The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916

by John Rushworth Jellicoe

Although I was not aware of the fact at the time, coincidentally with the destroyer attack the enemy made a very large turn-away from our Fleet, and thus opened the range much farther, disappearing entirely from view even from our rear; this process was repeated on each occasion of our ships getting back into range. The enemy was, therefore, continually refusing action.

It may be asked whether it was necessary to turn the whole line of battle away for this attack, or whether the leading squadron could not have held the original course. Such a movement was provided for in the Battle Orders, but the destroyers were observed at a range of 9,000 yards on a bearing 30 degrees before the beam of the Iron Duke, the leading ship of the centre battle squadron, and therefore the leading Battle Squadron was as open to attack by torpedoes as was the centre or rear squadron; indeed, the destroyers were standing in a direction to attack the van squadron. The rear of the leading Battle Squadron was also not at the time clear of the van of the centre squadron, as the turns that had been made had prevented line ahead being re-formed, and the Iron Duke’s Division could not turn unless the division ahead also turned. These facts strengthened the reasons which led me to make the signal general to the Battle Fleet.

According to the reports of the captains of the ships of the Battle Fleet, a total of at least 20 torpedoes crossed the line of our Battle Fleet during the 7.10 P.M. destroyer attack alone, in spite of the turn. The large majority of these were observed by the ships of the 1st and 5th Battle Squadrons, but one torpedo is known to have crossed the line ahead of the Iron Duke, and at least six crossed the track of the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron, which was moving out to attack the enemy’s flotilla.

In the case of a long line of ships there is always danger of the torpedo menace to the ships at the rear being forgotten or minimised by ships that are in the van, owing to failure to realise how dangerous the torpedo fire of ships or destroyers abreast of them may be to vessels a long way in rear, although they themselves are quite immune from this danger.

The Grand Fleet Battle Orders provided for considerable decentralisation of command, and great stress was laid on this point in the general instructions for “Battle Tactics.” The opening paragraphs of this section of the Battle Orders emphasised this strongly. It was pointed out that whilst the Commander-in-Chief would control the movements of the whole Battle Fleet before and on deployment (except in the extreme case of very low visibility rendering it necessary for the Flag officer of a wing division to take immediate action), he could not be certain of doing so after deployment, when funnel and other smoke made both vision and communication difficult. The necessity for wide decentralisation of command was then pointed out, combined with a close watch on the movements of the Commander-in-Chief, with which Flag officers should generally conform.

The Battle of Jutland was the first Fleet action since Trafalgar if we except the actions in the Russo-Japanese War, and advantage was naturally taken of the experience to make some changes in the Battle Orders; but there were no surprises in the way of enemy tactics, and, therefore, no radical alterations were necessary. As the Chief of the Staff remarked to me during the Battle Fleet engagement, “This is all going according to expectation.” We did, however, obtain confirmation of our views as to the probable retiring tactics that would be adopted by the German fleet.

The principal changes that were made in the Battle Orders were in the direction of laying still further emphasis on the discretionary power which was vested in Flag Officers commanding squadrons, owing to the difficulty, always clearly recognised, and confirmed at Jutland, which the Commander-in-Chief would experience in controlling the movements of the whole Fleet in the heat of action; also in defining still further the different movements that might be adopted to deal with torpedo attacks, whether the torpedoes were fired from battleships or from destroyers.

A very exhaustive analysis of the subject of torpedo attacks in action had been prepared by my Staff during the spring of 1916, and a memorandum, with diagrams, had been written showing the various situations that might arise and the effect of the different counter-movements in each case. It is of interest to note that this memorandum was on the point of issue when the Jutland Battle was fought. It was dated May 27th, 1916, but it had not actually been issued.

The experience gained at Jutland was embodied in the memorandum before it was finally issued to the Fleet.

The questions of the use of the torpedo in action and the “counter” measures adopted have been dealt with at considerable length, since this form of attack and its “counter” have been much discussed in the Service since 1911, and it is a subject on which discussion is likely to continue. It is also certain that it will form the subject of much future experiment.