BATTLE OF JUTLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1921, Page 12

BATTLE OF JUTLAND.

LORD JELLICOE’S PART. OUT-MANOEUVRING THE GERMANS. London, September 2. When Lord Jellicoe’s portrait was thrown on the screen to-day at the private view of the filmed Battle of Jutland, he received a well-merited meed of applause. By its clear exposition of a highly complex struggle, the analysis of which must have presented enormous difficulties to those in charge of the fight, as it’has already to those who saw it from the shore —so to speak —and from different and conflicting accounts, it enables all the world to see the part Lord Jellicoe played. That he played for safety is true, but was he not justified? The stakes were too high—our national safety.

Lord Jellicoe was justified by those who knew, for Sir -Percy Scott, at the luncheon given afterwards, made one • very pertinent ramark, to which

“a voice” gave an equally pertinent reply. He said that the film was arranged very cleverly, and nobody’s feelings could be hurt. Certainly none of the admirals could 'complain. It had, however, left out one little thing, which he would not have mfnded the feelings of the Admiralty being hurt about at all, and that was the recall of the Harwich destroyer flotilla, which would have put a very different complexion on the battle the next mornbig. If the Harwich fleet had come out at full speed and fully supplied with torpedoes, it would have been a very different story. A voice: “They could not have got to us in time.’.

That two views, so diametrically opposed, could be held by members of a gathering of naval officers, suffices to show that there was doubt and Lord Jellicoe merely did the right thing. He did not risk all on one throw. The world often laughs at stories of retired admirals and generals devoted to the after-dinner sport of marshalling knives and forks, crusts and salt cellars to demonstrate strategic theory. But it really is a fascinating game, and what many find alluring with common objects is infinitely more attractive when it is played with actual models, and their movements recorded on the screen. Even the man in the street is a keen amateur strategist without models except the wet rings left by his glass of beer on th? counter. So there, is a whole world which will welcome this film for the intrinsic interest of its story, and all the more because it puts a closure on all doubts as to who wdh.

For the data is compiled from both English and German sources. Accuracy

of detail has been secured by the superintendence of Major-General Sir George Aston, whose standiing as a professor at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and the Staff College at Caniberley is h guarantee in this connection. It is stated that lie spent two yeays in working out the logs of the* British and German ships and the tracks of the opposed fleets, and in checking these by the ranges tabulated in the gunnery officers’ logs . The actual work of 1 production is due to Mr. 11. Bruce Woolfe, o/ the I sl 'itish Instructional Films, Lt.:. Him opens with a scene of the North Sea showing on one side the Fast Coast of England, ,and on the Other the opposite coast. The where the fleets were anchored are pointed out, and tire conditions that prevailed in the North Sea on the niglit of May 30, 1916, arc illustrated.

!he route which Scheer intended to take in the raid he proposed to make on merchant shipping in the Skagerrak is shown, as are the locations of the submarines, Zeppelins and minefields which had been placed in position by the Gormans to protect themselves against the enemy. One engrossing scene is that showing the minefields sqwn by the Germans off their ov j coasts and the various lanes left in the field, known only to themselves, and through which eventually they ran back to hide behind their shelter. One sees the German submarines off our coasts watching all our bases, Harwich,

' Rosytii, Scapa. i The. situation is thus made clear at the time when the British Admiraily, having received word of Scheer’s inl tentions, ordered the British fleet to sweep, the North Sea. When Beat tv and Hipper get within range of each other the engagement of the two squadrons is shown in detail. The shipmove o.n their ' respective courses, flashes are emitted from them as they ’ come into action, and they become wreathed in smoke. Ships blow up and disappear, until at last the main German Fleet appears from the south-, east. Beatty then turns on his tracks anil lures .Scheer on to the Grand Meet which was rapidly approaching from the north. Ihe film then follow sthe squadrons in their rush northwards, until the Grand Fleet appears and deploys into line, ahead of the Germans, forciniz them to retreat. Finding the range I increasing Jellicoe manoeuvres to closethe range, and his movements mystify Scheer, who returns to the attack* only to be out-manoeuvred and again forced to retreat, under cover of a smokescreen. Jellicoe has now got between the enemy and the land, and steers south to cut him off from his base. Beatty being clear of the smoke-screen, again sights the Germans endeavoring to make for home and, engaging them in the gathering gloom, again turns them off to the westward and away from their base. He asks that the van of the Grand Fleet may follow him, and one sees the manoeuvre by which Jellicoe turned westward, but by this time night is falling, and the Germans are lost to sight in the gathering darkness and mist. ' As the dawn breaks the British Fleet is seen steaming over the North Sea looking in vain for the enemy, who had wisely "retired” to the. protection of his minefields, leaving the British free to

move troops and merchant shipping across the high seas. V\ hat strikes one in this is the precision and ordered, movement of the British fleet, while that of the German was hitfiily erratic, which was forced into this by the movements of pur fleet. The most' thrilling of all. and made so very clear to us by the film, was the last episode, how only by the nearness of their minefields and the fall of night did the Germans escape across the stern of Jellicoe’s ships as they took up position for renewing the fight. It. is made quite clear, too, that l.oth British and German fleets were unknown to each other, making for the same rendezvous, and that the Germans mistook Hood’s squadron for the British main fleet. Not only are the movements of the fleet made clear in the moving diagram- it moved, by the way, over fast —but the very course of torpedoes and

the fate of their targets is shown. \The more or less formal diagrammatic exposition of the great fight, is light- | ened by representations of outstanding incidents:—Boy Cornwell’s death on the Chester; Comma.nder Bingham on the destroyer Nestor; the late Commander Loftus Jones, who fought till his destroyer sank bpieath him; the late Major F. J. W. Harvey, of the Lion —V.C.’s all.