Battle of Jutland Prelude The Battle of Jutland was fought on May 31 - June 1, 1916, in the North Sea near Jutland (a mainland north of Denmark). The battle itself was between Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer commander of the High Seas Fleet of the Kaiserliche Marine (part of German Fleet), and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe commander of the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy. The overall goal of the German fleet was to trap and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet due to insufficient numbers to engage the entire fleet at one time. Keep in mind this was part of a larger strategy to break the British naval blockade so they may once again allow German merchant ships to operate again in the North Sea. On the other hand the Royal navy focused to destroy the High seas fleet or keep the German force bottled up and away from British shipping lines. Setting The Battle took place in the Northern coast of continental Europe in between the southern flanks of Norway and Sweden and north of Denmark. Most of the battle occurred during the night, in the middle of the North Sea where 250 ships attended the battle. Forces, Commanders and Strategy Each fleet had two main Admirals, Admiral Franz Hipper and Reinhard Scheer led the High Seas Fleet, and Admiral David Beatty and John Jellicoe led the Royal Navy. The Royal battle force had a strength of twenty eight battle ships, nine battle cruisers, eight armored cruisers, twenty six light cruisers, seventy eight destroyers, a minelayer and a sea plane carrier (151 ships in total). The High Seas battle force had sixteen battleships , five battle cruisers, six dreadnaughts, eleven light cruisers, and sixty one torpedo boats (99 ships in total). The German strategy was to divide and conquer: by staging raids into the North Sea and bombarding the English coast, they hoped to lure out small British squadrons and pickets which could then be attacked and destroyed by superior forces or submarines. What they intended was to send out submarines of the British Naval Port, then send out a fast battle cruiser force to attack the British coast, if all went well the British response to the attacking force would be weakened by the submarine ambush and hoped the British destroyers would be incapable to operate for anti-submarine operations. Not knowing the Germans' objective, The Royal Fleet positioned themselves to cut any
While the naval war is usually known for only little attention in histories of World War I, the Royal Navy's blockade of Germany played a dangerous role in the War. The U.S. Navy linking with the Royal Navy played a significant role in overcoming the German U-boats in the North Atlantic. The Germany Navy while technically effective disastrously diminished the German war effort. Germany's building of a High Seas Fleet was one of the causes that public view on Britain turned against Germany and that Britain come unto the War. Yet, the small U-boat fleet, showed a key competition to the British. In the early war, U-boats drowned three British cruisers, shocking the people of both England and Germany. The U-boat campaign was a major reason that public opinion in America turned against Germany and that America entered the War. Despite the huge investment, the German Navy accomplished nothing in return to counter balance the cost for Germany.
The battle started when the British sixth air born division went in at ten minutes after midnight. They were the first troops to go into action. The second attack was by the eighty second in the one hundred and first division of air born attacks. They were less successful than the first division.
It was military plan for outlined to tackle with a threats of Russia and France if Russia declared war on Germany. Germany had fear because France was militarily stronger at that time. First, Germany would set up a defensive line of military on the Russia and German border to secure their eastern side. This plan involved German troops entering France through its more lightly defended northern borders—but most would instead invade via the small nations of Belgium, Luxemburg, and Netherlands. The plan was strategically important to play a defensive role in the
The British were outnumbered 900 fighters to 640 fighters plus the Germans had an additional 1,300 bombers. With these statistics, the Luftwaffe thought that they would have a very easy time defeating the Royal Air Force. Even though the British were outnumbered, they had a few advantages that the Luftwaffe was unaware of. First, they develope...
During the Interwar period between WWI and WWII Britain and US took separate paths to prepare their navies for future conflicts. The British were complacent and the US was keen to prepare. Initial causes came from how the two countries evaluated the threat after World War One. Great Britain saw no single nation’s navy as their rival in contrast to the United States who assessed that Japan would be their foe in the next war. At the end of WWI Germany had scuttled its active ships. The Treaty of Versailles had further restricted Germany’s ability to build more ships and man them to such an extent the characterization at the time was that Germany had been destroyed as a sea power. British Naval planners saw the threat posed by the Germany Navy to be relegated to a coastal defense navy, which would not be able to challenge the supremacy of British Navy on the high seas. The Treaty of Versailles and later the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 gave Great Britai...
... ships in the British Navy. The only good thing that came out of this battle was that Captain John Hazard was cashiered for not entering the fight with his ship the USS Providence and command of that ship was given to John Paul Jones, the soon to be most successful rebel navy officer in the fight for America’s independence.
The two colonies that was in the war was Great Britain, and The US Colonies. (“The Battle of Long Island Brooklyn Heights”). About 9,000 of the British troops were german mercenaries called Hessians.(“American Revolution”). The Americans were under the command of General Washington. The primary commander for the British was General William Howe. (“American Revolution”).
...I without much resistance from the German Army. The German army was reduced to reactionary action after this battle and was unable to go on the offensive for the rest of the Second World War.
The Battle of Britain started on July 10, 1940 after German air forces flew over Britain, dropping bombs and clashing with opposing British air forces. It is described as one of the main turning points in the war, due to the fact that it caused the Germans to come to a realization that
World War 2 was a large scale war around the war that lasted 6 years. The war was devastating on all the countries involved on both sides. There was a considerable amount of death in WW2 estimated at 15,000,000 battle related deaths. There were many different battles in WW2 but today I will be report on one of the greater battles close to the end of the war. This battle is known as the Battle of the Bulge.The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16th, 1944. It started with Hitler ordering a large surprise attack on the Western Allies using his 3 armies. The Germans came out of the dense woods of the Ardennes forest in Belgium. Towards the beginning of the battle the Germans were winning due to the nature of the surprise attack and their experience level. The damage they caused was so great they created a “bulge” of sorts in the Allied front, hence the name of the battle. But we later will see the Germans progress in the beginning of the battle will be short lived.
The people of Great Britain were bracing themselves for attack. The Royal Air Force had lost about one thousand airplanes fighting in Norway and France, leaving them with only 470 aircraft in early June 1940. By the time the Battle of Britain began in July, the Royal Air Force was equipped with about 650 aircraft and had 1253 pilots, many of which had very little training. This was opposed to the Luftwaffe’s 2075 aircraft and pilots who had experienced war before. These numbers are one reason the British pilots were often referred to as “The Few”. (Franks 11-13)
The Germans took an unrealistic approach in the decision making process for the battle. During the debate in the German High Command about what to do in the summer of 1943, two options were introduced. The realistic option, which was supported by the best German field commanders and many soldiers, was to compensate for the large Russian numerical advantage by fully utilizing the superiority of the German commander and soldiers in tactics, command and fighting, by a strategy of dynamic mobile defense that would cause great losses to the Russians in a series of local clashes. This would delay the Russians and was a realistic goal as it was easily achievable. However, Adolf Hitler wanted to follow the enthusiast-optimistic option of having a major decisive battle against a large portion of the Russian armour in order to destroy them. He thought that the best suited place for such a battle was the Kursk salient, where the Russians had already established battle grounds. In fact, aerial photos taken by German airplanes clearly revealed that the Russians had already built dense and deep fortifications at the Kursk salient in order to counter an attack. Also, it was evident that many Russian tanks were moved deeper behind the front line. Finally, the Blitzkrieg tactic that was often used by the Germans would have to be changed.
More important, the Allies needed to come up with an effective strategy. Organizing their cargo ships into convoys, or groups for mutual protection was the Allies plan of action. Air patrols helped protect convoys by covering much of their routes (Pitt 129). This strategy caused problems because with all the ships in a convoy, the U-boats could sink them much easier and more at a time. “Wolf Packs,” a group of U-boats which was the new strategy that Hitler developed to help in the attack of the Allies convoy. With this tactic the Germans would attack the Allied ships in different directions using se...
Next occurred what Louis D. Rubin Jr., who wrote the article “The Continuing Argument over Jutland” in 2001, described as one of “the most controversial episodes of a battle studded with controversial episodes.” Evan-Thomas and his dreadnoughts, which had been headed south following Beatty, failed to turn all at once and follow the battle cruisers northward. Although he apparently had not received the signal to do so until three minutes after they had passed, Rubin explains that Evan-Thomas should have, on his own intuition and initiative, proceeded to fall behind Beatty’s battle cruisers. Further stipulation was made as to whether or not this turn should have been made simultaneously or one ship after another. But to counter Rubin’s opinion...
“The Battle of the Bulge, fought over the winter months of 1944 – 1945, was the last major Nazi offensive against the Allies in World War Two. The battle was a last ditch attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in two in their drive towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply themselves” (Trueman).