Portal:Germany/Selected article/2007/August

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The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht) was the largest naval battle of World War I and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war. It was fought on 31 May–1 June 1916, in the North Sea near Jutland, the northward-pointing peninsular mainland of Denmark. The combatants were the Kaiserliche Marine’s (Germany's) High Seas Fleetand the Royal Navy’s British Grand Fleet. The intention of the German fleet was to lure out, trap and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, part of their larger strategy of breaking the British naval blockade of the North Sea and allowing German mercantile shipping to operate again. The Royal Navy, on the other hand, was pursuing a strategy seeking to engage and cripple the High Seas Fleet and keep the German force bottled up and away from their own shipping lanes.

Fourteen British and eleven German ships were sunk with great loss of life. Both sides claimed victory. The British had lost more ships and many more sailors, and the British press criticized the Grand Fleet's actions, but Scheer’s plan of destroying Beatty’s squadrons had also failed. The Germans never again contested control of the seas. Instead, the German Navy turned its efforts and resources to unrestricted submarine warfare. More...