Battle of Jutland
North Sea, near Denmark
What happened
Admiral John Jellicoe's British Grand Fleet, with Vice-Admiral David Beatty's battlecruisers, fought the German High Seas Fleet of Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer and Franz von Hipper. In the North Sea off Denmark's Jutland Peninsula, the battlecruisers of both navies clashed first, and several British battlecruisers blew up and sank. Then the main fleets met, and twice Jellicoe's battleships got into position across the front of the German line, but each time Scheer turned his fleet away. During the night the German fleet slipped past the British and returned home.
Why it matters
Result: Inconclusive, see § Outcome. Why it matters: It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships of the war. Both sides claimed victory, but Britain's blockade of Germany continued.
What came next
The German fleet stayed mostly in port for the rest of the war.
Did you know?
Winston Churchill called Jellicoe 'the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon'.
Timeline
- 24 January 1915British and German battlecruisers clash at the Dogger Bank.
- 31 May 1916The Battle of Jutland begins.
- 1 June 1916The German fleet returns to port.