Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-09
admiral Jellicoe Reveals
Facts about JutLmrd Fight

LORD Jellicoe in his book, ''The Grand
| Fleet, 1014-16," explains many thing:
concerning the historic battle of Jut-
land, heretofore the subject of much
general comment.
Experts and those who imagine them
selves expert have analysed the fight
some with a view to showing that he
might have achieved more by different
dispositions and altered tactics; others
in the endeavor to prove that the Ger
man fleet might have been destroyed
had the action been continued 1t can
at least be said that the account of the
battle here embodies all the reasons
which guided the commander in chief
in the handling of his forces and that
they are certainly, to the lay mind, SUI
ficiently impressive.
His comparison of the two fleets al
the time of the battle of Jutland con :
tains some items which will rather jar
upon the customary complacency oi
Great Britain's conception OF her royal
navy. With regard to battleships, he
observes that the German ships OF any
particular period were of considerably
greater displacement as compared to
contemporary British ships. They had
far greater weight of armor and better
deck protection, while they carried a
greater number of submerged torpedo
tubes than the British vessels. Similar
arguments held good with reference to
battle cruisers. AS against the addi-
tional protection of the Germans the
English vessels were provided with
heavier turret guns, while the German
fleet carried heavier second armaments.
Moreover, the Germans had the advan-
tagc of possessing n delay action fuse.
which, combined with highly efficient
armor piercing projectile, insured the
burst of the shell taking place inside the
British armor instead of outside or
while passing through, which was the
case with British shells of that date
fired against German armor. In the
matter of the vulnerability of the ships
of the two navies in regard to under
water attack, the Germans possessed a
very real advantage which stood them
in good stead throughout the war. The
German ships were provided WITH in
ternal protection against torpedOes
throughout the entire length of the ves-
sci, while British ships had only par
tial protection. Furthermore, the Ger
man ships were of much greater beam,
and it was possible to place the pro-
tective bulkhcad farther 'inbOard' in
the German ships without cramping ma
chinery and magazines. Admiral Jelli-
coe says of these disadvantages
1.-The result was that, although it
is known that many German capital
ships were mined and torpedoed dur
ing the war, including several at the
Jutland battle, the Germans have not
SO far admitted that any were sunk,
except the pre- -dreadnOught battle
ship Pommern and the battle cruiser
Lutzow, whose injuries from shell fire
were also very extensive.
ION the other hand, British capital
ships, mined or torpedoed, rarely sur
vived. The recorded instances of es-
cape are the Inf1exible (mined in the
and the Marlborough
(torpedoed at Jutland), and in the lat
ter case, although the torpedo struck
nt about the most favorable spot for the
ship, she had some difficulty in reach
ing port.
'"The Aquestion will be asked why it
was that British ships were under this
The reply is that the
whole of our dreadnought battleships,
designed before the war, were hampered
by the absence of proper dock accommo-
dation. The German emperor once re-
marked to me at Kiel on this subject,
that we had made the mistake of build
ing our ships before we had proper dock
accommodation for them, whilst in Ger
many they had provided the dock ac-
first and had designed the
ships subsequently. He was quite right,
although, since docks took long time
to construct, the German policy involved
delay in shipbuilding. whereas we got
ships of a type, and hence our margin
of superiority in 1914. AS each sue
cessive type of dreadnought was de-
signed, our constructive staff were faced
with the fact that il they went beyond
a certain beam the number of docks
available would be insufficient; and it
was always a matter of great difficulty
to obtain money with which to construct
adequate docks. Docks make no ap~
peal to the imagination of the public and
cost a great deal of money. The re-
suit was that August, 1914, found
us with superiority in ships, but Woe
fully lacking in dock accommodation !;
and for this reason alone fleet action
early in the war, resulting in consid-
cradle damage to heavy ships, would
have produced embarrassing results