The British eventually defeated the menace of the U-boats by employing a convoy system where anti-submarine ships protected other ships in a group. German U-boats caused great problems for the British as they sunk an enormous amount of imports and supplies. They chose to rely on U-boats (submarines) instead. The German High Seas Fleet stayed in port for the rest of the war, becoming a ‘fleet-in-being’ to threaten but not engage with the British Navy. Britain lost 14 ships to Germany’s 11 and while Germany lost 2,551 men, Britain lost 6,097. However, when losses were counted Britain seemed to have lost more. The Germans said they sank more ships but the British claimed Scheer had given up first and fled the scene of the battle. After a further skirmish between battle cruisers, Scheer managed to retreat whilst the British fleet, concerned about enemy submarines and minefields, chose not to give chase.īoth sides claimed victory. As darkness came Scheer attempted to return back to port, but found the British had manoeuvred to block their path. Sailors burned to death or were drowned in the icy-cold sea. Fierce battle went on all evening with high explosive shells ripping into thick armour plating. Just before 6pm, the full great fleets of Britain and Germany came into contact. Around 4pm on 31 May, the swift British battle cruisers lured the Germans towards the Grand Fleet, taking heavy losses in the initial fighting. ![]() Sheer planned to lure the British Fleet into battle and trap them, but the German plans were intercepted by the British who prepared to trap the German fleet in return. The German fleet had less than 100 ships compared to the British Grand Fleet of around 150. ![]() ![]() In January 1916, the Germans had a new Naval Commander, Admiral Scheer, and he was eager for action. Before 1916 there had been no major sea battles between the world’s largest naval powers, Germany and Britain, despite an arms race creating large fleets in anticipation of great sea battles between the new dreadnought warships and more advanced battle cruisers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |