Battle of Jutland order of battle


The Battle of Jutland was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916, in the waters of the North Sea, between forces of the Royal Navy Grand Fleet and Imperial German Navy High Seas Fleet. The battle involved 250 warships, and, in terms of combined tonnage of vessels engaged, was the largest naval battle in history.
The Royal Navy had established a blockade of the North Sea at the start of the war and the German Hochseeflotte could not match the larger Grand Fleet. The German plan was to use the threat of an attack by their battlecruisers on British ports to lure the British battlecruisers into a trap where they could be defeated by a superior force of battleships without encountering the rest of the Grand Fleet. Aware of all German naval movements, the British fleet sortied to support their battlecruisers and bring the German fleet to battle.
In the event, although more British ships were sunk or damaged, the overall strategic situation was unchanged.

Summary

Ships present

Royal NavyImperial German Navy
Dreadnoughts28 in total
8 × 15-inch
  • 2 ×
  • 4 ×
10 × 14-inch
10 × 13.5-inch
  • 3 ×
  • 3 ×
  • 4 ×
14 × 12-inch
10 × 12-inch
  • 2 ×
  • 3 ×
  • 3 ×
16 in total10 × 12-in.
12 × 12-in.
12 × 11-in.
4 × 11-in.
  • 5 ×
Battlecruisers9 total8 × 13.5-in.
  • 2 ×
8 × 12-in.
  • 2 ×
  • 3 ×
5 total8 × 12-in
  • 2 ×
10 × 11-in.
8 × 11-in.
Armoured cruisers8 total
4 × 9.2-in., 5 × 7.5-in.
  • 3 ×
4 × 9.2-in., 2 × 7.5-in.
  • 2 ×
4 × 9.2-in., 5 × 6-in.
  • 2 ×
3 × 7.5-in., 3 × 6-in. 		-
Smaller ships26 × light cruisers
79 × destroyers 		11 × light cruisers
61 × torpedo boats

British capital ships carried a larger weight of broadside— compared to —than the German ones.
The German Navy's torpedo boats were of similar size and function to the destroyers in the Royal Navy, and are often referred to as such.

Abbreviations

Officers killed in action are indicated thus:
Abbreviations for officers’ ranks :
'''Other abbreviations'''

Royal Navy

Grand Fleet

Began sortie from Scapa Flow 9.30pm 28 May
The Grand Fleet was the main body of the British Home Fleets in 1916, based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands and Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth in Scotland.

Battleships

2nd Battle Squadron
4th Battle Squadron
1st Battle Squadron

Cruisers

1st Cruiser Squadron
Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot, 4th Baronet
2nd Cruiser Squadron
4th Light Cruiser Squadron
Light cruisers attached for repeating visual signals
Other ships under direct command of the Commander-in-Chief

Destroyers

4th Destroyer Flotilla
  • First half-flotilla / 4th D.F.
  • *: Lt Cdr Clarence Walter Eyre Trelawney
  • * : Lt Cdr Sydney Hopkins
  • *: Lt Cdr Reginald Stannus Goff
  • *: Lt Cdr Ernald Gilbert Hoskins Master Second half-flotilla / 4th D.F.
  • * : Cdr Walter Lingen Allen
  • * 3rd Division / 4th D.F.
  • **: Cdr Hugh Davenport Colville
  • ** : Lt Cdr Arthur Macaulay Lecky
  • * 4th Division / 4th D.F.
  • **: Cdr Reginald Becher Caldwell Hutchinson, D.S.C.
  • ** : Lt Cdr Gordon Alston Coles
  • ** : Lt Cdr Arthur Marsden
  • ** : Lt Cdr Frank Goodrich Terry
11th Destroyer Flotilla First half-flotilla / 11th D.F.
  • * 1st Division / 11th D.F.
  • ** : Cdr Harold Victor Dundas
  • ** : Lt Cdr Julian Harrison
  • ** : Lt Cdr Gerald Charles Wynter
  • ** : Lt Cdr Henry Clive Rawlings
  • * 2nd Division / 11th D.F.
  • ** : Cdr Claud Finlinson Allsup
  • ** : Lt Cdr Robert Makin
  • ** : Lt Cdr Edward McConnell Wyndham Lawrie
  • ** : Lt Cdr Claude Lindsay Bate Second half-flotilla/11th D.F.
  • *3rd Division / 11th D.F.
  • ** : Lt Cdr George Bibby Hartford
  • ** : Lt Charles Granville Naylor
  • ** : Lt Cdr Gerald Harrison
  • * 4th Division / 11th D.F.
  • ** : Cdr William Dion Irvin
  • ** : Lt Cdr Ralph Vincent Eyre
  • **: Lt Cdr Hugh Undecimus Fletcher
12th Destroyer FlotillaFirst half-flotilla / 12th D.F.
  • *1st Division / 12th D.F.
  • ** : Cdr George William McOran Campbell
  • ** : Lt Cdr John Jackson Cuthbert Ridley
  • ** : Lt Cdr Reginald Watkins Grubb
  • ** : Lt Cdr Arthur Gerald Onslow
  • * 2nd Division / 12th D.F.
  • ** : Cdr John Pelham Champion
  • ** : Lt Cdr Henry Victor Hudson
  • ** : Lt Cdr Eric Quentin Carter
  • ** : Lt Cdr Henry Percy Boxer
  • Second half-flotilla / 12th D.F.: Cdr Norton Allen Sulivan
  • * : Cdr Norton Allen Sulivan
  • * : Cdr Charles Geoffrey Coleridge Sumner
  • * : Lt Cdr Herbert Inglis Nigel Lyon
  • * : Lt Cdr Charles Astley Poignand
  • * : Lt Cdr Spencer Francis Russell
  • * : Lt Cdr Edwin Anderson Homan

3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron

This squadron, temporarily attached to the Grand Fleet from the Battle Cruiser Fleet, was stationed ahead of the main body, with the intention that it join Beatty when the action began.
Rear-Admiral The Hon. Horace Hood,

Battle Cruiser Fleet

This force of high-speed ships was subordinate to the Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet, but operated independently as an advanced guard, intended to reconnoiter the enemy fleet and to engage enemy scouting forces. At its core were six battlecruisers, accompanied by 13 light cruisers, and escorted by 18 destroyers and an early aircraft carrier.
Sortied from Firth of Forth soon after 6.00pm 30 May
Vice-Admiral Sir David Richard Beatty in HMS ''Lion''

Battlecruisers

Light cruisers

Attached to the light cruisers was the seaplane tender carrying two Short Type 184 reconnaissance seaplanes and two Sopwith Baby fighter seaplanes.

Destroyers

13th Destroyer Flotilla
Captain James Uchtred Farie

5th Battle Squadron

The 5th Battle Squadron was a special unit of fast s, intended to act as the vanguard of the main battle line. At the Battle of Jutland, it operated with the Battlecruiser Fleet, and was escorted by the 1st Destroyer Flotilla.
Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas
Sortied from Firth of Forth with the Battle Cruiser Fleet soon after 6.00pm 30 May

Imperial German Navy

High Seas Fleet (''Hochseeflotte'')

The High Seas Fleet was the main body of the German surface navy, principally based at Wilhelmshaven, on the Jade River in North-West Germany.

Torpedo boats

German Große Torpedoboote were the equivalent of British destroyers.

Scouting Force

Battlecruisers

1st Scouting Group
Vizeadmiral Hipper
  • : KptzS Victor Harder
  • : KptzS Johannes Hartog
  • : KptzS Moritz von Egidy
  • : KptzS Johannes von Karpf
  • : KptzS Hans Zenker

Torpedo boats

3. Halbflottille ''KKpt Heinrich Boest
  • * : KptLt Rudolf Schulte
  • * : KptLt von Barendorff
  • * : KptLt
  • * : KptLt Leo Riedel
  • 4. Halbflottille : KKpt Adolf Dithmar
  • * : KptLt Victor Hahndorff
  • *: KptLt August Vollheim
  • * : KptLt Heinrich Schickhardt
  • * : KptLt Fritz Spiess
  • * : KptLt Georg von Bartenwerffer
VI. Torpedoboots-Flottille 11. Halbflottille : KptLt Wilhelm Rüman
  • * : KptLt Karl von Holleuffer
  • * : KptLt Siegfried Karstens
  • * : KptLt Kurt Grimm12. Halbflottille KptLt Rudolf Lahs
  • * : KptLt Robert Stecher
  • * : KptLt Martin Laßmann
  • * : KptLt Bruno Krumhaar
  • * : KptLt Philipp Recke
  • * : KptLt Wolf von Trotha
IX. Torpedoboots-Flottille
  • 17. Halbflottille : KptLt Hermann Ehrhardt
  • * : OLtzS Hartmut Buddecke
  • * : KptLt Hans Köhler
  • * : KptLt Franz Fischer
  • * : KptLt Werner Dette
  • * : KptLt Wilhelm Ehrentraut
  • 18. Halbflottille : Korvettenkapitän
  • * : OLtzS' Ernst Wolf
  • * : KptLt Otto Andersen
  • * : KptLt Waldemar von Münch
  • * : KptLt Erich Steinbrinck
  • * : KptLt'' Friedrich Ihn

Submarines

Führer der Unterseeboote in the North Sea Fregattenkapitän Hermann Bauer in SMS Hamburg
The following submarines were deployed to attack the Grand Fleet in the North Sea during the period of the Battle of Jutland

Airships

During the battle the Germans used the Zeppelin airships of the Naval Airship Section for scouting, although in the prevailing overcast conditions they were not particularly successful.
The commander of the Naval Airship Section was Korvettenkapitän Peter Strasser, and they flew from bases at Nordholz and Hage in north-west Germany and Tondern.
Sortied on 31 May
Sortied on 1 June
Did not sortie during the Battle of Jutland