Product Description

At the end of May 1916, a chance encounter with Admiral Hipper's battlecruisers has enabled Beatty to lead the German Battle Fleet into the jaws of Jellicoe's greatly superior force, but darkness had allowed Admiral Scheer to extricate his ships from a potentially disastrous situation. Though inconclusive, at the Battle of Jutland the German Fleet suffered so much damage that it made no further attempt to challenge the Grand Fleet, and the British blockade remained unbroken. Captain Bennett has used sources previously unavailable to historians in his reconstruction of this controversial battle, including the papers of Vice-Admiral Harper explaining why his official record of the battle was not published until 1927, and the secret "Naval Staff Appreciation" of 1922 whose criticism were so scathing that it was never issued to the Fleet. Also included are numerous battle plans, photographs and an introduction by Bennett's son.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #702394 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

Not just another account of this famous indecisive battle.
When this book first arrived, my first thoughts were; "Oh not another book about Jutland!" Then I saw the name of the author and I became immediately optimistic. I was not to be disappointed.

Geoffrey Bennett was a distinguished naval historian who had previously served in the Royal Navy for 35 years. From that background he was able to bring an understanding of naval matters to his work which is rarely found elsewhere. I have yet to be disappointed with anything written by this author.

Indecisive encounters are just like any other contentious subject be it war or even football. For example, few Germans would agree that "that" goal scored by Geoff Hurst in 1966 actually went over the line. On the other side of the coin, few Englishmen would disagree that it was a perfectly good goal.

It is the same with the Battle of Jutland. If we add up the combined tonnages of all ships lost, damaged and put out of action, then Germany won on points. If, on the other hand, we argue that the objective was to damage the German High Sea Fleet to such an extent that it would never challenge the Royal Navy again, then, we "could" easily suggest the result went in favour of the British Grand Fleet because German sea power remained confined thereafter.

Because neither side scored a decisive victory, there is little point in holding a view about who may or may not have won and we can all speculate (or is it day-dream?) about what might have happened if only... More importantly, what sets this work apart from others on the same subject are the sources tapped by Geoffrey Bennett which were previously unknown prior to the first publication of this book. Research is the key to works of this nature and Geoffrey Bennett was both meticulous and knowledgeable when it came to conducting his own.

Previously published in 1964 and again in 1972, there has been a lot of accurate and inaccurate books published about the Battle of Jutland in the ensuing years. Perhaps it is time to get back to some basic facts which are well presented and equally well written-up for the reader to enjoy. In this way, we can look at all those contentious issues afresh.

NM

A quite excellent study of this important naval battle
Geoffrey Bennnett has marshalled all the facts of this still contraversial naval encounter brilliantly and written them up with unusual clarity. It is clearly the definitive study of the event and should not be missed by anyone with any interest in naval history.