sea
That was the most concise and well written summary of Jutland I’ve ever watched/listened. Nicely done!
Edit: Have I mentioned I actually studied up on British Dreadnoughts and can attest that you got the flash fire thing in a pan eh. geddit? XD
A good example of tactical vs strategic victory if I've ever seen one. The British fleet was massive and well-developed. They could afford to take losses despite the German gunnery. At the end of the day, they put more ships in the water than the Germans and that decided a significant part of the war.
7:37
When you realize the boss has a second form
No mention how Warspite's out of control actions saved HMS Warrior by attracting the guns originally firing at her, to Warspite which allowed Warrior to escape, which sure she did still sink soon after leaving but the crew had plenty of time to evacuate and was picked up by Warspite as she sailed back while also slowly sinking but did make it to port in time to save the ship, which is a good thing they did since Warspite became an absolute legend of the seas later on.
What a perfectly wonderful concise portrayal of the the Battle of Jutland and as you correctly state the last and sensational battle at sea between surface fleets. Makes the United States emergence in the later 1900s all the more spectacular after this finale to the 159 years of British industrial 🏭 innovative might. Bravo Sir. 🇬🇧😎
makes me wonder how much damage the Bayern could have inflicted on the british if she was involved but she want cuz she was still being build but i assume a lot with those 15inch buggers
Probably not much more than was done already. The problem with the British battlecruisers was their battle practices (they left safety doors open in battle).
The British had 6 15" gun vessels available at the battle (4 Queen Elizabeth and 2 Revenge class battleships)
If you're thinking of "what if this was a year later", then the British would have also had 2 15" gun battlecruisers (Renown and Repulse); the 5th Battle Squadron could have been at full strength (5 Queen Elizabeth class battleships (QE herself was in dock during the actual battle)) and they'd have had another couple of Revenge class ships for the battle line.
TheGoatRide and the new rangefinders... and better shells...
Battle of Gallipolli next maybe?
Also map is wrong in 0.40 German- Danish border was further north, Germany had to give up land to Danmark even though they did not join the war.
I'm pretty sure it was a referendum right?
@@oreroundpvp896 Yeah it was. North Schleswig voted to join with Denmark because mostly Danes lived there.
Alright next up:
1) Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
2) Battle of the North Cape
3) Battle of Surigao Straits
4) Battle of Cape Matapan or Battle of Calabria
It really should not be a surprise that the German ships took more punishment. Grand Admiral von Tirpitz famously said, "The first duty of a warship is to remain afloat."
Could you *imagine* the conversation in the bridge of that German fleet?
"Sir, we've just had our ass handed to us. We can't see exactly where the enemy is in many places, and all we really know is that we are horrifically outgunned and out of position."
"Alright. Tell everyone- turn back around, and *let's do it again.*"
Jellicoe is just a cool name for an Admiral.
Awesome stuff mate :)
This is another very good and exciting video provided by historigraph!!
the voice narration(story telling) is clear,direct and simple to understand and most importantly its non 'BIAS!'
"it is as what it is" and i love it!! the animations also very nice too!
i like watching simple history videos like this!!not too many fancy effects!not just me..my kids love it and can understand the story too because of its simplicity. watching your videos makes my eyes and ears glued to the screen till the end of it,and then always makes me say:
"O wow..so thats what really happens!!now i know!on to next vids!"lol😄
not like some historical videos that makes me kinda confused,bored and sometimes angry because of..(you know what i meant.im not going to comment about it here.)im lucky to stumble on 1 of your video and now im one of your subscriber!
KEEP IT UP HISTORIGRAPH CREWS!!
PLEASE dnt stop Making more simple and exciting videos like this!!
HISTORIGRAPH ROCKS!!💪👍💓😊 p/s:i will surely tell my buddies to subscribe you and so sorry for the long comments..😅
My great great uncle fought in that battle but drowned at sea
Wow. Do you know which ship he was on?
@Historigraph
I really enjoy your videos about WW2 naval engagements
keep up the good work 🙂
Thank you so much for this video it’s great
So to sum up, Beatty was horrifically incompetant really fucking things up for the Royal Navy but because he was an aristocrat and Jellicoe was a professional, Jellicoe got all the blame and Beatty was given Jellicoe's job
Good explanation - thx!
It is not an art with superior power to win in this way. How the Germans, on the other hand, lured, fought and came back safely against this superior force, very well! Excellent German seamanship.
Comprehensive documentary on the subject.
Thank you.
Derfflinger - MVP
a big movie of this event should be made
I wonder how different things would have been if jellicoe was properly informed of the high seas fleet's manoeuvre for the reef.
It seems absurd that the destroyer screen didn't radio him when they were engaged.
Thank You!
I am so happy to finally see someone actually correctly asserting, that after all was said and done, the Germans lost the Battle of Jutland. Way to many people try and assert that the Germans were somehow the winner at Jutland just because the Brits lost more ships. Plenty of victories see the victor take more casualties, more British ships may have sank at Jutland, but they inflicted significantly more overall damage on the German fleet, and the Germans were left in a worse strategic positions than they started in.
Indeed. While many at the time were hoping for another Trafalgar, all the British needed to do to win the war at sea was keep the High Seas Fleet in port and maintain their blockade of merchant shipping, which they did.
It was a German tactical victory but a British strategical one, which is what counts in the end.
@@seskal8595 - it wasn't that it was a German tactical or operational victory. As the last lines of the video said, the Germans estimated that they would need two MONTHS of rebuilding in order to sortie again - the British signalled that they were at four hours notice to sail (the time it takes to start the engines) two DAYS after the battle.
If you really wanted to get into the semantics of what is strategic, operational and tactical; and what victory means in a prolonged naval campaign, you could say it was a British tactical victory (they had control of the sea on 1st June) but a German strategic victory (their fleet was still 'in being')
In reality, on 2nd June, both sides knew who had won and who had lost
@@TheGoatRide true. Can't argue with that
Excellent presentation of the courses and positions on the ships. MUCH better than others I have seen.
Great video!!!
9:26 Scheer turning around reconnecting with the British forces was accidental as he had misjudged where the Grand Fleet would be and accidentally steamed right back into it
Obviously, USS Johnston wasn't around at the time, but if she was I'm sure she would have loved to take on the entire Highs Seas Fleet.
Great video by the way. Love your channel.
At least The Royal Navy didn't had the Kamchatka.
@Stavros Stamelos
Or even a KGV.
Being from Denmark (from Jutland, even) I've seen hundreds of graves of often unnamed British and German sailors that washed up on the Western shore of Jutland in the days and weeks following the battle. Their history still lives on in little village churchyards far from their homes, and local associations often ensure the date is marked and the graves are generally nicely tended to. Often there'll just be half a dozen graves in a single churchyard, but in a few places there are scores of them.
As a child I never quite understood what all those British and German sailors were doing in Denmark during a war we had no part in - and I never really got much more than a weaving explanation about something with big ships and guns and... Yeah, as you'd perhaps try to explain a large sea battle to a small child. So it's nice whenever I come across something that contextualises all those simple graves;
Correction: I just double-checked, and it seems at least the British graves are in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I suppose something equivalent might also be the case for the German graves, but I don't know.
I’d argue the Battle of the Surigao Strait was the last line-of-Battle engagement by warships in history.
9:58
The sheer bravery!
just imagine what it must have been like on the lead German ship:
charging forward against the heaviest broadside in history. Against a row of more than 30 of the world's strongest battleships perfectly lined up in an arch spanning from horizon to horizon, many equipped with 8 x 15in guns firing 2 ton shells. Plus a myriad of smaller calliber guns and smaller enemy vessels. All these ships can perfectly see you while you can barely see any of them against the dark sky. And all of these guns on all of these ships are trained on YOU.
I remember reading in a book, I can't remember the name but when one of those British dreadnoughts exploded the actual turret fixture lifted higher then the the ships bridge.
So basically, if Beatty hadn't been such a knobhead, the entire High Seas Fleet could have been baited into the Grand Fleet and destroyed?
Jesus Christ...
No matter which of these videos I watch, the level of incompetence is outstanding.
7:37
OMG. That massive grand fleet coming into view...
37 Battleship and Battlecruiser in British side men.
The best naval war historian of modern time I know of. As expected a superb job.
Germany won the battle, but couldn't reach the objective and in the end lost the war.
Idk man, the Germans ran away. Tried to come back, and then ran again never to come back
@@monsieurpoisson8163 Your right
I must concur with Brett D. This is the clearest explanation of Jutland I've ever seen. Thank you.
At the time of Jutland Franz von Hipper was viceadmiral and not rearadmiral.
Love to see a movie made of this battle...long overdue.
The only thing I really understood about Jutland before this video was from Nimitz's biography, where Jellicoe's fleet formations were criticized and called unweildly. Now I know why.
Anyways, great video
This was the best explanation of the Battle of Jutland that I have seen! Thank you!
Nice video. I think it's ok to call the battle of Jutland a "strategic British victory", but i personally think you have to keep the following in mind: The German fleet did only exist for about 45 years (since 1870), so it was less experienced and smaller compared to the British fleet. But it was still able to inflict higher casualties on the British fleet and escape without being destroyed. The battle itself was a (tactical) German victory. In the end the battle didn't change the strategic situation and a lot of German ships were heavily damaged. But I think it is not fair only to mention that Jutland was a strategic British victory and not mention that it was a tactical German victory. I'm not sure where you are from, but when watching this as a German, one could get the impression that your view is a little bit biased towards the British fleet.
I think you also have to take into account the design floors that wiped out at lease two British ships. Its worth remember that these ships were not destroyed by german gunnery but by exploding magerzines. Of course the real heavyweight contest would have seen the German big ships take on their British counterparts but the German fleet obviously mindful of taking a beating never sought out the sort of confrontation that would have decided the issue for good. It certainly not the response of a victorious navy.
This is the clearest explanation of Jutland I've ever seen.. This is the clearest explanation of Jutland I've ever seen..
I'd love to make my own detailed videos on subjects like this, Jutland is a huge topic that could be made into it's own mini-series. This is a very concise overview of the battle though, and I can't commend it enough for achieving that on this subject.
Beatty: call an ambulance!
.
*Reveals entire British fleet*
But not for me."
Well done and love the cutscenes of world of warships to describe certain events that happened during the battle.
Still got captured German ships sunk here in Orkney, you can see them poking out of the sea at the Churchill barriers.
The ships you can see at the Churchill Barriers aren't German. They are blockships, old merchant ships sunk by the British to block the eastern entrances to Scapa Flow before the Barriers were built. The scuttled German fleet, what's left of it, is in deep water further west.
This was a very clear and concise summary that I wish had been readily available during my high school study of WW1... While it had been a strategic victory for the British, many blamed Jellicoe for not decisively destroying the German fleet. However, as we see here Admiral Jellicoe was hampered by bad intel from the Admiralty as well as terrible communications from his own fleet. With the amount of fire power Jellicoe had, I doubt the German High Seas fleet would have survived had Jellicoe been able to properly ascertain the location of the Germans.