Battle of Jutland
Fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea off Denmark's Jutland peninsula, this was the largest naval battle of the war and the only full-scale clash between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet — some 250 ships and 100,000 men. Tactically the result was ambiguous: Britain lost more ships and twice as many sailors, including three battlecruisers destroyed by catastrophic magazine explosions. Strategically, however, Jutland was a decisive British victory, for the German fleet retreated to harbour and never again seriously challenged British command of the sea. The continued British naval blockade slowly strangled the German war economy, contributing to the malnutrition of the 'turnip winter' of 1916-17 and the home-front collapse of 1918. Unable to break the blockade with surface ships, Germany turned instead to unrestricted submarine warfare — the decision that brought the United States into the war in April 1917.
- Year: 1916 CE
- Category: Military
