page_title: May 1916
section_title: May 31, 1916 (Wednesday)
hierarchical_section_title: May 1916 / May 31, 1916 (Wednesday)
caption_attribution_description: en:HMS Lion (1910)
context_page_description: The following events occurred in May 1916:
context_section_description: Battle of Jutland – The British Royal Navy Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy High Seas Fleet fought each other in the North Sea, the war's only large-scale clash of battleships. The first day of battle resulted in major losses for both sides, including:
  British battleship HMS Invincible, sunk by German battleships SMS Lützow and SMS Derfflinger, resulting in 1,026 deaths including Rear Admiral Horace Hood;
  British cruiser HMS Indefatigable, destroyed in the opening minutes of the battle by German cruiser SMS Von der Tann, killing all but two of her 1,019 crew, including Lieutenant-Commander John Skinner Wilson;
  British cruiser HMS Queen Mary, sunk by Derfflinger with the loss of 1,266 crew;
  British cruiser HMS Defence, hit by a German barrage that caused an explosion that destroyed the entire ship, with casualty accounts ranging from 893 to 903 casualties including ship commander Rear Admiral Robert Arbuthnot and British star rugby player and cricketer Cecil Abercrombie, who was serving on board as a naval officer;
  British cruiser HMS Black Prince was shelled and sunk with all 857 crew on board.
  British destroyer HMS Tipperary was shelled and sunk, with 150 of the 197 crew lost.
  British destroyer HMS Nomad was hit and sank with a loss of eight crew. The remaining 72 survivors were captured by the German navy. Accompanying destroyer HMS Nestor was also damaged, but time allowed the crew to abandon ship before it sank.
  British cruiser HMS Chester was struck 18 times by shells that ripped across the deck, sending shrapnel that killed 29 deck gunners and maimed another 49. One of the deck crew was 16-year old sight gunner Jack Cornwell who, while critically wounded, remained at his post even though the rest of his gun's crew was dead or dying around him. Cornwell survived several more days before succumbing to his injuries on June 2, and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
  British cruiser HMS Lion survived the battle thanks to Royal Marine officer Francis Harvey, who ordered one the main gun turrets hit by German fire to be flooded to prevent ammunition from exploding and setting off a chain of explosions that destroyed the other British ships. Harvey was mortally wounded and perished along with 99 other sailors (plus 51 wounded) during the battle. He was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.
  A Short Type 184 from the Royal Navy seaplane carrier Engadine achieved the only British aerial reconnaissance flight of the Battle of Jutland, reporting the sighting of three cruisers and ten destroyers of the German High Seas Fleet before a broken fuel pipe forced it to end the mission.
  An ambitious Franco-British offensive to land a decisive victory against Germany was reduced to a limited offensive to ease pressure of French forces at Verdun, in what became the strategic plan for the Battle of the Somme.
  The Italian air squadron 77a Squadriglia was established as the third of Italy's original fighter squadrons.
  The first version of the song "Calling Me Home to You" by Edward Teschemacher and Francis Dorel was recorded at Columbia Records with Alfred De Manby providing vocals.
  Born: Archduke Felix, Austrian noble, last surviving son of Charles I and a member of the House of Lorraine, in Vienna (d. 2011); Bert Haanstra, Dutch filmmaker, best known for his Oscar-winning short documentary Glass and film comedies including Fanfare and Turkish Delight in Holten, Netherlands (d. 1997); Joseph W. Kennedy, American chemist, co-discover of plutonium and member of the Manhattan Project, in Nacogdoches, Texas (d. 1957); Bernard Lewis, British-American historian, noted for his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire, author of Islam and the West, in London (d. 2018)
caption: HMS Lion burning after being hit by a salvo from SMS Lützow
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:03:30 19:21:29", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5347", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "737", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "377"}