Jutland:Aftermath
British Reactions
On 6 June Jellicoe wrote to his wife:
- Of course I am not satisfied, as given clear weather the battle would have been final and there would have been no German Fleet left, whatever happened to us. But that can't be helped. It is ludicrous for the Germans to claim a victory. Victory always rests with the force that occupies the scene of the action, and we did this for the greater part of the next day, until it was quite clear that they had all gone home or as many as were left to go. If they had been so confident of victory they would have tried to go on fighting instead of legging it for home.[1]
German Reactions
Allegedly, while discussing the battle in the admiral's mess along with other admirals from Berlin (among them Holtzendorff), the conversation turned to what motives would be attributed to Scheer's tactics, to which he replied, "My idea? I had no idea. I wanted to help the poor Wiesbaden. And then I thought I had better throw in the cruisers in full strength. The thing just happened—as the virgin said when she got a baby."[2] According to the post-battle report of the Austro-Hungarian naval attaché, Captain von Trotha joked that, "if an Admiral brought about such a situation at a war game in manoeuvres, he would never be entrusted with another command."[3]
Evaluation in Print
Arthur Marder wrote in 1978 that tactically, "since neither fleet was able to inflict a crippling blow on the other, the battle belongs to the series of inconclusive battles or partial victories which are the rule in naval warfare."[4] V. E. Tarrant appreciated this conclusion so much that he repeated it word for word in his account of the battle.[5]The tactical expert Captain Wayne P. Hughes, Jr., holds that, "Tactically he [Jellicoe] executed what he conceived to be his mission: to bottle up the High Seas Fleet, make his numbers count, win as he could, and avoid loss due to carelessness, enemy wit, or bad luck."[6]
Footnotes
- ↑ Quoted in Bacon. Earl Jellicoe. p. 306.
- ↑ von Weizsäcker. Memoirs of Ernest von Weizsäcker. p. 33.
- ↑ Marder Papers. University of California Irvine. Box 27, Folder 3. p. 10. My thanks to Stephen McLaughlin for this document.
- ↑ Marder. From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow. III. p. 252.
- ↑ Tarrant. Jutland: The German Perspective. p. 278.
- ↑ Hughes. Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat. p. 86.
Bibliography
