The official plan of the Battle of Jutland. Note that the course of the Grand Fleet is not shown to be “astern” of the battle-cruisers, but parallel to their track 295 Position of the opposing fleets at 3:30 P.M. 298 The first phase; from Von Hipper’s coming into view, until his juncture with Admiral Scheer 301 The second phase; Beatty engages the combined German Fleet, and draws it toward the Grand Fleet 309 Sketch plan of the action from 6 P.M. when the Grand Fleet prepared to deploy, till 6:50 when Admiral Scheer delivered his first massed torpedo attack 332 Jutland Diagrams. Third phase at end of book THE BRITISH NAVY IN BATTLE CHAPTER I A GREETING BY WAY OF DEDICATION _Xmas, 1915._ To the Admirals, Captains, Officers and Men of the Royal Navy and of the Royal Naval Reserve: To the men of the merchant service and the landsmen who have volunteered for work afloat: To all who are serving or fighting for their country at sea: To all naval officers who are serving--much against their will--on land: Greetings, good wishes and gratitude from all landsmen. We do not wish you a Merry Christmas, for to none of us, neither to you at sea nor to us on land, can Christmas be a merry season now. Nor, amid so much misery and sorrow, does it seem, at first sight, reasonable to carry the conventional phrase further and wish you a Happy New Year. But happiness is a different thing from merriment. In the strictest sense of the word you are happy in your great task, and we doubly and trebly happy in the security that your great duties, so finely discharged, confer. So, after all it is a Happy New Year that we wish you. If you could have your wish, you of the Grand Fleet--well, we can guess what it would be. It is that the war would so shape itself as to force the enemy fleet out, and make it put its past work and its once high hopes to the test against the power which you command and use with all the skill your long vigil and faithful service have made so singly yours to-day. And in one sense--and for your sakes, because your glory would be somehow lessened if it did not happen--we too could wish that this could happen. But we wish it only because you do. Although you do not grumble, though we hear no fretful word, we realize how wearing and how wearying your ceaseless watch must be. It is a watchfulness that could not be what it is, unless you hoped, and indeed more than hoped, _expected_ that the enemy must early or late prove your readiness to meet him, either seeking you, or letting you find him, in a High Seas fight of ship to ship and man to man. We, like you, look forward to such a time with no misgiving as to the result, though, unlike you, we dread the price in noble lives and gallant ships that even an overwhelming victory may cost.