A GERMAN ON JUTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 7 April 1921, Page 3

A GERMAN ON JUTLAND

■■ - ,t COMMANDER VON HASE TALKS. t “JELLICOE WAS RIGHT.” s “Had Jellieoc sought a decision off Horn Reef on June Ist there is no doubt i_ that the English (leel Mould have had •t to cede its place as the strongest fleet 1 in the world to America.” |] This is the salient point of the latest t contribution to the seemingly endless controversy provoked by the Rattle of s Jutland. It is made by C ommander ! George von Ha so, who figured in the s great sea fight as first gunnery officer of f the Germans “largest, most powerful, . and swiftest ship,” the battle-cruiser ! Dcrfflinger. Iu his book, “Kiel and Jutland” von ! llase deseribes the fight from the point of view of one who was in the thickest • of it, and played a decisive part in the 1 destruction of the two English batflcT "cruisers, Queen .Mary and Invincible. “Jellieoe acted perfectly rightly.” 1 f says,, “in disengaging his fleet at nigh! > fall, and so skilfully leading his squad- • ron away during the night that our de- >' stroyer flotillas, systematically search- . | ing the out-lying areas of the scene of battle, did not find them. | “And Jellieoe’also acted perfectly . j rightly from a strategic point of view , in not reopening the battle on June Ist. “By not attacking on June Ist our I fleet heading for the German minefields I and home ports, Jellieoe kept uninterrupted the mastery of the seas. Why should he, in this strategic game of i chess, choose a mutual sacrifice of pieces when his position was such that (he mating of the enemy was bound to fol- | low?”