New Britain herald., 1916-07-07

mark
 In these words Vice Admiral Sir
 John R. Jellicoe, commander-in-chief
 of the home feets opens his report
 to the admiralty on the battle over
 which there has been so much discus
 sion Continuing, Admiral Jellicoe
 says:
 The ships of the grand fleet, in
 pursuance of the general policy of ! periodical sweeps through the North l sea, had left their base on the previ- | ous day, in accordance with instruc- 1 tions issued by me.
 | Tn the early afternoon of Wednes- ! day, 31st of May, the first and second i battle cruiser squadrons, tho first, sec i ond and third light cruiser squadrons | and destroyers from the first, ninth, | tenth and thirteenth fotillas, sup i ported by the fifth battle squadron
 were in accordance with my direc- i tionS, scouting to the sOuthward of i the battle fleet, which was accom- 1 panied by the third battle cruiser 1 squadron, the first and second cruiser i squadrons, the fourth light cruiser ] squadron and the fourth, eleventh and ] twelfth fCtillas.
 Junction Delayed.
 The junction of the battle fleet l with the scouting force after the | enemy had been sighted was delayed,
 owing to the southerly course steered 1 by our advanced force during the first l hour after commencing their action
 with the enemy battle cruisers. This
 of course, was unavoidable, as had 1 our battle cruisers not followed the 1 enemy to tho southward the main l fleets would never have been in con- ] tact.
 "The battle cruiser fleet, gallantly | led by Vice Admiral Beatty and ad- mirably supported by the ships of the fifth battle squadron, under Rear Ad- l miral E1van-Th omas, fought the ac- ton under, at times, disadvantageou
 conditions, especially in regard to light, In manner that was in keep ing with the best traditions of the
 service.''
 Names of Ships Held.
 Without maps and charts many of the details of the report cannot be
 made clear It states that "the list of ships and commanding officers
 which took part in the action has been withheld from publication for
 the present, in accordance with the
 usual practice,' which also detracts
 from the interest of the document. Admiral Jellicoe estimates the Ger man losses at two battleships of the dreadn ought type, one of the Deutsch- land type, which was seen to sink; the battle cruiser Lutzow, admitted by the Germans; one battle cruiser, seen tc 1a ma
 was extremely doubtful; five light cruisers, seen to sink-one of them possibly a battleship; six destrOyers, seen to sink, three destroyers so damaged that it was doubtful if they would be able to reach port, and submarine sunk. Tn concluding, Ad- miral Jellicoe says:
 'Tow Visibility'' "The conditions of low visibility un- der which the day action took place and the approach of darkness en- hanced the difficulty of giving an ac- curate report of the damage inflicted
 or the name of the ships sunk by our forces. But, after a most careful ex- animation of the evidence of all the officers, who testified to seeing anemy
 vessels actually sink, and personal ir- terviews with a large number of these officers I am of the opinion that the list shown in the inclosure gives the
 minimum numbers, though it is pos- sible it is not accurate as regards the particular class of vessel, especially those which were sunk during the night attack. Tn addition to the ves- sells sunk it is unquestonable that
 many other ships were very seriously 1 damaged by gunffre and torpedo at- tack.
 Germans Were Gallant. 'I deeply regret to report the loss 1 of his majestys ships Queen Mary, | Indefatigable, Invincible, Defence, | Black Prince, Warrior, Tipperary, Ar 1 dent, Fortune, Shark, Sparrow Hawk,
 Nestor, Nomad and Turbulent. Still more do I regret the resultant heavy i loss of life. The death of such gall
 lant and distinguished officers as Ar buthnot, Hood, Captain Sowerby, 1 Captain ProWse, Captain Cay, Captain 1 Bonham, Captain Charles J. Win l tour and Captain Stanley B. Ellis, and those who perished with them, is a l serious loss to the navy and to the l country. They led officers and men 1 who were equally gallant and whose l death is mourned by their comrades 1 in the grand fleet. They fell doing 1 their duty nobly-a death which they would have been first to desire. l The enemy fought with the gal l lantry that was expected of him. We l particularly admired the conduct O.
 those on board a disabled German 1 light cruiser which passed down the
 British line shortly after deployment
 under heavy fire, which was re- turned by the only gun left in action. ] The conduct of the officers and men
 was entirely beyond praise"
 The hardest fighting fell to the 'oat-
 tie cruiser fleet, says Admiral Jellicoe, 1 the unitS of which were less heavily