[E]THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND (_Continued_)
VI. THE COURSE OF THE ACTION
What in fact happened was this. Beatty, as we have seen, had led due
east at six o’clock, closing the enemy from 14,000 yards to 12,000
yards, and was overhauling the head of his line rapidly. At 6:20 Hood,
in _Invincible_, with _Inflexible_ and _Indomitable_, was seen ahead
returning from a fruitless search for the Germans, which he had made
to the southwest an hour before. Hood was one of Beatty’s admirals
with the Battle-Cruiser Fleet temporarily attached to the Grand Fleet.
When, therefore, his old Commander-in-Chief ordered him to take station
ahead, he had not the slightest difficulty in divining his leader’s
intentions. It was characteristic of this force that the rear-admirals
and commodores in command of the unit squadrons acted without orders
throughout the day. Hood formed before the _Lion_ and led down straight
on the German line. By 6:25 he had closed the range to 8,000 yards and
had _Lützow_, Von Hipper’s flagship, under so hot a fire that she was
disabled and abandoned almost immediately. By an unfortunate chance his
own flagship, _Invincible_, was destroyed by the first and almost the
only shell that hit her, the Rear-Admiral and nearly all his gallant
companions being sent to instant death. But their work was done and the
van of the German fleet was crumpled up.
[E] For diagrams illustrating this chapter, see end of book.
Scheer by this time had had his fleet on an easterly course for five
and thirty minutes, waiting for the opportunity to turn a right angle
or more, so as to retreat under the cover of his torpedo attacks. Up
to this time the main body of his fleet had only been under fire for
a brief interval, during which the rear division of the Grand Fleet
had been in action. Scheer had, no doubt, watched the deployment of
the Grand Fleet and had realized that the method chosen had not only
given him already a quarter-of-an-hour’s respite, but had supplied him
with that opportunity for counter-attack and the evasion it might make
possible, which he had been looking for. The battle cruisers were well
away to the east. The van and centre of the Grand Fleet, though well on
his bows, were only just beginning to open fire.
It is probable that the van was now converging towards him and
shortening the range. Scheer was trying to make the gunnery as
difficult as possible by his smoke screens, but probably soon realized
that, if the range was closed much more, his fleet would soon be in a
hopeless situation. At about a quarter to seven, therefore, he launched
the first of his torpedo attacks. This had the desired effect. “The
enemy,” says the Commander-in-Chief, “constantly turned away and
_opened the range_ under the cover of destroyer attacks and smoke
screens as the effect of British fire was felt.” “Opening the range”
means that the object of the torpedo attacks had been attained. For
a quarter of an hour or more the closing movement of the Grand Fleet
was converted into an opening movement. Scheer had prevented the close
action that he dreaded. He had gained the time needed to turn his whole
force from an easterly to a southwesterly course.
[Illustration: A. Battle-Cruiser Fleet; B. Grand Fleet; C. German Fleet
Sketch plan of the action from 6 p.m. when the Grand Fleet prepared
to deploy, till 6:50 when Admiral Scheer delivered his first massed
torpedo attack]
Sir David Beatty’s account of his movements up to now is singularly
brief. “At six o’clock,” he says, “I altered course to east and
proceeded at utmost speed.... At 6:20 the Third Battle Squadron bore
ahead steaming south towards the enemy’s van. I ordered them to take
station ahead.... At 6:25 I altered course to E.S.E. in support of the
Third Battle-Cruiser Squadron, who were at this time only 8,000 yards
from the enemy’s leading ship.” Nothing is said of his movements in
the next twenty minutes. “By 6:50,” he continues, “the battle-cruisers
were clear of our leading Battle Squadron, then bearing N.N.W. three
miles from _Lion_.” (_Lion_ was now third ship in the line). “I
ordered the Third Battle Cruiser Squadron to prolong the line astern
and _reduced to eighteen knots_.” There was nothing now to hurry for.
The daylight action was, in fact, over. For that matter good visibility
was at an end. From 6:0 to 6:50, though never perfect, it had been more
favourable to us than to the enemy. Could the British forces have been
concentrated for united effort during this period, what might not have
resulted? But from 6:0 to 6:17 Scheer had been engaged by Sir David
Beatty’s four battle-cruisers only. For a short period after 6:17 it
was engaged by some ships of the rear division as well. From 6:30 till
the torpedo attacks broke up the Grand Fleet’s gunnery, it was engaged
intermittently and at longer range by all three of the main squadrons.
But by this time Sir David Beatty had passed ahead, and the survivors
of the enemy’s van had begun their turn.
THE GERMAN RETREAT
The next phase of the action was a fruitless chase of the enemy from
seven o’clock until 8:20. “At 7:6,” says Sir David Beatty, “I received
a signal that the course of the fleet was south.... We hauled round
gradually to S.W. by S. to regain touch with the enemy (who were lost
to sight at about 6:50), and at 7:14 again sighted them at a range of
about 15,000 yards.... We re-engaged at 7:17 and increased speed to
twenty-two knots. At 7:32 my course was S.W. speed eighteen knots, the
leading enemy battleship bearing N.W. by West.... At 7:45 P.M. we lost
sight of them.”
The two quotations I have made from Sir David Beatty’s despatch divide
themselves naturally in this way. The first deals with the plan he had
attempted to make possible and to share, the second describes his
course after that plan had proved abortive. Between them they make it
clear that Sir David kept an easterly course at full speed from six
o’clock till 6:25. He then turned a quarter of a right angle to the
south, that is, to his right, and held this course for twenty-five
minutes when, having lost sight of the enemy and, the Grand Fleet being
still three miles from him, he dropped his speed from say twenty-seven
or twenty-eight knots and awaited developments. As soon as he heard
that the Grand Fleet, after recovering from the first torpedo attack,
had turned south in pursuit of the Germans, he increased his speed by
four knots, hauled round to the southwest, found and re-engaged the
enemy at 7:14. By this time, as we have seen, the enemy’s whole line
would be following the leading ships on a southwesterly course, so that
Sir David Beatty’s movements between 6:0 and 7:14 were approximately
parallel to those of the enemy. He had been able to keep parallel by
availing himself of his ten or eleven knots’ superiority between 6:0
and 6:50 and by his four or five knots’ superiority between 7:0 and
7:14.
On hearing that at last he was to be supported, Sir David Beatty raised
his battle-cruiser speed to twenty-two knots and made a last effort to
get in touch with the retiring enemy. He soon found and engaged him at
a range of 15,000 yards and contact coincided with a sudden improvement
in the seeing conditions. Four ships only, two battle-cruisers and two
battleships, evidently the van of the enemy’s line, were visible, and
these were at once brought under a hot fire, which caused the enemy to
resort to smoke-screen protection, and, under cover of this he turned
away to the west. At 7:45 the mist came down again and the enemy was
lost to sight. The First and Third Light Cruiser Squadrons were then
spread out. They swept to the westward and located the head of the
enemy’s line again, and at 8:20 the battle-cruisers--whose course had
been southwest up to now--changed course to west and got into action
apparently with the same four ships as before, at the short range of
10,000 yards. The leading ship soon turned away emitting high flames
and with a heavy list to port. She had been brought under the fire
of _Lion_. _Princess Royal_ set fire to one of the two battleships.
_Indomitable_ and _New Zealand_ engaged a third and sent her out of the
line, heeling over and burning also. Then the mist came down once more
and the enemy was last seen by _Falmouth_ at twenty-two minutes to nine.
The Commander-in-Chief is far less explicit as to the occasions on
which his ships got into action. The action between the battle fleets,
he said, lasted intermittently from 6:17 to 8:20. At 6:17 we know that
Burney’s division got into action, and at 6:30 until some time up to
7:20 the other divisions also. But no details of any kind of encounters
later than that are mentioned. It is clear that after 6:50 the weather
made any continuous engaging quite impossible. There was a second
torpedo attack during the stern chase--and once more the enemy “opened
the range.”
THE NIGHT ACTIONS AND THE EVENTS OF JUNE 1
The form that the deployment actually took, and the fifteen minutes’
respite from attack won by the torpedo attack at 7:40 which enabled
Scheer to get his whole fleet on to a southeasterly from an easterly
course were, tactically speaking, the explanation of the German escape
on the 31st. It is more difficult to understand exactly why they were
not brought to action on the following day. Very little is actually
known of what happened in the course of the night, and the despatches
throw little light on it because, though many incidents are mentioned,
very few have any definite hour assigned to them. The facts, so far as
they can be gathered, are as follows:
The Grand Fleet seems to have lost sight of the Germans altogether
after 8:20 and Sir David Beatty’s scouts saw the last of their enemy at
8:38. The Vice-Admiral continued searching for forty minutes longer and
then fell back east and to the line which was the course of the Grand
Fleet when he was last in touch with it by wireless. Both fleets seem
to have proceeded some distance south and to have waited for the night
in the proximity of a point about equi-distant--eighty miles--from the
Horn Reef and Heligoland. One destroyer flotilla, the Thirteenth, and
one light cruiser squadron were retained with the capital ships for
their protection. The rest were disposed, as the Commander-in-Chief
says, “in a position in which they could afford protection to the
fleet and at the same time be favourably situated for attacking the
enemy’s heavy ships.” They must have been placed north of the British
forces. No British battle or battle-cruiser squadron was attacked
during the night, but the Second Light Cruiser Squadron, which was
disposed in the rear of the battle line, got into action at 10:20 with
five enemy cruisers, and at 11:30 _Birmingham_ sighted several heavy
ships steering south or west-southwest. The Thirteenth Flotilla, which
seems to have been associated with the Second Light Cruiser Squadron
astern of the battle fleet, reported a large vessel half an hour
after midnight, which opened fire on three of the flotilla, disabling
_Turbulent_. At 2:35 another, _Moresby_, sighted four pre-Dreadnoughts
and had a shot at them with a torpedo. We are not told the course they
were steering.
The destroyers sent out to attack the enemy got several opportunities
for using their torpedoes, three of which were probably successful,
and a fourth attack resulted in the blowing up of a ship. The despatch
does not say, however, whether the destroyers were able to keep in
wireless communication with the main fleet, whether any were instructed
to keep contact with the enemy and just hang on to him till daylight;
whether, in fact, either the Commander-in-Chief or Sir David Beatty had
any authentic information at daylight as to the enemy’s formation or
movements. _Champion’s_ encounter with four destroyers at 3:30 is the
only occurrence we hear of after daybreak, until the engagement of a
Zeppelin at 4:0 A.M. All we are told is to be gathered from these words
of Lord Jellicoe’s:
“At daylight, June 1, the Battle Fleet, being then to the southward
and westward of the Horn Reef, turned to the northward in search of
enemy vessels and for the purpose of collecting our own cruisers and
torpedo-boat destroyers.... The visibility early on June 1 (three to
four miles) was less than on May 31, and the torpedo-boat destroyers,
being out of visual touch, did not rejoin until 9 A.M. The British
Fleet remained in the proximity of the battlefield and near the line
of approach to German ports until 11 A.M. on June 1, in spite of the
disadvantage of long distances from fleet bases and the danger incurred
in waters adjacent to enemy coasts from submarines and torpedo craft.
_The enemy, however, made no sign_, and I was reluctantly compelled
to the conclusion that the High Sea Fleet had returned into port.
Subsequent events proved this assumption to have been correct. _Our
position must have been known to the enemy_, as at 4 A.M. the fleet
engaged a Zeppelin for about five minutes, during which time she had
ample time to note and subsequently report the position and course of
the British Fleet. The waters from the latitude of the Horn Reef to
the scene of the action were thoroughly searched.... A large amount
of wreckage was seen, but no enemy ships, and at 1:15 P.M., it being
evident that the German Fleet had succeeded in returning to port,
course was shaped for our bases, which were reached without further
incident on Friday, June 2.”
At this time of year and in this latitude, it will be daylight some
time before 3:30. The fleet, therefore, made for the scene of the
action at this hour--principally, it would seem, to pick up the
cruisers and destroyers--and remained in its proximity until 11 A.M.,
when the waters between the Battle Fleet and the Horn Reef were
searched. The Commander-in-Chief does not tell us of any search made
for the enemy at all. But from the fact that he had gone northward to
look for his own destroyers and cruisers, it is evident that, whatever
information he had got during the night, pointed to the probability
of the enemy having retreated from the battlefield not south or west,
but east and northwards. At 8:40 on the previous evening he was last
reported at a point 120 miles from the Horn Reef lightship, bearing
almost exactly northwest from it. It is highly probable that at least
ten of the German ships had been struck by torpedoes, in addition to
the one sunk. And though _Lützow_ was the only ship sunk by gunfire,
many others had suffered very severely. If the fleet’s maximum speed
before the action was eighteen knots, it is highly improbable that
after the action it exceeded fifteen. At fifteen knots it would have
taken the Germans eight hours to reach the Horn Reef lightship, had
they started for that point directly after contact with the British
main squadrons was lost. Having suffered so severely and escaped so
miraculously, it was not only obvious that Scheer’s one idea on June
1 would be to make the most of his luck and get safely home, it was
also to the last degree probable that he would shape a course for home
which would bring him soonest under the protection of whatever defences
the German coast could offer. He would not, that is to say, attempt to
regain Heligoland by trying to get round the British Fleet to the south
and west, and then turn sharply east to Heligoland; he would probably
try to creep down the Danish and Schleswig coasts, where wounded
ships might, if necessary, be beached, and the islands might supply
some form of refuge if the situation became desperate. It was on this
route also that the submarines sent out to cover the retreat could be
stationed. The best chance of bringing the Germans once more to action
on the morning of June 1 would then appear to have been a sweeping
movement towards the Horn Reef. The German fleet could not possibly
have reached this point before half-past four, and probably not before
half-past six. The fast, light forces and the battle-cruisers could
have got across to the Schleswig coast in two and a half hours and the
battleships before seven o’clock.
If the despatch tells us all that was done, one is rather driven to
the conclusion that the Commander-in-Chief assumed that it was not our
business, but the Germans’ business, to resume the action. Why else
should he say that “the enemy made no sign”? or exult in the fact that
he knew from his Zeppelin at four o’clock where the British fleet was
if he liked to look for it? Why should the enemy make a sign? Was it
not obvious after the events of the preceding day that he could have
but one idea and that was safety? Scheer and Von Hipper had certainly
done enough for honour. They had inflicted heavier losses than they had
suffered. If they could get home they had anything but a discreditable
story to tell. If the Commander-in-Chief really thought it was not his
first duty to find and bring the enemy to action again; if the risk
of approaching the Jutland coast seemed too great; if the frustration
of any ulterior object the enemy might have contemplated the day
before seemed cheaply purchased by the losses the Battle Cruiser Fleet
had suffered, so long as our main strength at sea was not impaired,
then the proceedings on June 1, as communicated to us, are perfectly
intelligible.
Yet there must have been many among his officers and under his command
who took a diametrically different view. After engaging for the last
time at 8:40 on the previous evening, Sir David Beatty says: “In view
of the gathering darkness, _and of the fact that our strategical
position was such as to make it appear certain that we should locate
the enemy at daylight under most favourable circumstances_, I did not
consider it desirable or proper to close the enemy battle fleet during
the dark hours. I therefore concluded that I should be carrying out
your wishes by turning to the course of the fleet, reporting to you
that I had done so.”
On the events of June 1 Sir David Beatty’s despatch is silent, but it
is obvious that it was not his opinion overnight that the morrow should
be spent in waiting for the enemy to give a sign, but that, on the
contrary, it was certain that he could and should be found and brought
to action.