Jutland, 1916: Death in the Grey Wastes - Hardcover

Steel, Nigel; Hart, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0304358924 ISBN 13: 9780304358922

Publisher: Orion, 2003

Synopsis

On 31 May, 1916, the great battle fleets of Britain and Germany met off Jutland in the North Sea. It was a climactic encounter, the culmination of a fantastically expensive naval race between the two countries, and expectations on both sides were high. For the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, there was the chance to win another Trafalgar. For the German High Seas Fleet, there was the opportunity to break the British blockade and so change the course of the war. But Jutland was a confused and controversial encounter. Tactically, it was a draw; strategically, it was a British victory. The Grand Fleet lost more ships, most spectacularly three of its battlecruisers, but retained its command of the seas.

Naval historians have pored over the minutiae of Jutland ever since. Yet they have largely ignored what the battle was actually like for its thousands of participants. As oral historian at the Imperial War Museum in London, Peter Hart has access to a vast repository of diaries, letters, written accounts and interviews about the engagement. Alongside a brisk narrative of the action, there is an extraordinary wealth of first-hand testimony here from both officers and enlisted men: it is invariably full of drama and pathos, of chaos and courage, and it enables the reader to appreciate both the awe and awfulness of a sea battle in the dreadnought era.

About this title

Review:

'[Hart and Steele] have attempted to tell the story of the battle through the experience of participants, both German and British, and they have made a considerable success of their effort. Much of it makes grisly reading. ... Oneof the most striking features of the book is the high quality of writing by simple men ... by interweaving such passages from the battle's earliest moments to its last the authors have constructed a gripping narrative.'John Keegan, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (22/3/03) 'Through the deft us of written reminiscence and oral history the two authors present an almost cinematic account, counterpoising poignant details with jingoistic fervour for a conflict both sides expectantly nicknamed "the apocalypse".'SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY (2/3/03) 'nothing can beat the voices of the on-the-spot witnesses in conveying the full horror of the business.'NAVY NEWS (1/3/03) '[Jutland 1916] includes a wealth of fascinating eyewitness accounts ... an exciting, fluid read... [the authors] 'warts-and-all' account of the bungling that infected the destroyers helps illustrate how the possibility of a tactical triumph slipped through the Royal Navy's fingers' WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW (1/7/03) 'The beauty of this book is the extraordinary research into the personal experiences of the officers and men that helpos to sustain the tension of a controversial encounter that still stirs emotions among naval buffs.'OXFORD TIMES (28/2/03) 'The hardihood of the men, the suffering and the losses, still makes compelling reading after nearly 90 years.' Lawrence Phillips, SHIPS TELEGRAPH (Ministry of Defence) March 2003 Peter Hart has written an 8-page article on Jutland publicising the book in BATTLEFIELDS REVIEW.

Book Description:

Dramatic account of the biggest naval battle of the First World War using a wealth of previously untapped sources

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0304358924
• ISBN 13: 9780304358922
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416