The Boy Allies at Jutland; Or, The Greatest Naval Battle of HistoryHayes, Clair W. (Clair Wallace)
General
The Boy Allies at Jutland; Or, The Greatest Naval Battle of History
Hayes, Clair W. (Clair Wallace)
Jutland, Battle of, 1916 -- Juvenile fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations -- Juvenile fiction
The German losses had been less, but nevertheless, taking into
consideration damage done to the effectiveness of the two fleets as a
whole, the enemy had sustained the harder blow. The British fleet still
maintained control of the North Sea, while the Germans, because of
their losses, had been deprived of a large part of the fighting
strength of their fleet. The British, in spite of their heavier losses,
would recover more quickly than could the enemy.
The dreadnaught _Westphalen_ was the largest ship lost by the Germans.
It was of 18,600 tons. The three German battleships lost, the
_Pommern_, the _Freiderich_ and the _Frauenlob_, were each of 13,350
tons. Four battle cruisers had been sent to the bottom. They were the
_Elbing_, the _Essen_, the _Lutzow_ and the _Hindenburg_, each of
14,400 tons. The German losses in torpedo destroyers had been
particularly heavy, an even dozen having been sent to the bottom.
Besides this, the enemy had lost three submarines and two Zeppelin
airships, besides a number of smaller aircraft. In men the Germans had
lost slightly less than the British.
And so both British and Germans counted the battle a victory; the
Germans because in total tonnage sunk they had the best of it; the
British, because they held the scene of battle when the fighting was
over and because the enemy had retired.
But, no matter with which side rested the victory, there was no
gainsaying the fact that the battle of Jutland was the greatest naval
struggle of all time.
After giving up pursuit of the enemy, the British withdrew. Damage to
the various vessels was repaired as well as could be done at sea and
the ships in need of a more thorough overhauling steamed for England,
where they would go into dry-dock. The bulk of the British fleet,
however, still in perfect fighting trim, again took up the task of
patrolling the North Sea, that no German vessels might make their
escape from the fortress of Heligoland, for which point the enemy
headed immediately after the battle.
In spite of the severe losses of the Germans, the return of the high
sea fleet to Heligoland was marked by a grand ovation by the civil
population. Various reports were circulated on the island, and all
through Germany for that matter. One report had it that the entire
British fleet had been sent to the bottom; and Berlin, and all Germany,
rejoiced.
But as time passed and the German fleet still remained secure behind
its fortifications, the German people began to realize that the victory
had not been so great as they had been led to believe. They knew they
had been fooled; and they vented their anger in many ways.
Street riots occurred in Berlin and in others of the large cities. The
people demanded to be told the facts. Later they were told, in a
measure, but even then they were denied the whole truth. So conditions
in the central empires grew from bad to worse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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