May 31, 2016 will mark the 100-year anniversary of the Battle of Jutland. This battle is considered the only major engagement between the German High Seas Fleet and the British Royal Navy. Why did this conflict happen the way it did? Where there any factors attributing to the outcome? The story of the battle should explain both questions. From the onset of WWI, neither Britain or Germany wanted to get engaged with the other in open naval conflict. This was in part of many factors, but the main factor was the development of the Dreadnaught ships in 1906. These behemoths of ships could inflict just as much damage as they could take, and both navies were building them very quickly. With these ships being built, both navies could inflict damage …show more content…
This leads us into the positioning of the two fleets. The British fleet had established itself as a dominant force in the world, and was exuding this force on the German lands by essentially land locking them in by putting up a blockade around the Northern Coast of Germany. This blockade was established by placing British fleets in the North Sea in the ports of Scapa Flow near Scotland and Rosyth of the coast of Scotland/England. These fleets were in place to ensure that the Germans did not make it out of the North Sea and into the Atlantic where the Germans could disrupt British merchant ships. With the blockade in mind, where is the German fleet? Well, the German fleet was locked down within their own northern ports, unable to move. The blockade was keeping them pinned in, and causing the nation damage internally. (Why did the Germans not push towards the English Channel? It is discussed that the bulk of the British fleets at Plymouth and Portsmouth were far greater than those patrolling the North Sea.) The blockade finally pushed for the removal of the German Admiral at the time for a new admiral, Admiral Reinhard