LOSSES AND TACTICS

The British losses as reported officially, and no doubt truthfully, are as follows:

Battle Cruisers:TonnageOfficers
and Men
Queen Mary27,5001,000
Invincible17,250790
Indefatigable18,750780
Armored Cruisers:
Defence14,600850
Black Prince13,500750
Warrior13,500750
Destroyers:
Tipperary1,850160
Turbulent980100
Fortune950100
Sparrowhawk935100
Ardent950100
Nestor950100
Nomad950100
Shark950100

The reported German losses are as follows. The actual losses may be much greater:

Battle Cruisers:TonnageOfficers
and Men
Lützow28,0001,150
Battleship:
Pommern13,040736
Light Cruisers:
Wiesbaden.........
Frauenlob2,657281
Elbing........
Rostock4,820373
Destroyers:
Five.......
Total Tonnage Lost
British117,150
German60,720(acknowledged)
Total Personnel Lost
British6,105
German2,414(acknowledged)

When the losses above given are analyzed they are found to be much less favorable to the German side than they appear to be on the surface. To begin with, we may eliminate the three armored cruisers on the British side as of no military value whatever. This reduces the effective tonnage lost on the British side by more than 40,000 tons.

The Queen Mary and the Lützow offset each other.

If we accept the German claim that the Pommern, which was lost, was actually the old predreadnought of that name, it is fair to say that she offsets the Invincible. There is, however, very good reason for believing that she was a new and very powerful dreadnought. If this is the case, her loss easily offsets that of both the Invincible and the Indefatigable. Accepting the German statement, however, as we have done at all other points, we may say that so far as effective capital ships are concerned, the British lost one more than the Germans. This, after all, is not a very great difference, and it is to a large extent offset by the loss of four light cruisers which the German admiralty admit. In destroyers the advantage is with the Germans.

With regard to the armored cruisers already referred to, it is interesting to note the fact that these three ships were practically presented to the Germans, thus paralleling the fate of their sister ships, the Cressy, Hogue and Aboukir, which, as will be remembered, were destroyed by a submarine in September, 1914, under conditions of inexplicable carelessness. The military loss represented by all six of these ships was small (disregarding the loss of personnel), but they all selected a fate which was so timed, and in its character so spectacular, as to contribute enormously to the lessening of the prestige with which the British navy had entered upon the war.