Flag and Fleet: How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the SeasWood, William
History
Flag and Fleet: How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas
Wood, William
Great Britain -- History, Naval; Sea-power
_Second Round: Beatty luring Scheer and Hipper on towards Jellicoe:
4.38 to 5.50 P.M._
Commodore Goodenough's splendid light cruisers went scouting ahead till
they met Scheer racing north. Then they turned north themselves, under
a tremendous outburst of fire, to rejoin Beatty, who now, changing from
pursuer to pursued, also turned north to join Jellicoe. The Germans,
with their twenty-two dreadnoughts, now hoped _Der Tag_ had really come
for Beatty's eight. But Beatty hit hard and drove a German battle
cruiser out of the line very badly mauled. Shortly afterwards the
destroyer _Moresby_ fired a torpedo which hit a German battleship.
There was a tremendous burst of steam and smoke; and, when this had
cleared off, the German was seen to be on fire. But Beatty's strong
point was speed. His battle cruisers and four fast _Queen Elizabeth_
battleships could do a good bit more than the slowest Germans; and as
the Germans now had to keep together, in case Jellicoe came up, their
whole line could go no faster than its slowest ship. Starting with a
lead and putting on a spurt Beatty turned gradually more to the
eastward, that is, toward the German line, which then had to turn and
keep parallel or else let him cross its T. If you will separate the
crosspiece from the upright of a T--for big ships fight some miles
apart--you will see quite plainly that ships in a line like the upright
of the T have no chance at all against ships in a line like the
crosspiece of the T. The crosspiece line can converge all its
broadsides on the leading ship of the upright, smash it utterly, and
then do the same to the next, and the next. So the Germans, having to
keep together and having to keep parallel to Beatty, were gradually
forced eastwards, which would give Jellicoe the best chance to come
into line against them.
_The Third and Greatest Round: Jellicoe forms his Victorious Line of
Battle: 5.50 to 6.38 P.M._
For three hours and a half Jellicoe, with his twenty-four dreadnought
battleships, had been racing south to reach the scene of action. He
had gained at first, when Beatty was going east to find von Hipper. He
had lost when Hipper and Beatty were racing south to meet von Scheer.
But now the whole battle was coming north to meet him. As the
battlefield kept shifting about, and the fortunes of the fight kept
changing, he shaped his course accordingly. But he never slackened
speed, racing along under every pound of steam the straining ships
could carry, thanks to the skill of those quiet heroes of the
engine-room, who, seeing nothing of either friend or foe, never know
anything of either defeat or victory, life or death, till all is over
either with the battle or themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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