BATTLE OF JUTLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 49, 22 November 1918, Page 5

BATTLE OF JUTLAND

SENSATIONAL REVELATIONS

GERMAN FLEET'S NARROW j

ESCAPE

Copenhagen, November ID. ! Captain Persuis, writing in the 'Tage- j blatt," makes some sensational revelations. He says, that it was only the ' misty weather \nnd ■ von Sclieer's good j leadership that saved the whole fleet j from destruction at the Skager Back j (Jut-land Battle, May 31, 1916). Other- ; wise the British long-rango guns would : have smashed up the lighter German j ships. As it was, the Germanlosses i were enormous. By the beginning of i 1918 (? 1917) twenty-three 'battleships J had been disarmed owing to the scarcity j of metal, and by the beginning of 1918- | only Dreadnoughts and battle-cruisers j remained,' tho rest having been destroy- j ed and their mital taken. I , Eighty-three submarine were construct- ; ed in 1917, of which eixty-fiix were de- j stroyed. In October, 1917, Germany M<l 146 'submarines; in June, 1918, 113; but j only about twelve per cent., wero actively j engaged. Thirty per cent, of the su'b- ; marines were in harbour, 38 per cent, [ being repaired, and 20 per cent. incapaci. j tated. Tho crews wero insufficiently train- | ed, and it was very difficult to get men j to last for months. Tho seamen regard- > ed the submarine as a political stupid- ! ity. •. . -j When the navy was ordered out for a • second battle at Skager Rack a mutiny j broke out. If seamen had obeyed innum- j erable lives would have been lost.—Aus.- i N.Z. Cable Assn. j