- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: W&N (30 Jan 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0304358924
- ISBN-13: 978-0304358922
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.4 x 5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 695,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'[Hart and Steele] have attempted to tell the story of the battle through the experience of participants, both German and British, and they have made a considerable success of their effort. Much of it makes grisly reading. ... Oneof the most striking features of the book is the high quality of writing by simple men ... by interweaving such passages from the battle's earliest moments to its last the authors have constructed a gripping narrative.'John Keegan, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (22/3/03) 'Through the deft us of written reminiscence and oral history the two authors present an almost cinematic account, counterpoising poignant details with jingoistic fervour for a conflict both sides expectantly nicknamed "the apocalypse".'SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY (2/3/03) 'nothing can beat the voices of the on-the-spot witnesses in conveying the full horror of the business.'NAVY NEWS (1/3/03) '[Jutland 1916] includes a wealth of fascinating eyewitness accounts ... an exciting, fluid read... [the authors] 'warts-and-all' account of the bungling that infected the destroyers helps illustrate how the possibility of a tactical triumph slipped through the Royal Navy's fingers' WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW (1/7/03) 'The beauty of this book is the extraordinary research into the personal experiences of the officers and men that helpos to sustain the tension of a controversial encounter that still stirs emotions among naval buffs.'OXFORD TIMES (28/2/03) 'The hardihood of the men, the suffering and the losses, still makes compelling reading after nearly 90 years.' Lawrence Phillips, SHIPS TELEGRAPH (Ministry of Defence) March 2003 Peter Hart has written an 8-page article on Jutland publicising the book in BATTLEFIELDS REVIEW.
Product Description
On 31 May, 1916, the great battle fleets of Britain and Germany met off Jutland in the North Sea. It was a climactic encounter, the culmination of a fantastically expensive naval race between the two countries, and expectations on both sides were high. For the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, there was the chance to win another Trafalgar. For the German High Seas Fleet, there was the opportunity to break the British blockade and so change the course of the war. But Jutland was a confused and controversial encounter. Tactically, it was a draw; strategically, it was a British victory. The Grand Fleet lost more ships, most spectacularly three of its battlecruisers, but retained its command of the seas. Naval historians have pored over the minutiae of Jutland ever since. Yet they have largely ignored what the battle was actually like for its thousands of participants. As oral historian at the Imperial War Museum in London, Peter Hart has access to a vast repository of diaries, letters, written accounts and interviews about the engagement. Alongside a brisk narrative of the action, there is an extraordinary wealth of first-hand testimony here from both officers and enlisted men: it is invariably full of drama and pathos, of chaos and courage, and it enables the reader to appreciate both the awe and awfulness of a sea battle in the dreadnought era.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The story of the Battle of Jutland has been told many times, but the authors have unearthed much fascinating new material from the archives of the Imperial War Museum. For the non-specialist, who does not wish to be weighed down by too much technical data, this book ably caters to the growing interest in the firsthand experience of modern warfare, as it happened "at the sharp end". The text is given over to lengthy eyewitness quotations which generally succeed very well in conveying the excitement, horror and pathos of both the long-range daytime encounters and the cut and thrust of the nighttime pursuit. During the intense gunnery exchanges between the opposing battlecruiser squadrons in the early stages of the engagement, thousands of men perished in a series of catastrophic explosions aboard British ships. Doctors' reports provide grisly evidence on the horrendous after-effects of fire and shell in the confined spaces between decks on other ships. Certain episodes, such as the attempts to save a wounded man fallen from a stretcher between the sinking "Warrior" and its rescue ship, will haunt the reader long after he or she has closed the covers. The view from the German perspective is not quite so graphic, reliant on translations of official German accounts, rather than the same sort of telling bottom-up memoirs, but is not omitted entirely. Who won? According to the authors, the British still won the Battle of Jutland strategically, although all the other evidence points towards a German tactical victory: the High Seas Fleet shot more accurately, sinking more enemy ships; outmanoeuvred the Grand Fleet during their famous battle turn-aways in the late afternoon; and the Germans' superior training in close-quarters night combat with searchlights paid off against a series of uncoordinated British destroyer attacks. But behind the propaganda which followed the battle, when both sides claimed victory, we now have a fitting tribute to the ordinary men who suffered and died to prove, or disprove, Mahan's nineteenth-century theories about naval supremacy. Some died in the flash of a cordite fire; others lingeringly in the sick bay or floating in the nighttime waters of the Skagerrak. And in the midst of all this horror were still glimpses of humanity, such as the destroyer survivors who insisted on singing "It's a long way to Tipperary" in honour of their eponymous lost ship. A good book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Even by the standards of the First World War there is something particularly brutal about the Battle of Jutland. Two vast fleets of grey ships on a grey sea set against a grey sky trying to destroy each other with high explosive shells and torpedoes. It is somehow elemental, not so much a clash between two navies as a clash between two massivily powerful forces of nature. And yet, for all the industry, endeavour and skillful seamanship displayed during the battle - and for all the bungling, design-flaws and misunderstood signals - the end result of this deadly engagement was a continuation of the status quo. The British maintained their significant numerical advantage over the German High Seas Fleet. At the end of perhaps the most violent 24 hours in the history of naval warfare the final result was "no change".
The authors of this book have taken something of a fresh approach in their portrayal of the events. The details of the battle, the personalities of the opposing admirals, the differences between the various types of warship are, of course, all discussed and explained, but the bulk of the book consists of some truly remarkable eye-witness accounts. By using extracts from letters and diaries written by those who actually took part in the battle this account has an immediacy and a human dimension that makes the events all the more poignant and moving. It is one thing to read a sober description of, say, the British Battlecruiser Queen Mary exploding, but it is quite another to read an account by one of the very few people who actually survived the sinking. The human element of Jutland, the sense of what it was like to witness the effect of high explosive shells crashing into steel and to see first hand the devestation caused is covered here in great, eloquent and moving depth. It's an excellent approach. There are descriptions here that will haunt you and that will bring home the true horror of war.
If I had to make a slight criticism I'd say the book is a little heavy on British accounts at the expense of their German counterparts, but that may simply be because the British accounts are more numerous and readily available. It's a tiny quibble in what is a very good book. If you're after a technical account of the battle try Andrew Gordon's "The Rules of the Game", but if you're after an introduction to the events and an idea of what it must have been like to actually have been there then this is the book to get. Superb.
The authors of this book have taken something of a fresh approach in their portrayal of the events. The details of the battle, the personalities of the opposing admirals, the differences between the various types of warship are, of course, all discussed and explained, but the bulk of the book consists of some truly remarkable eye-witness accounts. By using extracts from letters and diaries written by those who actually took part in the battle this account has an immediacy and a human dimension that makes the events all the more poignant and moving. It is one thing to read a sober description of, say, the British Battlecruiser Queen Mary exploding, but it is quite another to read an account by one of the very few people who actually survived the sinking. The human element of Jutland, the sense of what it was like to witness the effect of high explosive shells crashing into steel and to see first hand the devestation caused is covered here in great, eloquent and moving depth. It's an excellent approach. There are descriptions here that will haunt you and that will bring home the true horror of war.
If I had to make a slight criticism I'd say the book is a little heavy on British accounts at the expense of their German counterparts, but that may simply be because the British accounts are more numerous and readily available. It's a tiny quibble in what is a very good book. If you're after a technical account of the battle try Andrew Gordon's "The Rules of the Game", but if you're after an introduction to the events and an idea of what it must have been like to actually have been there then this is the book to get. Superb.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are many works about the complex naval Armageddon-that-wasn't at Jutland, however this work is set apart by its extensive drawing on apparently new primary sources.
This is a technique thay is not always easy - the combination of narrative history, 1st hand evidence and analysis can either be a disappointing pastiche, or highly impressive. This is the latter, giving the reader in-depth insight into the actions of both sides, the heroism (again on both sides), and critically on the confusion, and information or lack of it available to Jellicoe and Scheer. It certainly caused me to revise my critical attitude of Jellicoe for his now infamous decision not to turn his fleet and chase the retiring Scheer. The book stayed in my mind for some time since reading it; I can only hope the same authorial team might turn its attention towards other naval engagements or theatres of war - perhaps the Mediterranean in WW2?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Clash of Navies but with a human touch
It might not be an exaggeration to call Jutland (or Skaggerak) as the most important battle of the 20th century. Read more
Published 26 days ago by Geoff Saunders
You won't be disappointed
This is an excellent account of the Battle of Jutland, but what makes this book exceptional is the accompanying first hand accounts written by the people involved, covering all... Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2006 by Rohan Maxwell
Almost Armageddon
Great book! Really brings the ominous physical presence of these ships to life and goes a long way to building your appreciation and visualisation of the unique events that took... Read more
Published on 21 May 2005 by Logic
A Personal View
This is probably the most moving book about Jutland that I have read. From the Admirals to the Boy seaman, they all tell of their innermost thoughts and fears,before, during and... Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2004 by Neil Smith
The book of the film....if there was one.
Reminiscent of the books of Lyn MacDonald, this one makes great use of first hand accounts, not just from the admirals, and neither for that matter exclusive to the British. Read more
Published on 6 July 2004 by Ps Macleod
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