Today’s stand-in speaker was Paul Adey, who gave a talk on “The Battle of Jutland”
Thanks to a scenario very similar to the theme of the film, “The man who never was”, the intentions of the German Navy during WW1 were discovered by British Intelligence, but due to over-zealous security and stupidity the contents of the discovery were never properly acted upon, otherwise the naval battle could have been prevented.
Britain had significantly more ships and firepower than Germany, but were still unable to gain a decisive victory, indeed it is difficult to judge who, if anyone, emerged victorious.
Despite having Admiral Jellicoe in charge, a commander well respected and admired by all who served under him, his Vice Admiral, David Beatty, by dint of his belief in his own very dubious ability, managed to extract defeat from the jaws of victory. This was achieved, in the main, by deploying swifter battle cruisers against the enemy, rather than relying on the much more heavily armoured and heavily gunned battleships, which were left some 20 miles or so in the rear when battle commenced. Britain lost two ships in the first hour, with Germany relying on a slower, but much more accurate, rate of fire.
Beatty was well liked by the government in power, and his report into the engagement was preferred over those of Jellicoe, who retired in ignominy.
Our scrap warships were eventually sold to Germany at the end of the war, and guess what, were used to build the giant German battleships of WW2!