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Centennial of largest sea battle in WWI marked in Britain

Xinhua, June 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

The centennial of the largest surface sea battle during World War One was marked Tuesday with an exhibition which explored the history of the engagement whose victor has been argued over by historians.

The Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1916 saw the British and German fleets clash in the North Sea off the Danish coast as they fought for the control of the sea lanes. The huge battle involved 250 ships and crews totaling 100,000 men.

Its result, however, remains inconclusive and is still debatable today, a point brought out at the exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, near London.

Those who say it was a German victory can point to the casualty list -- 6,000 British casualties but just 2,500 German victims -- and to the number of battleships and battle cruisers sunk -- three British lost against one German.

Those who believe it was a British victory base their argument on the fact that the British navy remained at sea and largely intact, was ready to fight again the next day, and continued its blockade of German trade.

"Jutland was the German navy's attempt to test the theory that they could destroy a bit of the Royal Navy so that in future battles the odds would be even," exhibition curator Andrew Choong told Xinhua.

Superior German armor and gunnery won the day in the individual clashes, but the smaller German navy had to turn for home to escape a severe mauling at the hands of the much larger British fleet.

The strategic balance had not changed, and in order to win the war the Germans had to come up with some new strategic ideas.

"The Germans when they analyzed the battle realized that the British navy was too strong to be defeated by conventional means and that planted the seed of the idea that the way to bring Britain to her knees was by attacking her merchant marine," Choong said.

From that point, German admirals backed unrestricted submarine warfare, allowing attacks on any ships, not just military ones, and that contributed significantly to the United States joining the war less than a year later in early 1917.

The exhibition runs until November 2018, and admission is free. Endi