JUTLAND BATTLE

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 9 March 1927, Page 3

JUTLAND BATTLE

! JELLICOE'S TACTICS, I t- ' ; • 'r "NO SECBECY." f ' \ N^pceans of *ink and torxents of wokds have poured odt in the internilnable controversies about the Battle" pf Jutland., hut according to a participant in the action, tCommander A; Marsden, the story .and the battle .can be told in a very ..few words. '• \ jComn^ander sMarsden command-N ed the destroyer Ardent at Jutland. His vessel ran into a German battleship divis'ion during the night of May 31st, 1916, and in Iess than live minutes she was destroyed by the enemy gunfire, Commander Marsden being the sole survivor. Before the Ardent niet her fate, however, she sank a German battleship with ,a tdrpedo. There was nd mystery about the battle, said Commander Marsden. Acting on advice received by the Intelligence DeparJtment, the British Fleet actually put to sea the night before the battie, and on the next day the two forces' were closing 011 each other diagonally on opposite courses. As the' Grand Fleet started out lthe night Fefore it was much nearer Germany than the German Fleet was near Englandt About 3.30 p.m. on May 31st the battle cruisers came into collision when about 50 miles in advance, of their battleships. Lord Beatty, who comm,anded the British battle cruisers, had the superiority at the outset, but in a very short time two of his ships blew up, leaving him in a position of inferiority, consequently he began tp retire on the main battle fleet, d thing which the German battle cruisers had themselves been doing. The destroyer Ardent was ahead of the British flagship Iron Duke, and towards 6 p.m. the sound of guns could be heard and flashes seen. The mist, however, prevented anything being seen for more than about four miles. Jutland really never was a battle fleet • action. It had been principally an affair of outposts — battle-cruis-er.s — in which the Germans inflicted/ more damage • than the British.' When the Germans saw the British battle fleet, however, their whole idea was to_ escape, and to effect that they twisted and turned, made srrioke screens, and delivered destroyer attacks, eventually being lost sight of. All that cohld be seen in the mist was a shadow, a glimpse of a funnel or mast, or a wisp of smoke, but even with such poor and indistinct targets to aim at the British gunners inflicted such heavy damage that many of the German ships were laid up for weeks and even months. "There was no secrecy abuot it," added Commander Marsden. "There is nothing more to be known than what I have said. We met the German Fleet, and from the moment of meeting our battleships they endeavoured to escape, and they effected their escape. That is the German side of it. From our point of view we had our Great Fleet out and it enabled us to hold the seas for two years afterwards. In other words, we had an extraordinarily lucky thing that we had in com mand of the Fleet a man who appreciated his responsibilitv. He knew he had command of the sea, that command he was going to hang on to, .and he was not going to endanger that freedom being in any way weakened. People may discuss Lord Jellicoe's tactics. The answer is that for the. rest of the war we retained command of the seas. History will pipve that he earried out the very thing he was sent to command the Fleet to do— to retain the freedom and command of the seas."