By this time the German Commander-in-Chief had received information from his torpedo flotillas of the presence of “more than twenty enemy battleships following a southerly course.” (S) His van was under heavy fire. “Following the movements of the enemy they had made a bend which hindered free action” (S) of his torpedo flotilla, and his cruisers were also cramped between the fire of both lines. In this awkward situation Admiral Scheer resolved to make use of his prepared manœuvre, to change the direction of his line. Accordingly at 6.35 “the swing-around was carried out in excellent style,” (S) the ships turning simultaneously to starboard, putting the whole German fleet on a westerly course.
This manœuvre was covered by the use of dense smoke screens, and the pressure on the German fleet was relieved at once. Admiral Scheer states that “the enemy did not follow our veer around,” and he strongly insists that the British should have held firmly to his line by executing a similar manœuvre. But he really gives the true state of the case when he writes: “It may be that the leader did not grasp the situation.” In fact none of the British commanders realized what had taken place under cover of that smoke screen.
After the sinking of the Invincible, although Vice Admiral Beatty was reported as turning to starboard, there was no further aggressive action on his part—and, in the next fifteen minutes (6.50), he signaled the two remaining battle cruisers of the Third Squadron to take station astern of the last ship of his line, the New Zealand.
At the same time (6.50) the Grand Fleet, which had completed deployment at 6.38, altered course to south by divisions to close.
These movements of the British forces naturally did not succeed in bringing any pressure upon the Germans, as Admiral Scheer’s whole fleet was then safely on a westerly course, as a result of the simultaneous swing-around of his line—and the German fleet was concealed by dense smoke screens, which left the British in ignorance of Scheer’s manœuvre. Encouraged by this successful result of his move, and finding his ships all able to keep their places in the line, “fully prepared to fight,” (S) the German Admiral decided upon an unexpected course of action. His change of tactics was so remarkable that his reasons should be quoted at length:
“It was still too early for a nocturnal move. If the enemy followed us, our action in retaining the direction taken after turning the line would partake of the nature of a retreat, and in the event of any damage to our ships in the rear the Fleet would be compelled to sacrifice them or else to decide on a line of action enforced by enemy pressure, and not adopted voluntarily, and would therefore be detrimental to us from the very outset. Still less was it feasible to strive at detaching oneself from the enemy, leaving him to decide when he could elect to meet us the next morning. There was but one way of averting this—to force the enemy into a second battle by another determined advance, and forcibly compel his torpedo boats to attack. The success of the turning of the line while fighting encouraged me to make the attempt, and decided me to make still further use of the facility of movement. The manœuvre would be bound to surprise the enemy, to upset his plans for the rest of the day, and if the blow fell heavily it would facilitate the breaking loose at night.” (S)
To carry out these ideas Admiral Scheer at 6.55 executed a second swing-around of his whole fleet turning ships-right-about to starboard as before. This put the German fleet again on an easterly course and launched its van in an attack against the deployed British line, “to deal a blow at the centre of the enemy’s line.” (S) Ahead of the fleet there was sent forward a determined attack by the German torpedo flotillas, all of which “had orders to attack.” (S) In the words of Admiral Scheer, “This led to the intended result, a full resumption of the firing at the van.”
The practical effect in action, so far as the German Battle Fleet was concerned, was to subject the van of the German fleet to heavy damage, without doing any compensating harm to the British ships. Admiral Scheer admits this damage to the German fleet, especially the battle cruisers, and it is established that the German fleet did not score upon the Grand Fleet. On the other hand, the accompanying sudden torpedo attacks, emerging from the smoke directed against the British battleships, did actually accomplish the result of making the Grand Fleet turn away and open the range. Admiral Scheer claims that putting the van of his fleet again into action “diverted the enemy fire and rendered it possible for the torpedo-boat flotillas to take so effective a share in the proceedings,” (S) but of course it is a question whether the same result might not have been obtained by the use of the torpedo flotillas alone.
In any case, it must be acknowledged that Admiral Scheer’s extraordinary manœuvres had accomplished a surprise effect upon his enemy as, besides forcing the Grand Fleet to turn away, the moral effect of this torpedo attack had a great influence upon the British conduct of the rest of the action. It is also evident that the British had not comprehended the tactics of the Germans.
One phase of the situation at this time has not been understood—but should be strongly emphasized. The fact is that the German Admiral, by his own act, had again placed his fleet in the same position from which he had once withdrawn—and this second creation of the same situation (6.55) was after the Grand Fleet had deployed and was in line of battle. Consequently, in view of the way the battle was really fought, many of the long arguments as to the so-called crucial situation at the time of the British deployment are wasted words. Now that it is known that Admiral Scheer came back again to attack the fully deployed British fleet, the much-discussed method of deployment can no longer be considered all-important. Even if the deployment had not come to the Germans, the Germans had gone to the deployment—and the same situation existed. In their ignorance of the German Admiral’s smoke-screened manœuvres, both sides of the heated British controversy have missed the essential fact of this unusual duplication of a battle situation, which actually occurred at Jutland.