BATTLE OF JUTLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1930, Page 5

BATTLE OF JUTLAND

GERMAN SHELLS SUPERIOR. COMMODORE BLAKE’S MEMORIES ' ' '•? Some highly interesting-Istatemenfs r garding the Battle of Jutland, fougl on May 31, 1916, were made by Comm, dore Geoffrey Blake, C. 8., D. 5.0., < H.M.S. Dunedin in the course of a le ture at Dunedin. Commodore Blal served in the Iron Duke, Lord Jellicoe flagship, during tho action. The lecturer said that, although the; had been a few minor skirmishes at si before that time, the Battle of Jutlan was really the first British fleet actio since the Battle of Trafalgar. Prior Jutland, many people were asking wi the German Fleet had not been sun The trouble was that those people d not realise how difiicult, how impossibl it was to get to grips with the Germai under the circumstances. It took two make a fight, and by the direct ordi Of the Kaiser the Gorman fleet was he back for a long time. The Gema High Command made the mistake < taking very little interest in its nay for it believed that the army, Whic sought a repetition of 1870, would swet right through to'Paris. Tho navy,: it was proposed, would come in usefi later at a peace conference. In co) trast to Britain’s policy, there was I co-ordination of national effort arnoi the Germans at the beginning of .tl war. The enemy did not realise that victory was to be achieved the Britis Navy would have to be defeated. 'A< miral Von Tirpitz was the only ma who sensed the exigencies of the pos tion, but be was more or less push* into the background.) During the war'it! was, impossible J force the enemy to come out into tl open. They could not get at him. i’jE would come out only on tip-and-run e petitions, and, as Marshal Foch j £>n< remarked, “they could not hold hi while they kicked him.” ' That: was. tl great problem naval .forces Would a ways Have to face. . The only tliii Britain could do during the war was i apfily economic pressure and try ; squeeze the Germans out by cutting.'*) their supplies. Unfortunately that cou not be done to a sufficient extent, b cause German shipping in the Baltic r mained safe, and tno huge eonsignincn of iron ore ' Which were obtained fro Scandinavia allowed the wai to. be ea ried on, and prolonged matters conside ably. In the work of bringing econom pressure to bear on the German trad the navy had as its ally the incoin parable mercantile marine, which pe formed wonderful work in feeding .tl people and taking troops to the theatr of war, all at great expense of shi and life. , / By means of a chart, Commodo Blake showed the positions of the diffe ent divisions of the Royal Navy at beginning of the war. The Grand Flee lie said, was at Scapa -when war brol out. Scapa was by no means an ide base from Britain’s point of .view, f if the German" Navy . had been order: to strike a sudden blow at the Cbann ports it would have had a sportii eliam of winning some definite succes The' Grand Fleet would have found almost impossible to. cut the maraude off before they had time to do flamag The object of the subsequent Germ: raids was to disperse the Grand Fles but that aim was futile. , In January, 1916, Admiral Scheer W given command of' the enemy fleet, hi it was then that the era of much mo offensive sea strategy developed. It w decided to come to grips -with E.nglau and, following President .Wilsons pr test against the depredations of the su marines practically all those craft we called in and made available for batt Scheer/ decided to .make a demonstr tion with submarines off the east coa of England, and so draw out some d tachments. of the British fleet, whi he intended to sink. Conditions, hoi ever, were against. him, and owing * poor visibility he was unable to ma use of Zeppelins for purposes of r connaissance. ' . / Describing the events that directly 1 up to Jutland, Commodore Blake show by means of a chart - how co tact betweeu the two fleets was mac and he then went on to show some I inarkably fine, photographs taken duri the battle. The loss of the Indefatigal and the Queen Mary were clearly. c pitted. Commodore Blake •. stated th the shells with which British ships wi supplied were of an inferior nature, q were not as effective as those used the Germans. It was- not until laf that that was realised,- aud, a bet! class of shell was .supplied*.. Again, the German ships were bu only for lighting, and were scarce habitable. It was - very nearly impc sible to sink them, and no matter h< severely they were damaged, they ma aged to keep afloat. It was notab liowever, that when seriously damagi the German ships were itnable to fight well as were Britisli ships under simi conditions. ■ ' ' Jutland, he added, resulted in anil decisive, action, mainly because only o side wished to fight. Another /fact was that the action was not comment, until late in the day, and little could done after the fall of darkness. H the light lasted longer there was lit doubt that some decision .would ha been arrived at. No - doubt mis tai were made at Jutland, blit it. had to remembered that the visibility van from moment to moment. HedidvY doubt that history wquld ‘accord Lo Jellicoe the tribute that was his due..