Battle of Jutland

January 1916

The British Grand FleetThe German High Seas Fleet gets a

new commander (Admiral Scheer)No major sea battles before 1916.

Scheer’s plan was to send a small number of ships into the North Sea to act as bait.

The rest of the German navy would follow 80 km behind. (Trap)

The German Plan was going to fail before it started.

The British had the German radio code book. (1914)

The British picked up the radio code and was onto the German plan.

Admiral Beatty took a small group of boats out to meet (German admiral) Hipper.

Hipper (German) sank 2 British boats, then followed the rest of the ships.

The rest of the Grand Fleet was headed straight at him.

The two great Fleets ran into each other off the coast of Jutland.

A massive battle took place, explosive shells ripped thick amour plating as if it was tin.

That night the German Fleet turned for home and so did the British.

The British lost 6077 men, 14 ships.The Germans lost 2551 men, 11 ships.Germans Fled 1st and stayed home for the

rest of the war.

German Submarines called U-Boats started a battle with Allied ships.

The Germans announced the seas around England was a “war zone” in which they would sink ANY boat without warning.

May 7th 1915 the British liner Lusitania. The liner was sailing from New York to Liverpool.

The Germans gave public warning that the liner would be sunk as it was carrying arms to Britain.

13 km off the coast of Ireland U-Boat 20 finds the Lusitania through a periscope.

2 torpedoes later the Lusitania was sunk, along with 1100 people.

By the end of 1916 U-Boats had sunk 2.4 million tones of merchant shipping.

The British did everything they could to stop the U-Boats.

They used mines, anchored to the sea-bed so they would float under the waves.

The Germans tried to clear the mine fields with minesweepers.

A stalemate at sea is developing.