Another small personal anecdote from a member of the chorus in the grand production of 'The Great Naval Gotterdammerung' that was the battle of Jutland. In a post below I pointed to the delicious irony that Wagner's godson was one of only 6 survivors from a crew of 1,031 men when the Invincible blew up and sank. Re-reading Andrew Gordon's forensic examination of this battle, The Rules of the Game (surely the final word on this endlessly controversial affair), I read the following:
A young marine, Private Bill Gasson, had a miraculous escape from the offending midships turret [the cause of the explosion]: he was simply blown out of it and found himself in the sea, badly burned but in one piece. In his later career he ran the Officer Training Corps (latterly the Combined Cadet Force) at Malvern School for twenty-six years, and was presented to the Queen at the commissioning of the present Invincible in 1980, at the age of 85.
Studying this battle is a somewhat depressing experience but I must say that cheered me up when I read it and I hope it does the same for you. I'm off for the weekend, back on Sunday evening.
This account of the sinking of the Invincible, a battle cruiser, with six survivors from a crew of 1000+ seemingly parallels exactly the sinking of the Hood, another battle cruiser in 1940 with 3 survivors from a crew of 1000+. Both seem to have been destroyed by a single shell or a single salvo setting off a magazine. In both cases the watching german seamen seem to have been amazed, and indeed horrified. At a guess I would think it possible both ships were from similar plans.
Posted by: Rufus | Friday, 23 July 2010 at 17:37
Wasn't it Beattie who remarked "There's something wrong with our bloody ships today"?
My father, who was eight at the time and a very avid reader, remembered reports of sailors being jeered and booed in the streets afterwards. Britain had paid for the best navy in the world and jolly well expected to get its money's worth. I don't think he would have seen anything like this happening as he was living in Derby, about as far from the sea as it is possible to get.
Posted by: Edward Spalton | Saturday, 24 July 2010 at 12:17
Rufus and Edward, welcome to D&N, sorry for the delay in responding, I was away for the weekend.
Rufus, the flaws in the British ships to which, Edward rightly reminds us, Beatty alluded in his famous remark, were not so much in the design of the ships but the habits of gunnery teams in leaving open the various hatchways through which shells and explosives were brought up from below to individual turrets. This bad habit seems to have arisen from the frequent and highly competitive peacetime shooting competitions in which speed of reloading as well as accuracy was considered essential. Hardly any senior officers thought to remind gun crews that such a practice in action was highly dangerous because a hit on the turret could easily transfer to the magazine which is more or less what happened to Invincible and other British ships that day. I'm not sure about Hood, I'm having enough trouble trying to teach myself the ins and outs of Jutland. However, I do remember that my mother told me that the sinking of the Hood was one of the most shocking bits of news for the ordinary British public in the entire war.
Edward, your Father's memory was almost certainly correct. Everyone in Britain was imbued with Trafalgar and the supreme power of the Royal Navy. Nothing other than an annihilation of the German fleet would have satisfied the public - and their leaders! Thus, Jutland, which was, in football terms, a score draw with the Germans having far and away the best run of play came across as a huge, monumental shock and disappointment. Hardly anyone understood the difference between tactics and strategy. Thus, tactically we failed to win the battle, but strategically we won big time! The German fleet never again ventured out into the North Sea, so Britannia still ruled the waves. The essence of it was that for the Germans it was absolutely crucial that they won outright; for the British it was not crucial to win, only absolutely critical that they did not lose. Jellicoe understood that but very few others, including many of his admirals, did not.
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 25 July 2010 at 14:43
This analysis may be helpful, at least it is so hoped:
http://www.gwpda.org/naval/jellicol.htm#N_5_
Posted by: JK | Monday, 26 July 2010 at 17:18
Thanks, 'JK', I have saved that for future use. Perhaps part of my approval stems from the fact that he more or less agrees with me!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 26 July 2010 at 21:06