Battle of Jutland is subject of talk to Probus Club

THE latest meeting of Shepshed Probus Club was held on May 14, at Junction 23 restaurant, slightly later than usual because of the May Bank Holiday.

The meeting was opened by the club president Horace Lister, and secretary Wilf Shelton gave out the notices after which resident joker Stan White regaled us with amusing stories.

After an enjoyable lunch our speaker Lt. Cdr. Tim Oaten RN Rtd was introduced who then gave a talk about the Battle of Jutland. The battle was started accidentally on 31st May 1916 at 2.28pm.

The British had been training for action long before the war began and the morale of the ships crews was kept high by the loyalty of the men to Admiral Sir John Jellicoe.

Commanded by Admiral Jellicoe the British fleet sailed from Scapa Flow, Cromarty Firth and Rosyth with Jellicoe commanding the ships from Scapa Flow, and Admiral Beatty, under Jellicoe, commanded the ships from Cromarty and Rosyth, all sailing east to meet off the Jutland Bank.

German Admiral Scheer with second in command Admiral Hipper sailed early the following morning to intercept the British fleets. Visibility was critical with low levels of fog and smoke laid down by the ships of both countries. Radio communication between ships was still in its infancy so Aldi’s lights and signal flags were relied upon a lot.

German gunnery was more effective than the British and a fault the British instigated was to keep the magazine door into the gun open to speed up the delivery of shells from magazines to guns. This caused catastrophic explosions in the gun chamber and magazine.

The battle lasted six hours and eight minutes. In that time the British lost 14 ships and 6097 men whilst the Germans lost only 11 ships and 2551 men.

The Germans claimed a great victory and Jellicoe was slated but what is forgotten is that he achieved what was asked of him which was to drive the German fleet back to port and Jutland became the only battle between capital ships.

Churchill was disparaging saying Jellicoe was the only man from either side who could lose the war in an afternoon which was very unfair because the Germans never came out of port again.