Jutland Scandal

This volume presents two critical reports by Royal Navy officers of the infamous WWI battle that devastated Britain's Grand Fleet. The Royal Navy had ruled the sea for more than a century before the Battle of Jutland. Yet when the Grand Fleet faced the German High Seas Fleet across the North Sea in 1916, the British battleships and cruisers were battered into a draw, losing far more men and ships than the enemy. Something clearly had gone wrong. The public waited for the official histories of the battle to reveal the truth, but month after month the Admiralty failed to publish an account. Even when questions were repeatedly raised in Parliament, Admiral Beatty objected to releasing an official report. Finally, in 1925, Admiral Bacon producing his own account of the battle, called The Jutland Scandal. Two years later the man instructed to write the official report, Rear-Admiral Harper, decided to publish his account independently, calling it The Truth About Jutland. Together, these two reports lay bare the facts about Jutland and reveal the failings of senior officers and the distortions of the early historians. Produced as one volume for the first time, this book tells the truth about the scandal that developed following the largest battle ever fought at sea.