More than a hundred years after Jutland this famous sea battle remains a source of controversy. Much ink has been spilled over what happened and why. Undeterred, let me spill some more.
An Airman’s interest is piqued…
My interest in Jutland – not as a credentialed scholar but as an omnivorous reader of military history – is longstanding, starting many decades ago to when I read Cyril Falls epic one-volume history, The Great War1 which included a chapter on Jutland. Around that time I also played the old Avalon Hill Jutland board game a few times with an avid wargamer friend. “Board game” is a misnomer, as Jutland actually required a vast uncluttered floorspace to accommodate the dozens of cardboard ship counters and the enormous distance scale of the action. But my serious interest began many years later when I read The Swordbearers 2, which (to my mind) considerably boosted Correlli Barnett’s standing as a historian. His chapter on Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, “Sailor With a Flawed Cutlass,” remains, in my opinion, a masterpiece of interdisciplinary historical analysis. Other fine books followed, including John Campbell’s Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting3, which dug as deeply into the details of the battle damage inflicted on May 31st, 1916 as anyone could wish.
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