Jutland

The Ollie is back in the Firth of Forth after the Jutland disaster. In the battle over six thousand good men have died, several of our major units have been blown up, and even so the German fleet has got away.
If Beatty had made a mistake it was to allow the battleships to trail along well behind the faster cruisers led by HMS Lion so that when, with something of a surprise, elements of the German High Seas fleet emerged from the mist close to the Danish coast, the Germans immediately took on the British and caused considerable damage to the leading cruisers, sinking two with all hands and damaging the Lion which ,as it turned out, was only saved from blowing up by heroic action by the man in command of the forward turret.
Eventually the battleships had engaged the enemy and to an extent levelled the playing field, but by that time the Germans were retreating in an attempt, so it seemed, to draw us into the maw of the whole High Seas Fleet.
On sighted the main body of the German fleet we turned away and sped northwards pursued by the Germans, which turned the tables on them. Their strategy had been to lure us into battle with a superior force but instead the opposite happened and the whole High Seas fleet had been lured into the trap set by Lord Jellico. In the fading light of the late May afternoon battle was engaged, the units of both fleets emerging at times from the smoke and mist to be pounced on by the gunners of the other side. As well as the impressive broadsides released by the capital ships, the destroyers fought battles of their own as the small ships of each side attempted to close with the major units of the other side in order to release torpedoes. For these missiles to have any effect the attacking ships needed to be within about 2000 yards of the enemy, obviously exposing them to intense fire from the defensive armament of the targets, as well as torpedoes from motor torpedo boats. In this part of the battle both Viper and Mamba had been sunk.
As darkness fell the Germans disappeared into the gloom and we did not pursue them. Admiral Jellico had determined that we would not continue the battle into darkness, since exercises back in peacetime had identified the problems which relate to that activity, not least of which is the possibility that we might fire on our own ships.
Instead he had waited the night out, incorrectly guessing what the German’s next action might be, which allowed them to limp back into their home ports behind the safety of their minefields. They know where the mines are laid and we don’t.
We returned to the Firth of Forth and licked our wounds. The newspapers had a field day, the leader writers and experts on naval strategy, put pen to paper and told the world that things had not gone well out there. Admiral Beatty had to deal with much criticism due to his minutes of inaction in the first moments of the battle, and the problems which had resulted from the failure of parts of his fleet to see the signals exhibited by the other parts. This had resulted in the battleships being left behind, exposing the lesser members of the fleet to the accurate and unpleasant gunnery for which the Germans are so well known. The superior dimension of our main armament was therefore not used to its full potential.