Jutland Centenary 2016

[MichaelBully]

Just been directed to this link here.

http://www.orcadian.co.uk/2015/10/orkney-to-host-battle-of-jutland-centenary-commemoration-events/

A little surprised that Orkney will be the centre of events. Pleased that the north of Scotland is getting attention but the location and lack of places to stay would mean that less people can attend. There is also the commemoration of the HMS Hampshire sinking a few days later by the Kitchener Memorial Project who are doing some excellent work in the Orkney Isles .

Orkney to host Battle of Jutland centenary commemoration events

Tuesday, October 13, 2015, at 2:38pm

Orkney will be at the centre of events to commemorate the largest and most significant naval battle of the First World War.

The Battle of Jutland brought together the two most powerful naval powers of the time — the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet — in the most pivotal naval engagement of the war.

The battle, which raged between May 31 and June 1, 1916, involved 250 ships and claimed the lives of 6,000 British and 2,500 German personnel.

Next year, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, nationwide events are being held to honour those on both sides who lost their lives.

In Orkney this will include a service at St Magnus Cathedral, and a commemorative event at the Royal Navy Cemetery at Lyness, Hoy, on May 31.

According to the UK Government’s culture secretary John Whittingdale, who announced the plans today, the impact that the battle had on Orkney and the role the islands played in hosting the Grand Fleet throughout the war will also be recognised.

He said: “These commemorations will be an opportunity for the country to come together to honour those who lost their lives during the Battle of Jutland.

“The pivotal role that the Royal Navy played in the war effort cannot be underestimated and we owe a great to debt to those brave souls who gave their lives.

“But behind the scenes of conflict there are also the contribution of Scotland and the people of Orkney who supported the war effort — we must remember their sacrifice too and ensure their stories are told for generations to come.”

[Theletterwriter]

I would have thought Rosyth should also have been included in any commemorations.

Douglas

[MichaelBully]

Agreed. I would add that 'The Orcadian' obviously highlights what is going on in their region and they state that their area is 'the centre'.....implying that other events could be going on to commemorate Jutland.

Hopefully this post could be added to when details of other events emerge.

Regards

I would have thought Rosyth should also have been included in any commemorations.

Douglas

[MichaelBully]

Greetings have read from a post in a related thread on navy-net.co.uk that the National Museum of the Royal Navy will be in fact having a commemorative exhibition for the Jutland Centenary opening in May 2016.

I am trying to find out more and will post once I have the details.

Regards

Michael Bully

EDIT - just checked out the National Museum of the Royal Navy website - there is now an announcement about Jutland exhibition

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) is excited to announce its major contributions to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Jutland for 2016, highlighting the pivotal role played by the Royal Navy.

This follows the Government’s plans to mark the milestone which were released earlier this week.

Commemorative events for Jutland 2016 start in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with the formal opening, on May 24th, of a blockbuster exhibition “36 hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle That Won The War.” As well as being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring together material from across the UK and Germany, the exhibition is linked to the other significant NMRN launch in 2016, namely the opening of HMS Caroline in Belfast.

HMS Caroline is the last survivor of the battle and following the receipt of the largest Heritage Lottery Fund grant awarded in Northern Ireland, the ship is being transformed into a world class heritage visitor attraction in time for the national centenary commemorations of the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 2016.........

http://www.nmrn-portsmouth.org.uk/news

[seaJane]

As reported in the Navy News:

https://navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/13635

Lots of interesting things happening in exhibition terms (the 'rivet removed by surgeons from a wounded gunner' is from "my" collection).

sJ

[keithmroberts]

That looks special.

Keith

[MichaelBully]

There is also an announcement in 'Navy News' about the Jutland Exhibition. Certainly sounds impressive.

I think that the photo towards the end of the article is one of the best that I've ever seen regarding the Great War at Sea-titled The castles of steel of the 2nd Battle Squadron sail into action at Jutland .

https://navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/13635

[seaJane]

Hi Michael,

I wondered whether posting the same link in Ships and Navies was the right thing to do!

sJ

[Guest Captain Chris]

www.jutland1916.com

Hello everybody

Can I commend this website established by Nick Jellicoe, the Grandson of Admiral Jellicoe (JRJ as known to some). And to reassure, there are plans being formed for a commemorative event in the Forth over the weekend of 28-29 May, and a public announcement will follow. Why Orkney? Well the events of 31 May 2016 are not just about commemorating the Battle of Jutland, but the wider story of the Great War at Sea. And in this as all will recognise, Scapa Flow played a central role, and that is why some three years ago, the decision was made to place the UK National Event there.

[keithmroberts]

The link doesn't work for me.

Keith

[seaJane]

Nor for me, and I've tried several different extra punctuations and character inserts in case of a typo.

[MichaelBully]

Hello Chris - the link didn't work for me either !

Interested to learn where the decision to hold the main Jutland centenary was made three years ago. I don't think that it could have been well publicised ! Some of have been doing websearches for some ages to see what is going on, and only learnt of the decision with regard to the Orkney Isle because their local paper 'The Orcadian' announced the commemoration on their website .

Regards

www.jutland1916.com

Hello everybody

Can I commend this website established by Nick Jellicoe, the Grandson of Admiral Jellicoe (JRJ as known to some). And to reassure, there are plans being formed for a commemorative event in the Forth over the weekend of 28-29 May, and a public announcement will follow. Why Orkney? Well the events of 31 May 2016 are not just about commemorating the Battle of Jutland, but the wider story of the Great War at Sea. And in this as all will recognise, Scapa Flow played a central role, and that is why some three years ago, the decision was made to place the UK National Event there.

[MichaelBully]

Hmmm I don't know SJ, the 'Michael Bully' personae seems to have developed a scary hyper-real identity of its own . And appears on 'Ship and Navies' with a cunning disguise as 'Michael Bully 1' . Some sort of post-modern fracturing of identity is to blame.

On the other hand duplicating posts on different forums annoys some people but I think that there is enough of a different on-line audience to justify it sometimes !

Regards as always

Hi Michael,

I wondered whether posting the same link in Ships and Navies was the right thing to do!

sJ

[David_Underdown]

Odd clicking the link from here didn't work, but a search for Jutland 1916 found http://www.jutland1916.com/blog/latest-news/ which did work

[MichaelBully]

Thanks David- will explore this blog with much interest.

Odd clicking the link from here didn't work, but a search for Jutland 1916 found http://www.jutland1916.com/blog/latest-news/ which did work

[MichaelBully]

Thanks again to David above, the Jutland centenary website seems to have a lot of information. Following their links, learnt of a memorial park being planned in Denmark

http://www.jutlandbattlememorial.com/index_uk.aspx

Also that there is a Sea War Museum just opened : Their website is currently in Danish only but they are hoping to have web pages in English and German in a week's time.

http://www.seawarmuseum.dk/

[trajan]

Couple other pieces from the Gruniard - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/naval-veterans-families-invited-to-battle-of-jutland-ceremony

and

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/british-german-navies-mark-battle-jutland

I have long been familiar with the "Something wrong with our bloody ships" remark, and I was taught at an early age the story of Boy Cornwall, but I had never knew before that the losses in men were so disproportionate - 6,000 British and 2,500 German sailors.

Trajan

[MikB]

Couple other pieces from the Gruniard - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/naval-veterans-families-invited-to-battle-of-jutland-ceremony

and

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/british-german-navies-mark-battle-jutland

I have long been familiar with the "Something wrong with our bloody ships" remark, and I was taught at an early age the story of Boy Cornwall, but I had never knew before that the losses in men were so disproportionate - 6,000 British and 2,500 German sailors.

Trajan

Yes - the casualties in a massively-damaged ship never come close to those in a catastrophically-lost one.

[horatio2]

Interesting choice of title for the NMRN Jutland Exhibition: "36 hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle that Won the War" (my emphasis).

True? Any thoughts?

[KizmeRD]

Just as well the British didn't have to experience any similar large scale fleet actions during the conflict, otherwise who knows what the outcome of the war might have been!

Fortunately, the Royal Navy survived Jutland with sufficient assets in tact to retain command of the seas, however it was a costly 'win'.

Not so much 'something wrong with our bloody ships', but in my mind the disproportionate losses had a lot more to do with some poor decision making, weak communications, bad quality shells and unnecessarily dangerous ammunition handling practices.

Michael

[Medaler]

Interesting choice of title for the NMRN Jutland Exhibition: "36 hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle that Won the War" (my emphasis).

True? Any thoughts?

Can't have been the battle that won the war, there were no Americans in it.

[michaeldr]

"36 hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle that Won the War" (my emphasis).

True? Any thoughts?

A fascinating question, H2

Jellicoe was 'the only man who could lose the war in an afternoon'

and looking at the score card of blood, then he lost Jutland - but after all, Germany then went on and lost the war.

Whilst Jutland may have been a battle lost, that day's victorious German navy nevertheless gave up their challenge for the seas. The naval blockade was never weakened, and in the end Germany was brought to her knees (or, if you prefer, the negotiating table). She tried in vain to counter-blockade with her U-boats, but without any effective answer to the convoy system, once it was introduced.

By 1918 the German state could no longer feed its people, nor their war machine, and only then, in the summer of 1918, did the allies begin to make any significant progress on the ground;

they ended 1918 not far from Mons, a name familiar from four years earlier.

“That Navy was to win no Trafalgar, but it was to do more than any other factor towards winning the war for the allies. For the Navy was the instrument of the blockade, and as the fog of war disperses in the clearer light of these post war years that blockade is seen to assume larger and larger proportions, to be more clearly the decisive agency in the struggle. … … … … … … … … …

The Western Front, the Balkan front, the tank, the blockade and propaganda have all been claimed as the cause of victory. All claims are justified, none is wholly right, although the blockade ranks first and began first.”

B H L H

Then perhaps in a round about way, it was the battle that won the war?

Best regards

Michael

[bill24chev]

Can't have been the battle that won the war, there were no Americans in it.

An American journalist said

"the German High Seas fleet as assaulted its Gaoler and given it a bloody Nose. But it is still in Gaol"

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/british-german-navies-mark-battle-jutland

I have long been familiar with the "Something wrong with our bloody ships" remark, and I was taught at an early age the story of Boy Cornwall, but I had never knew before that the losses in men were so disproportionate - 6,000 British and 2,500 German sailors.

Trajan

Yes, but the German battle Cruisers especially suffered may injured including severe burns and probably loss of limbs. RN injured were, I believe, relatively few mostly in the 5th Battle Sqn. Battleships, the survivors of HMS Warrior. HMS Southampton and the Destroyers.Bringing their injured home would have had a bad effect on their shipmates and had an effect on morale in the High Seas Fleet.

There was much rejoicing in the German press but Sheer was aware that he was lucky in that the main battle took place in the last hour or so of daylight and he was able to escape in the Darkness.

bill

[horatio2]

To do justice to a VC winner, his name was Jack CORNWELL, not CORNWALL.

[KizmeRD]

The key statistic from Jutland was that the day after the battle, the British had 23 Dreadnoughts ready to fight (if required) whilst the Germans only had 10 Dreadnoughts capable of doing so.

Both Beatty and Jellicoe made much of the weaker armour protection fitted to RN warships, however, although three British battlecruisers were sunk, none of them were destroyed by shells penetrating the belt armour and detonating the magazines; instead, each was penetrated through a turret roof and had their magazines ignited by flash fires accessing open shell-handling rooms. If safer ammunition handling practices had been adopted, then British losses would have been considerably lighter.

And furthermore, if British shells had been better fit for purpose, there would have been a good half-dozen more German ships sunk that day (instead of the Lyddite explosive denonating prematurely before actually penetrating German armour).

Other weaknesses exposed by Jutland include, poor disemination of intelligence, weak communication practices, questionable handling of the Battlecruisers, the disadvantages of Bracket firing v. Ladder firing, and inability of the British Fleet to conduct effective night actions.

Michael