Battle of Dogger Bank (1915)

Battle of Dogger Bank Part of the First World War Map of the North Sea, showing shallows and banks Date 24 January 1915 Location Dogger Bank, North Sea Result British victory Belligerents  United Kingdom  German Empire Commanders and leaders David Beatty Franz Hipper Strength 5 battlecruisers 7 light cruisers 35 destroyers[1] 3 battlecruisers 1 armoured cruiser 4 light cruisers 18 destroyers[1] 1 Zeppelin Casualties and losses 1 battlecruiser out of action 1 destroyer out of action 15 killed 32 wounded[2] 1 armoured cruiser sunk 1 battlecruiser heavily damaged 954 killed 80 wounded 189 captured[2]

The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval engagement on 24 January 1915, near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, during the First World War, between squadrons of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet.

The British had intercepted and decoded German wireless transmissions, gaining advance knowledge that a German raiding squadron was heading for Dogger Bank and ships of the Grand Fleet sailed to intercept the raiders. The British surprised the smaller and slower German squadron, which fled for home. During a stern chase lasting several hours, the British caught up with the Germans and engaged them with long-range gunfire. The British disabled Blücher, the rearmost German ship and the Germans put the British flagship HMS Lion out of action. Due to inadequate signalling, the remaining British ships stopped the pursuit to sink Blücher and when the ship had been sunk, the rest of the German squadron had escaped. The squadron returned to harbour, with some ships so badly damaged as to require extensive repairs.

Lion made it back to port but was also out of action for several months. The British had lost no ships and suffered few casualties, the Germans had lost Blücher and most of its crew and the action was considered a British victory. Both navies replaced commanders who were thought to have shown poor judgement and made changes to equipment and procedures, to remedy failings observed during the battle.

Background

Room 40

Before 1914, international communication was conducted via undersea cables, most under British control, laid along shipping lanes. Hours after the British ultimatum to Germany in August 1914, The British cut German cables and messages could only be passed by wireless, using ciphers to disguise their content. The Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine (SKM) was captured from the German Light cruiser SMS Magdeburg, after it ran aground in the Baltic on 26 August 1914.^[3] The German-Australian steamer Hobart was seized near Melbourne, Australia on 11 August and the ship's Handelsverkehrsbuch (HVB) codebook was captured, used by the German navy to communicate with merchant ships and within the High Seas Fleet; a copy of the book was sent to England by the fastest steamer, arriving at the end of October.^[4] During the Battle off Texel (17 October), the commander of the German destroyer SMS S119 threw overboard all secret papers in a lead lined chest as the ship was sinking. On 30 November, a British trawler dragged up the chest, which was passed on to Room 40, a copy of the Verkehrsbuch (VB) codebook, normally used by Flag officers of the Kaiserliche Marine being found inside.^[5]

The Director of the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver established a code breaking organisation to decipher German signals, using cryptographers from academic backgrounds, making use of the windfalls taken from the German ships. At first, the inexperience of the cryptanalysts in naval matters, led to errors in the understanding of the material and this lack of naval experience caused Oliver to make personal decisions about the information to be passed to other departments, many of which, particularly the Operations Department, had reservations about the value of Room 40. The transfer of an experienced naval officer, Commander W. W. Hope, remedied most of the deficiencies of the civilians' understanding but on 14 October, Oliver became Chief of the Naval War Staff and continued to treat Room 40 more as a fiefdom and a source for the informal group of officers around the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, which received decoded messages but had insufficient authority to use them to best advantage.^[6]

German ships had to report their position every night by wireless and listening posts built along the British east coast, took cross-bearings to find the positions of German ships, when they transmitted. The intelligence meant that the British did not need wasteful defensive standing patrols and sweeps of the North Sea, could economise on fuel and use the time for training and maintenance. The Admiralty uncovered the German order of battle and tracked the deployment of ships, which gave them an offensive advantage. The lack of a proper war staff at the Admiralty and poor liaison between Room 40, Oliver and the operations staff, meant that the advantage was poorly exploited in 1915 (It was not until 1917 that this was remedied.). When German ships sailed, information from Room 40 needed to be passed on quickly but Oliver found it hard to delegate and would not routinely supply all decrypts. Oliver's reticence meant that the Admiralty supplied commanders at sea only what the Admiralty thought they needed, risking information reaching the Grand Fleet late, being incomplete or mistakenly interpreted. When Jellicoe asked for a decryption section to take to sea, it was refused on security grounds.^[7]

German raid

With the German High Seas Fleet (HSF) confined to port after the British success at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1914, Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, the Commander-in-Chief of the German fleet planned a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on the east coast of England, with the I Scouting Group (Admiral Franz von Hipper) a battlecruiser squadron of three battlecruisers, a large armoured cruiser, supported by light cruisers and destroyers. Hipper opened fire at 08:00 on 16 December 1914, eventually killing 108 and wounding 525 civilians. British public and political opinion was outraged, that German warships could sail so close to the British coast, shelling coastal towns with impunity; British naval forces had failed to prevent the attacks and also failed to intercept the raiding squadron. The British fleet had sailed but the German ships escaped in stormy seas and low visibility, assisted by British communication failures.^[8][9] The Germans had made the first successful attack on Britain since 1667 and suffered no losses but Ingenohl was unjustly blamed for missing an opportunity to inflict a defeat on the Royal Navy, despite him creating the chance by his offensive-mindedness.^[10]

British counter-action

The British had let the raid occur and appeared to the public to have been surprised (having been forewarned by decoded wireless messages) and then had failed to sink the German raiding force on its way back to Germany. In 1921, the official historian Julian Corbett wrote,

Two of the most efficient and powerful British squadrons...knowing approximately what to expect...had failed to bring to action an enemy who was acting in close conformity with our appreciation and with whose advanced screen contact had been established.

— Strachan^[10]

The British had escaped potential disaster, because the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty) was unsupported by the 2nd Battle Squadron (Vice-Admiral Sir George Warrender), when it failed to make contact with the raiding force. The worst British failure was in the exploitation of the intelligence provided by the code breakers at Room 40 (Sir Alfred Ewing), that had given the British notice of the raid. Some intercepts decoded during the action had taken two hours to reach British commanders at sea, by when they were out of date or misleading. News of the sailing of the HSF was delivered so late, that the British commanders thought that the Germans were on the way, when they were returning. At sea, Beatty had sent ambiguous signals and some commanders had not used their initiative. On 30 December, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet, had ordered that when in contact with German ships, officers were to treat orders from those ignorant of local conditions as instructions only, not orders but he refused Admiralty suggestions to loosen ship formations, for fear of decentralising tactical command too far.^[11]

Prelude

German plan

Hipper suspected that the British had received advanced warning about earlier operations of the HSF, from spy ships mingling with British and Dutch fishing boats operating near the German Bight and the Dogger Bank, to observe German fleet movements. Hipper considered that with the Dogger Bank mid-way on the short route to the English coast, a signal from a trawler could reach the British in time for the British battlecruisers to intercept a German sortie, certainly on the return journey. Hipper ordered German ships vigorously to enforce search and seizure rules, bringing fishing boats into Cuxhaven to be searched. Buoyed by the success of the raid on the English coast, Admiral Hipper planned an attack for next month on the British fishing fleet on the Dogger Bank. The German fleet had increased in size since the outbreak of war, with the arrival in service of the König-class dreadnought battleships SMS König, Grosser Kurfürst, Markgraf and Kronprinz of the 3rd Battle Squadron and the Derfflinger-class battlecruiser Derfflinger.^[12]

Hipper intended to clear the bank of British fishing vessels and dubious neutrals, attack any small British warships in the area, with the HSF covering the withdrawal of the battlecruisers.^[13] The limited nature of the operation conformed to the ban by the Kaiser on operations by the High Seas Fleet, that had been reiterated on 10 January. A slightly more aggressive strategy was permitted, within the policy of keeping the HSF in being, in which the fleet could sortie to attempt to isolate and destroy advanced British forces or to attack the Grand Fleet is in greater strength. On 19 January, Beatty had reconnoitred the area west of the German Bight and been seen by a German aircraft. The reconnaissance and British activity at the Dogger Bank led Ingenohl to order Hipper and the I Scouting Group to survey the area and surprise and destroy any light forces found there. The I Scouting Group contained the battlecruisers Seydlitz (flagship), Moltke, Derfflinger and Blucher, four light cruisers and eighteen destroyers.^[14]

British plan

Transmissions from German ships in the Jade River on 23 January 1915 were intercepted and decoded by Room 40 alerted the British to a German sortie in force as far as the Dogger Bank. At the Admiralty, Wilson, Oliver and Churchill arranged a plan to confront the Germans with a greater force. A rendezvous was set for 24 January at 07:00 a.m., 30 nmi (56 km; 35 mi) north of the Dogger Bank and about 180 nmi (330 km; 210 mi) west of Heligoland.^[15] The battlecruisers were organised in the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (Beatty with the Lion (flagship), Tiger and Princess Royal. The new 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (Rear-Admiral Sir Archibald Moore, deputy to Beatty) had the New Zealand as flagship and Indomitable. Harwich Force (Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt) sailed from Harwich with three light cruisers and 35 destroyers, to rendezvous with the battlecruisers at 07:00 on 24 January. To cover the East Coast and act as distant support, the 3rd Cruiser Squadron and the seven pre-dreadnoughts of the 3rd Battle Squadron (Admiral Edward Eden Bradford) sailed from Rosyth for an area in the North Sea, from which they could cut off the German force if it moved north. The Grand Fleet left Scapa at 21:00 on 23 January, to sweep the southern North Sea but could not be expected to arrive on the scene until the afternoon on 24 January.^[15] Soon after the German force sailed, the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron (Commodore William Goodenough) and the battlecruisers departed Rosyth, heading south; at 07:05 on 24 January, a clear day with good visibility, encountered German screening vessels at the Dogger Bank.^[1]

Orders of battle

Royal Navy

1st Battlecruiser Squadron: HMS Lion, Tiger and Princess Royal^{[lower-alpha 1]}

2nd Battlecruiser Squadron: HMS New Zealand and Indomitable

1st Light Cruiser Squadron: HMS Southampton, Birmingham, Lowestoft and Nottingham

Harwich Force: three light cruisers (HMS Aurora, Arethusa, Undaunted) and 35 destroyers

Imperial German Navy

1st Scouting Group: SMS Seydlitz, Moltke, Derfflinger and Blücher^{[lower-alpha 2]}

2nd Scouting Group: SMS Kolberg, Stralsund, Rostock, and Graudenz

Two flotillas of 18 torpedo boats combined

Battle

24 January

Positions in the battle

Sighting the smoke from a large approaching force, Hipper headed south-east by 07:35 to escape but Beatty's ships were faster than the German squadron, which was held back by the slower armoured cruiser Blücher and the coal-fuelled torpedo boats. By 08:00, the German battlecruisers had been sighted from Beatty's flagship Lion but the older battlecruisers of the British 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron lagging behind the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron. Chasing the Germans from a position astern and to starboard, the British ships gradually caught up—some reaching speeds of 27 kn (50 km/h; 31 mph)—and closed to gun range.^[1] Beatty chose to approach from this direction so that the prevailing wind blew the British ships' smoke clear, allowing them a good view of the German ships, while German gunners were partially blinded by their funnel and gun smoke blowing towards the British ships. Lion opened fire at 08:52, at a range of 20,000 yd (18,000 m) and the other British ships commenced firing as they came within range, while the Germans were unable to reply until 09:11, because of the shorter range of their guns.^[16] No warships had engaged at such long ranges or at such high speeds before and accurate gunnery for both sides was an unprecedented challenge but after a few salvos, British shells straddled Blücher.^[17]

The British fire was concentrated on Hipper's flagship, the battlecruiser Seydlitz at the head of the line and Blücher at the rear. With five British ships against four German, Beatty intended that his two rear ships, New Zealand and Indomitable, should engage Blücher, while his leading three engaged their opposite numbers. Captain H. B. Pelly of the newly commissioned battlecruiser Tiger, assumed that two ships should concentrate on the leading German ship and engaged Seydlitz, leaving Moltke free to fire at Lion. Tiger's fire was ineffective, as she mistook the shell splashes from Lion for her own, when the fall of shot was 3,000 yd (2,700 m) beyond Seydlitz.^[18] At 09:43, Seydlitz was hit by a 13.5 in (340 mm) shell from Lion, which penetrated her after turret barbette and caused an ammunition fire in the working chamber. This fire spread rapidly through other compartments, igniting ready propellant charges all the way to the magazines and knocked out both rear turrets with the loss of 165 men.^[19][20] Only the prompt action of the executive officer in flooding the magazines, saved Seydlitz from a magazine explosion that would have destroyed the ship.^{[21][lower-alpha 3]}

German battlecruisers (L–R) Derfflinger, Moltke and Seydlitz en route to Dogger Bank.

The British ships were relatively unscathed until 10:18, when Derfflinger hit Lion with several 30.5 cm (12.0 in) shells, damaging her engines and causing flooding so that Lion lost speed and began to fall behind. At 10:41, Lion narrowly escaped a disaster similar to that on Seydlitz, when a German shell hit the forward turret and ignited a small ammunition fire but it was extinguished before causing a magazine explosion.^[23] A few minutes later, taking on water and listing to port, Lion had to stop her port engine and reduce speed to 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) and was soon out of action, having been hit 14 times.^[24] At 10:30, Blücher was hit by a shell from Princess Royal, which caused an ammunition fire and boiler room damage. Blücher had to reduce speed to 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) and fell further and further behind the rest of the German force.^[16] Beatty ordered Indomitable—his slowest ship—to intercept Blücher.^[25]

Hipper, with his ships running short of ammunition, chose to steam for home, leaving the disabled Blücher behind, to save his remaining ships.^[26] The annihilation of the German squadron appeared likely to the British until 10:54, when Beatty—believing he saw a submarine's periscope on Lion′s starboard bow—ordered a sharp, 90° turn to port, to avoid a submarine ambush. (It is possible that the "periscope" was actually a surfacing, run-out torpedo which had been launched 15 minutes earlier by the German destroyer V5). At 11:02, realising that so sharp a turn would open the range too much, Beatty ordered "Course NE" to limit the turn to 45° and then added "Engage the enemy′s rear", to clarify his intent that the other ships, which had now left Lion far behind, should pursue Hipper′s main force. With Lion′s electric generators out of action, Beatty could only signal using flag hoists and both signals were flown at the same time.^[27]

The combination of the signal "Course NE"—which happened to be the direction of Blücher—and the signal to engage the rear was misunderstood by Beatty’s second-in-command, Rear-Admiral Gordon Moore on New Zealand, as an order for all the battlecruisers to finish off Blücher. The British battlecruisers broke off the pursuit of the German squadron and attacked Blücher, with most of the British light cruisers and destroyers joining in. Beatty tried to correct this obvious misunderstanding by using the order from Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar "Engage the enemy more closely" but this order was not in the signal book and Beatty chose "Keep nearer to the enemy" as the closest equivalent. By the time this signal was hoisted, Moore′s ships were too far away to read Beatty′s flags and the correction was not received.^[28]

The sinking SMS Blücher rolls over onto her side

Despite the overwhelming odds, Blücher put the British destroyer HMS Meteor out of action and scored two hits on the British battlecruisers with its 21 cm (8.3 in) guns. Blücher was hit by about 70 shells and wrecked. When struck by two torpedoes from the light cruiser Arethusa, Blücher capsized at 54 25' N. Lat., 5 25' E. Long and sank at 13:13, with the loss of 792 crew.^[29][2] British ships began to rescue survivors but were interrupted by the arrival of the zeppelin L-5 (LZ-28) and by a German seaplane, which attacked with small bombs. No damage was done but the British ships put on speed and withdrew to avoid further aerial attack, leaving some of the survivors behind.^[30] By this time, the rest of the German ships were too far away for the British to catch up.^[31]

Lion made 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph), at the beginning of the 300 nmi (560 km; 350 mi) return voyage, escorted by Indomitable. Beatty contemplated leaving a flotilla of destroyers to guard Lion and sending the rest to the German Bight, to make a night attack on the German ships but the damage to Lion caused more problems. As it crept home, the ship suffered further engine-trouble from salt water contamination in the boiler-feed-water system and its speed dropped to 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). Lion was taken in tow by Indomitable, an operation which took two hours, in which the battlecruisers were exceedingly vulnerable to submarine attacks. At 17:00, the voyage resumed, the ships eventually managing 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) and when the Grand Fleet arrived, Jellicoe increased the screen to thirteen light cruisers and 67 destroyers. A message from the Admiralty arrived that the Germans were planning a night destroyer attack but that the destroyers with the two scouting groups were low on fuel and those with the HSF were too far away.^[32]

25 January

Lion and Indomitable slowed to 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) overnight when Lion had more engine-trouble and at dawn were still 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) short of the Firth of Forth. The destroyers reformed into an anti-submarine screen and the ships reached the firth at midnight; the destroyer Meteor was towed into the Humber Estuary.^[33] Lion was out of action for four months, Fisher having decreed that the damage be repaired at Armstrong's on the Tyne, without her going into dry dock, making for an extremely difficult and time-consuming job.^[34] The surviving German ships reached port; Derfflinger was repaired by 17 February but Seydlitz needed a drydock and was not ready for sea until 1 April.^[35][36]

Aftermath

Analysis

1916 advertisement for a viewing of panoramic footage of the Blücher sinking. Proceeds from the event went to orphans of artists and writers lost to the war.

At first the Germans thought that Tiger had been sunk, because of a large fire that had been seen on her decks but it was soon clear that the battle was a serious German reverse. Kaiser Wilhelm II issued an order that all risks to surface vessels were to be avoided. Ingenohl was sacked and replaced by Admiral Hugo von Pohl. The damage to Seydlitz revealed flaws in the protection of its magazines and dangerous ammunition-handling procedures and some of these failings were remedied in the HSF before the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916).^[37] The Germans thought that the appearance of the British squadron at dawn was too remarkable to be coincidence and concluded that a spy near their base in the Jade Bay was responsible, not that the British were reading their encrypted wireless communications.^[38] (In 1920, Scheer wrote that the number of British ships present, suggested that they had known about the operation in advance but that this was put down to circumstances, although "other reasons" could not be excluded.)^[39]

Beatty had lost control of the battle and he judged that the opportunity of an overwhelming victory had been lost and the Admiralty—erroneously believing that Derfflinger had been badly damaged—later reached the same conclusion.^[40] Jutland showed that the British battlecruisers were still vulnerable to ammunition fires and magazine explosions, if hit by plunging fire. Had Moore's three fast battlecruisers pursued Hipper′s remaining three (leaving the slower Indomitable behind as Beatty intended), the British might have been at a disadvantage and been defeated. Blücher demonstrated the ability of the German ships to absorb great punishment; all of Hipper′s remaining ships were larger, faster, newer, more heavily armed, and far better armoured than Blücher; only Seydlitz had suffered serious damage. Apart from the sinking of Blücher, the Germans out-hit the British by over three to one, with 22 heavy-calibre hits—16 on Lion and six on Tiger—against seven British hits.^[40]

The battle boosted British morale although inconclusive, the Germans learned lessons and the British did not. Rear-Admiral Moore was quietly replaced and sent to the Canary Islands and Captain Henry Pelly of the Tiger was blamed for not taking over when Tiger was damaged. Beatty's flag lieutenant Ralph Seymour—responsible for hoisting Beatty's two commands on one flag hoist, allowing them to be read as one—remained. The use of wireless allowed centralised control of ships from the Admiralty, which cramped the initiative of the men on the spot. Signals between ships continued to be by flag but there was no revision of the signal book or the assumptions of its authors.^[41] Signalling on board Lion was again poor in the first hours of Jutland, with serious consequences for the British. The battlecruisers failed to improve fire distribution and similar targeting errors were made at Jutland.^[42]

Casualties

In 1929, the official historian, Julian Corbett recorded 792 men killed and 45 wounded of the ship's compliment of 1,026 crew on Blücher, 189 men being rescued by the British. Seydlitz lost 159 men killed and 33 wounded and Kolberg lost three men killed and two wounded.^[36] In 1965, Marder wrote that over 1,000 German sailors had been killed or captured for British casualties of fewer than 50 men killed or wounded.^[43] In 2003, Massie wrote that German casualties were an estimated 951 men killed and 78 wounded, most in Blücher and 153 men were killed and 33 were wounded in the fire in the two after turrets of Seydlitz. The British rescued 189 unwounded prisoners and 45 wounded from Blücher. British casualties were 15 killed and 80 men wounded. On Lion two men had been killed and eleven wounded, most in the A turret lobby by a shell hit. Two men were killed on Tiger with nine men wounded and on Meteor, four men were killed and two were wounded.^[44]

Gunnery records

Gunnery Records^[40]

Ship	Shells Fired	Target Hits	Hits Received	Casualties
Lion	243 × 13.5in	Blücher 1 Derfflinger 1 Seydlitz 2	16 × 11 and 12in 1 × 8.3in	1 Killed 20 wounded
Tiger	355 × 13.5 in	Blücher ? Derfflinger 1 Seydlitz 2	6 × 11 and 12in 1 × 8.3in	10 killed 11 wounded
Princess Royal	271 × 13.5in	Blücher ? Derfflinger 1	0	0
New Zealand	147 × 12 in	Blücher ?	0	0
Indomitable	134 × 12in	Blücher 8	1 × 8.3in	0
Seydlitz	390 × 11in	Lion and Tiger 8,	3 × 13.5in (1 Tiger, 2 Lion)	159 killed 33 wounded
Moltke	276 × 11in	Lion and Tiger 8	0	0
Derfflinger	310 × 12in	Lion, Tiger, and Princess Royal 5 or 6	3 × 13.5 in (1 each Lion Tiger and Princess Royal)	0
Blücher	unknown	Lion 1 Tiger 1 Princess Royal 1	about 70 7 torpedoes.[45]	792 killed 234 prisoners 45 wounded

Notes

1. All data from Campbell (1998) unless specified. ^[1]
2. All data from Campbell (1998) unless specified. ^[1]
3. Supposedly, a sailor Wilhelm Heidkamp saved the ship, when he flooded the magazine by opening the red hot valves, burning his hands and lungs, injuries from which he never recovered, leading to his early death in 1931. The Kriegsmarine named the destroyer Z21 in his honour.^[22]

Footnotes

1. Campbell 1998, p. 6.
2. Campbell 1998, p. 8.
3. Beesly 1982, pp. 4–5.
4. Beesly 1982, pp. 3–4.
5. Beesly 1982, pp. 6–7.
6. Strachan 2003, p. 422.
7. Strachan 2003, pp. 422–423.
8. Campbell 1998, p. 5.
9. Massie 2003, pp. 319–328.
10. Strachan 2003, p. 430.
11. Strachan 2003, pp. 430–431.
12. Massie 2003, p. 376.
13. Massie 2003, p. 375.
14. Marder 1965, p. 156.
15. Marder 1965, p. 157.
16. Campbell 1998, p. 7.
17. Massie 2003, pp. 388–389.
18. Massie 2003, p. 392.
19. Massie 2003, pp. 393–394.
20. Campbell 1998, pp. 373–374.
21. Massie 2003, p. 394.
22. Epkenhans 2011, p. 239.
23. Massie 2003, p. 397.
24. Massie 2003, pp. 396–397.
25. Corbett 2009, p. 94.
26. Massie 2003, p. 403.
27. Massie 2003, pp. 398–401.
28. Massie 2003, p. 398.
29. Scheer 1920, p. 85.
30. Massie 2003, p. 407.
31. Corbett 2009, p. 97.
32. Massie 2003, pp. 410–411.
33. Massie 2003, p. 412.
34. Goldrick 1984, p. 296.
35. Massie 2003, pp. 404, 410–413.
36. Corbett 2009, p. 102.
37. Campbell 1998, p. 374.
38. Massie 2003, pp. 423–424.
39. Scheer 1920, p. 86.
40. Roskill 1980, pp. 118–119.
41. Strachan 2003, pp. 434–435.
42. Massie 2003, pp. 413–415.
43. Marder 1965, p. 166.
44. Massie 2003, p. 413.
45. Roskill 1980, p. 119.

References

• Beesly, Patrick (1982). Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914–1918. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-10864-0.
• Campbell, N. J. M. (1998). Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting. New York: Lyons Press. ISBN 1-55821-759-2.
• Corbett, J. S. (2009) [1929]. Naval Operations. History of the Great War based on Official Documents II (2nd, Naval & Military Press repr. ed.). London: Longmans, Green. OCLC 220474040. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
• Hillman, J.; Nägler, F. (2011). Epkenhans, M., ed. Skagerrakschlacht: Vorgeschichte - Ereignis - Verarbeitung [Battle of Jutland: Prelude, Event, Analysis]. Beiträge zur Militärgeschichte (in German). Berlin: Oldenbourg. ISBN 978-3-48670-270-5.
• Goldrick, James (1984). The King's Ships Were At Sea: The War in the North Sea August 1914–February 1916. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-334-2.
• Marder, Arthur J. (1965). The War Years to the eve of Jutland: 1914–1916. From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow II. London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 865180297.
• Massie, Robert K. (2003). Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. New York: Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-40878-0.
• Roskill, Stephen W. (1980). Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty, the Last Naval Hero: An Intimate Biography. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-216278-4.
• Scheer, Reinhard (1920). Germany's High Seas Fleet in the World War (PDF). London: Cassell. OCLC 2765294. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
• Strachan, H. (2003) [2001]. The First World War: To Arms I (pbk. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926191-1.

Further reading

• Bennett, Geoffrey (1968). Naval Battles of the First World War. London: Batsford. OCLC 464091851.
• Gordon, Andrew (2000). The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command. London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-5542-6.
• Groos, O.; Lorey, H.; Mantey, E. von (1920). Der Krieg in der Nordsee [The War in the North Sea]. Der Krieg zur See, 1914–1918, herausgegeben vom Marine-Archiv [The War at Sea, Published by the Marine Archive] (in German) III. Berlin: Mittler & Sohn. OCLC 715186632.

External links

• World War I Naval Combat - Despatches
• Der Krieg in der Nordsee I (English trans.)

Coordinates: 54°33′28″N 05°27′50″E / 54.55778°N 5.46389°E