JUTLAND SECRETS.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1925, Page 3

JUTLAND SECRETS.

HERMAN OFFICIAL HISTORY. LONDON. June 13. The new volume of the German Staff’s History of the Naval \\ nr is of the utmost interest and importance. It | gives the official German account of I the Battle of Jutland and throws new light on many passages in that tremendous encounter, in which the author, Commander Grocs, took part as one of the officers of the battle-cruiser Yon der Tann. He claims throughout that Jutland was a German victory bceause the British losses in men and ships were twice as heavy as the German. While he credits the British with great gallantry, he sharply criticises our leadership, tactics and gunnery. UNCEBTAIX BRITISH FIRING. Of the opening engagement between Lord Beatty’s battle-cruisers and the German battle-cruisers under flipper this account is given : Because of the unfavourable conditions of visibility for the English and because of their unsatisfactory rangefinders. their tire was at first slow and uncertain. Within one or two minutes the British battle-cruisers vanished almost completely in the enormous pillars of water which were thrown up by the German shells striking and bursting round them. The Germans began to hit almost at once; the British were six minutes before they made their first hit. But when the four fast battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class arrived to support Lord Beatty— The well-directed tire of their la-inch batteries, equipped with all the modern control and gunnery appliances, proved extraordinarily effective, and all the more so because the Jive German battle-cruisers were already engaged with the same number of British bat-tle-cruisers and had no guns free to reply. In short, it would have gone hard with dipper had not the German battle fleet came into action just as the tour fast British battleships were hitting repeatedly. Those four battleships had now themselves to run the gauntlet of the lire from the German licet. Six German salvoes (usually of four or live shells) a minute were the rule, and once as many as nine salvoes in unbroken success-ion were counted about the hard-pressed ship (Malaya). As Ihe nil fuel poured out from her damaged and blazing hull, she inclined somewhat to starboard, but she was righted. With her strong armour she survived a test far severer than that which had led to the less of the Indefatigable and Queen Mary, and she is still in service. LIGHT BAD LOR GERMANS. According to the German account, about tiiis time the light was extremely unfavourable to the German licet. Ihe ships at its head could see nothing, hut found themselves hit by heavy shells. The arrival of the British Battle Fleet was a complete surprise. So dense was the smoke from shells, guns and tires, and so troublesome was the mist that each side groped lor the other without knowing his strength or formation. Lord Jellicoe’s cruiser arrangements are severely blamed : The covering of the Grand Fleet by old and slow armoured cruisers which only steamed a short distance ahead of the columns of battleships proved utterly inefficient. . . The all im- | ortaut scouting service immediately liclore the deployment ol the British licet entirely broke down, notwithstanding Ihe large number of vessels available for this task on the British side. But it is admitted that the uncertainty in the British licet was not so great as that in the Herman. Lord .lelMciic's determination to deploy away from the German Ihn't is approved as his Ik'st course, m view of Hie failure of his scouting service. But Commander Gi'oos expresses doubt whether Lord .lellicoe ever meant, to fight a decisive action and blames lii.s adhereucO to a rigid and stiff line of battle. The position of the Germans was disagreeable enough ; Before the head of the German Heel, there suddenly broke from north-wesl to north-east the Hash of guns from an invisible line ol heavy ships, while about the Germans splashed salvo alter salvo. The effect was all the more distressing because tiiis lire could .scarcely be answered from the German licet as not a single British battleship could lie made out in the smoke of battle. From this desperate position the Germans were temporarily extricated by a simultaneous turn. This, we are assured by Commander Groos. was no part of their real battle plan; The German plan was just the same, as the British one to approach in a broad formation and. when the enemy was encountered, so to deploy as simultaneously to bring all the broadsides to hear upon him. Tiiis plan could net be carried out because ol the uulavourable circumstances which have a Iron! v been mentioned. The escape of the Germans was to some extent favoured by a British Luni-away from what was thought in the British Meet to be a German torpedo attack. What was taken for an attack was really an attempt by four destroyeis of the 4th. Flotilla to rescue the crew of the light cruiser Wiesbaden.