Geoffrey Bennett was a naval officer whose career had begun prior to WWII. Though only eight at the time of the Battle of Jutland, he was born into a naval family, and spent the bulk of his wartime career as a signals officer, eventually commanding a "Bay" Class Corvette in the latter days of WWII. His account of Jutland has had the compliment of being translated into German. The difficulties of the RN's signal service during the encounter receive adequate discussion in this competent book. I read a 1964 initial printing copy. ( )

While I've been interested in military history since I was a kid, I've never been too keen on naval history. Perhaps it say more about me than about naval history, but I've always found the movements of ships on the sea harder to follow than the movements of armies on land. That is compounded in the case of a battle like Jutland, that even its protagonists found hard to follow.

Yet I was able, more or less, to follow the course of these events in Geoffrey Bennett's book. I was also struck by the parallels between Jellicoe's situation in the North Sea and that of the commanders on the Western Front. Jellicoe's fleet covered many miles compared to the fleets of Nelson a century earlier, yet command and control techniques had changed little. As French and Haig had to command modern armies with the tools of Wellington, so Jellicoe had to command a modern fleet with the tools of Nelson - visual observation and flags to communicate the findings thereof. Not surprisingly, these tools were insufficient for him to spring his moderately complex trap and wipe out Scheer's fleet at Jutland. ( )

This is a detailed analysis of the events that occurred during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval engagement of World War I. After two years of waiting, the British Grand Fleet finally succeeded in luring the German High Seas Fleet into the North Sea. The two most powerful navies in history to that time using the largest and most powerful ships ever built would finally meet. However, a combination of weather, darkness, and poor communication amongst the Grand Fleet allowed the High Seas Fleet to escape destruction. Geoffrey Bennett does a great job of exploring the deficiencies and strengths of the two navies. The British tactical shortcomings, in particular, are laid bare to the reader. Bennett's tense account of the engagements that did occur during the battle is very well done. He also strikes the appropriate tone when describing the destruction of the several ships sunk during the battle, mostly British, that went down with all hands. I believe that this work is very useful for the reader interested in the aspect of the Great War, the blockade, that ultimately brought Germany and its allies to the armistice. ( )

Used - good condition