Thursday, June 1

The Last Great Battleship Battle

HMS Edinburgh today. Sailors fire a Salute to the dead of 90 years ago
at the site of the Battle of Jutland
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"There’s something wrong with our bloody ships today, Charterfield". Rear Admiral (Later Earl) Beatty to his Flag Ship Captain - 31 May 1916.
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Today is the 90
th Anniversary of The Battle of Jutland, the Naval Battle in the North Sea during off the coast of Denmark during the First World War.
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The Imperial War Museum is holding an exhibition on HMS Belfast on the River Thames, while wreaths have been laid at the scene of the confrontation.
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The Germans lost one battle cruiser, one pre-Dreadnought, four light cruisers and five destroyers, while the British lost three battle cruisers, four armoured cruisers, and eight destroyers. However, many of the surviving German heavy ships had suffered serious damage, and one result of the battle was to increase the British dominance in heavy ships.
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Jutland was the last, and largest, of the great battleship battles. Neither submarines or aircraft played any part in the battle, despite the plans of both sides. Never again did battle fleets meet again in such numbers. While the Royal Navy suffered more loses, the battle effectively ended any threat from the German High Seas Fleet, which now knew it could not contest control of the North Sea with the Royal Navy.
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Today the Government announced moves to preserve the 14 British ships sunk in the Battle which which are the official graves of thousands of British sailors. A total of 8,648 British and German sailors lost their lives in one day's fighting on 31 May into 1 June 1916. The Battle has been described by historians as a draw.

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