BATTLE OF JUTLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19998, 15 November 1927, Page 7

BATTLE OF JUTLAND

ADMIRAL SCHEER’S VIEWS BRITISH PROFESSOR’S REPLY. LONDON, Nov. 4. Professor Geoffrey Callender, professor of history and English at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in a letter to the Morning Post, points out where he considers Admiral Scheer errs in his article on the Battle of Jutland in the Fortnightly R-evicw. “Engagements at sea,” says Professor Callender, “may be subdivided into four categories; Engagements in which both belligerents have sought action; engagements in which a willing fighter has met a force coerced into action by political pressure; engagements in which a willing fighter has endeavoured to bring an unwilling opponent to decisive action and has succeeded; and engagements in which a willing fighter has endeavoured to bring an unwilling opponent to decisive action, and has failed. “The time is not yet ripe for the true history of Jutland. But the time is more than ripe enough to classify this tremendous engagement. Beyond all doubt it should be placed in the fourth category. Thanks to the incomparable leadership of the British admiral and the mignificent support he received from all who fought with him. the engagement was very nearly converted from a battle of the fourth type to a battle of the third. But not quite; and hence the disappointment and aching vexation of heart. Admiral Scheer, by the skill of his adversaries, was compelled to accept battle; realised his mistake; and claimed, with perfect propriety, the right to decline a decision. As on a score of occasions in. times past, fortune weighted the dice heavily in favour of the fleet which was bent on escape. “As on that immortal field Scheer turned, like a hunted thing, from one course to another, so now he still strives with verbal artifice and ingenious hair-splittings to dodge eternal consignment to the leeward berth in the limbo of category. At Jutland, the hour, the weather, low visibility, smoke screens, destroyer screens and darkness aided him. They avail him no longer, and he can be “fixed" with the penetrating point of logic beyond all hope of a second escape."