0:00:02 > 0:00:08On May the 31st, 1916, the British and German fleets clashed
0:00:08 > 0:00:11in what would be the biggest and bloodiest naval battle
0:00:11 > 0:00:12of the First World War
0:00:12 > 0:00:16and in fact, of the whole of Royal Naval history.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18The Battle Of Jutland.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24This was the era of the dreadnought, mighty battleships that far
0:00:24 > 0:00:27outclassed anything that had gone before.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30At the time, Britannia ruled the world's oceans.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32So when the fleets met,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36people in Britain were expecting a famous victory.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39But this was one battle that didn't go to plan.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43We'll discover how the commanders fought the battle
0:00:43 > 0:00:46with new technology, but outdated tactics.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50We're going to be looking at hundreds of pieces
0:00:50 > 0:00:51of Jutland history,
0:00:51 > 0:00:53many of which have never been seen before.
0:00:53 > 0:00:58And hear first-hand the horror of being in the heart of the onslaught.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00"When the guns are brought to the ready,
0:01:00 > 0:01:02"you simply wait for the open fire."
0:01:02 > 0:01:04GUNFIRE
0:01:04 > 0:01:06By the end of one day's battle,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09Britain had lost more than 6,000 men.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14We use the latest marine engineering to tackle the question,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16why did so many men die?
0:01:17 > 0:01:22We're there when, for the very first time, the Royal Navy charts
0:01:22 > 0:01:26the final resting place of the ships which hold so many graves
0:01:26 > 0:01:28at the bottom of the North Sea.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31I'm absolutely sure this is HMS Invincible.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35And after 100 years, we uncover shocking new evidence
0:01:35 > 0:01:40that rewrites history and reveals Jutland as the forgotten battle,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43where the First World War was lost and won.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01At Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, we're preparing for
0:02:01 > 0:02:03a very special delivery.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12So this is a 15-inch shell, this is about 880 kilos.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14- What?!- That's like the weight of a small car.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16- Absolutely.- It's incredible.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21This is a naval shell from a World War I battleship.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27It's part of an exhibition at the National Museum of the Royal Navy
0:02:27 > 0:02:31to commemorate the centenary of the Battle Of Jutland.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35So what kind of speeds would they have been fired at?
0:02:35 > 0:02:40So the muscle velocity of a 15-inch gun is 749 metres per second.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Wait, that's over double the speed of sound.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49It was shells like these that made the 31st of May 1916
0:02:49 > 0:02:52the bloodiest day in the Royal Navy's history.
0:02:52 > 0:02:53The eagle has landed.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02On that day, the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet went head-to-head with
0:03:02 > 0:03:07the German High Seas Fleet in the middle of the North Sea.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10It was the first and only time they would meet in full-scale battle
0:03:10 > 0:03:12during the First World War.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19The British had 151 ships, the Germans 99,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21and Britain expected an easy victory.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25The battle only lasted 12 hours,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28but in that time, the Royal Navy came off worse.
0:03:28 > 0:03:3314 of their ships were sunk and more than 6,000 lives were lost.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38"The cries of the wounded and burnt men were very terrible to listen to.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42"They were brought in, sometimes with feet or hands hanging off.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45"Very soon, the deck of the distributing station was
0:03:45 > 0:03:47"packed with wounded or dying men.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52"The greater number of injuries were caused by burns.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56"Some men had all their head, hands and arms burned."
0:04:00 > 0:04:03'This was a battle like no other in World War I.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08'It was the deadliest day in Royal Navy history.'
0:04:09 > 0:04:10It goes on.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13'Two sides of the Royal Navy Memorial in Portsmouth
0:04:13 > 0:04:17'are dedicated to sailors who died in that one battle.
0:04:20 > 0:04:21'The Royal Navy was haunted
0:04:21 > 0:04:24'by the catastrophic loss of life at Jutland.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28'Shini and I want to investigate exactly why so many died.'
0:04:31 > 0:04:33As an engineer, I want to know
0:04:33 > 0:04:36whether flaws in ship design played a part in the loss
0:04:36 > 0:04:39of all those young lives, as some argued at the time.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Or was it, in fact, down to the commanders?
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Were the decisions they made on the day
0:04:46 > 0:04:48the reason for so many casualties?
0:04:49 > 0:04:52For generations, the significance of this brutal battle
0:04:52 > 0:04:54has been downplayed.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Treated as, at best, an irrelevance,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00at worst, a humiliating disaster for the Allies.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05But I think we've had it wrong for a century, and I'm on the trail
0:05:05 > 0:05:08of new evidence to show how important Jutland really was.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14But first, I'm heading out to the site of the battle itself,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16just off the coast of Denmark.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Good morning, HMS Echo,
0:05:21 > 0:05:23this is the Second Officer Watch of your morning sit rep.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26The weather is overcast, the conditions are favourable...
0:05:26 > 0:05:30Unlike the battlefields on land, out here in the North Sea there are
0:05:30 > 0:05:32no graves to visit, and the exact positions
0:05:32 > 0:05:36of the final resting places of thousands of British sailors
0:05:36 > 0:05:38have never been officially marked on a chart.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Until now.
0:05:41 > 0:05:42OK, guys, gather round.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45We'll just go through quickly what the plan of action's going to be...
0:05:45 > 0:05:48'On the Royal Navy survey vessel, HMS Echo,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50'Lieutenant Commander James Windsor and his team
0:05:50 > 0:05:53'are aiming for the first time to put precise co-ordinates
0:05:53 > 0:05:57'on the graves of the 6,000 Allied sailors that died here.'
0:05:57 > 0:06:00At the moment, they're all positioned approximate.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02We'd loved to give a tied-down position, of,
0:06:02 > 0:06:04"Yeah, that is a war grave, now we can protect it."
0:06:04 > 0:06:07There was guys just my age and younger,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10just like the guys and girls we've got on board,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12and you know, I'd like to give them a final resting place.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14So we'll gear and report to HQ1.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21'It's not long before we find our first wreck.'
0:06:21 > 0:06:23So we're looking at two sections there, is that right?
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Yeah, that's right, we've got the main part of the ship here...
0:06:26 > 0:06:28Oh, my goodness, look at that!
0:06:28 > 0:06:31..which appears to be broken in two, with an upturned bow there.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33- And the stern end there. - Extraordinary.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37- And then this would sort of be more of a floor level.- Yeah.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41We absolutely know that HMS Invincible was hit,
0:06:41 > 0:06:45blew up amidships and broke into two pieces when she sank.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48So looking at the size of the ship and the condition of the wreck
0:06:48 > 0:06:50and marrying it up with historical evidence,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53I'd say that I'm absolutely sure this is HMS Invincible.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59'The sea is giving up its secrets.'
0:06:59 > 0:07:02So you can see you've got a few objects on the seabed.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06'But there's one ship I want to find more than all the others.'
0:07:06 > 0:07:07My goodness.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09That's really substantial, isn't it?
0:07:09 > 0:07:12It is, yes. Obviously, it's well broken up
0:07:12 > 0:07:14into the two distinct pieces at the moment.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19So what we're looking at here is the wreck of HMS Queen Mary.
0:07:19 > 0:07:20And as we go further...
0:07:20 > 0:07:24'1,266 men died aboard the Queen Mary.'
0:07:24 > 0:07:28It was the biggest single loss of life in the whole battle.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32She sank suddenly and catastrophically,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34just two hours into the battle.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38She was only four years old, and her loss was a complete disaster.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46By the end of the survey voyage, we have found the wrecks
0:07:46 > 0:07:48of six Royal Navy ships,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51including the five big warships that account for more than
0:07:51 > 0:07:5480% of British dead at Jutland.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Now we're able to pay our respects to the men who died that day
0:08:00 > 0:08:03at their final resting place.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16The sudden and dramatic loss of ships like the Queen Mary
0:08:16 > 0:08:20sent shock waves through the whole fleet, and eventually, the nation.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29It seems to me, as the pride of the Royal Navy, understanding her fate
0:08:29 > 0:08:33may hold the key to understanding the battle as a whole,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36and the controversies that have raged ever since.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44It's hard to equate HMS Echo's sonar images
0:08:44 > 0:08:46with the fighting machines at sea.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51If I'm to understand whether the commanders were at fault,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54I need to see a World War I warship up close.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00By 1914, Britain had created a new and revolutionary ship.
0:09:01 > 0:09:02The dreadnought.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06Today, there's only one place to find one.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Texas.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16That is enormous.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20I've been fascinated by these mighty warships since I was a child,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22but obviously, I've never seen one before.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26This is the world's only World War I-era dreadnought.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Imagine a whole fleet of those
0:09:29 > 0:09:32steaming out into the North Sea, in line astern.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39The dreadnought's battery of huge-calibre guns
0:09:39 > 0:09:42gave the commanders at sea unprecedented fire power.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46I mean, I've never seen guns as big as these.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48Five turrets of 14-inch guns.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53Each one of these can fire a high explosive projectile 12 miles.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57What you're looking at here is basically the most destructive
0:09:57 > 0:10:00and powerful weapon system the world had ever seen.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07This dreadnought is 175 metres long.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10We're coming up on, basically, the part of the ship
0:10:10 > 0:10:11we like to call Main Street...
0:10:11 > 0:10:15'Ranger Andy Smith is in charge of preserving this revolutionary
0:10:15 > 0:10:17'piece of naval history.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22'With a crew of more than 1,000 men, it was like a city at sea.'
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Here you have the laundry. It got kind of hot with all this machinery.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Oh, I bet it did. Amazing to think of guys during a campaign,
0:10:29 > 0:10:33a battle, still in here scrubbing away.
0:10:33 > 0:10:38But what really marked these dreadnoughts out was their power.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43They could travel at 21 knots, faster than any ship before them.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45This dreadnought battleship,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47just how advanced was it compared to what had gone before?
0:10:47 > 0:10:49You come aboard the ship, most likely
0:10:49 > 0:10:53you came from some place that had no electricity normally,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56no running water, and now you're on this, that's lit up.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59Biggest guns ever made, biggest engines ever made.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03That's the kind of technological leap that you're talking about.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05Once the dreadnought was launched,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09the commanders had extraordinary technology at their disposal.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14'But what interests me is that many of the sailors manning these
0:11:14 > 0:11:17'hi-tech machines were young and inexperienced.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20'Like Dale Churchett's great-uncle, Leonard Kilburn.'
0:11:20 > 0:11:24- So what have you got? - Well, my great-uncle served
0:11:24 > 0:11:25on the HMS Queen Mary.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31- And my dad found pictures. - So this is your dad's uncle.- Yes.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33His name is Albert Leonard Kilburn.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36I believe he was the eldest of a very large family.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38So how old was he at the Battle Of Jutland?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41- At the Battle Of Jutland, he was 17 years old.- 17.
0:11:41 > 0:11:42It's kind of poignant for me
0:11:42 > 0:11:47because my son is 17 this year, and there is a resemblance.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52I can't imagine a boy at that age
0:11:52 > 0:11:54doing the job in that war.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00'A third of the crew on a dreadnought like Leonard's ship,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04'the Queen Mary, would have worked on the guns.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07'Many in the deep magazine.'
0:12:07 > 0:12:09Look at the size of these shells!
0:12:10 > 0:12:13That's more than half a tonne of high explosives.
0:12:13 > 0:12:18So you've got to get these, 1,500lbs, about four storeys up.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22You can see this trolley system attached to the monorails.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Pad-eye hooks on here. This lifts it up.
0:12:25 > 0:12:26Like an elevator.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29'The deep magazine would have been full of shells.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32'Each packed with high explosive.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35'Next door, there was more combustible material.'
0:12:35 > 0:12:38OK, Dale, so this is the powder magazine.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41'Each of these bags held the explosive powder needed to
0:12:41 > 0:12:44'propel the shells out of the guns.'
0:12:44 > 0:12:47And four of these for every one round fired,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52so we have ten guns, 40 of these bags to fire a full broadside.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56And they need to get all the way from here, all the way up.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01It took 70 men to operate each gun, from magazine to gunhouse.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03- So, are you all ready to go up? - Come on.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06'Shells, powder
0:13:06 > 0:13:11'and crew all used the same shaft up to the gunhouse above.'
0:13:11 > 0:13:15Wow, that's quite a climb. So the shell comes up from down below?
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Correct. They can push that 1,500lb round into the breach,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22and then we still have to put four powder bags in.
0:13:22 > 0:13:23- And then we put these on.- Right.
0:13:23 > 0:13:29- And then for that, we actually use the old ramrod.- The old ramrod.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32- 19th-century technology still survives.- Exactly.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34It's a pretty confined space here.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38Actually, there's a description, it's a midshipman who was in
0:13:38 > 0:13:42one of these turrets when the Queen Mary was hit. It's pretty brutal.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44"After all the men had gone out of the turret,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46"I went up myself and found the ship lying on her side.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49"All around us, men were falling off into the water.
0:13:49 > 0:13:50"A few moments afterwards,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53"a tremendous explosion occurred in the forepart of the vessel,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56"which must have blown the bows to atoms.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00"The stern gave an enormous lurch, throwing me into the water."
0:14:01 > 0:14:03Pretty grim stuff.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05The night he lost his life in there,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09you just kind of don't want to think of him going down drowning.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Although that's a distinct possibility,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15you'd kind of rather him just be underneath the shell,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18so he just didn't know anything about it.
0:14:18 > 0:14:19Not a good way to go.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24Leonard Kilburn's ship sank in minutes,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29as did four other big Royal Navy ships lost at Jutland.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31As an engineer, I want to find out
0:14:31 > 0:14:33whether flaws in design were the reason
0:14:33 > 0:14:37for these catastrophic losses, as some people argued after the battle.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41The Queen Mary was one of the newest
0:14:41 > 0:14:44and most advanced ships at the Battle Of Jutland,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46the pride of the Royal Navy,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48and here at the National Maritime Museum
0:14:48 > 0:14:51they've got a beautiful scale model.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55The Queen Mary represented yet another advance in warship
0:14:55 > 0:14:58technology - the battle cruiser.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02'The museum's curator of maps and models, Dr Andrew Choong,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05'is an expert on battleship design.'
0:15:05 > 0:15:08- Wow, and here she is.- Yes.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12- The Queen Mary. So this was a battle cruiser.- Yes.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15She is designed for speed and to be hard-hitting.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19She looks so elegant, but yet so powerful.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23And this ship coming online would have represented the latest triumph
0:15:23 > 0:15:27of the Royal Navy and of British engineering over the Germans.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30To investigate her design,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33I've asked to see the Queen Mary's original drawings.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39The detail really is there. I mean, the annotations.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Yes, and actually you can tell that this document is a work in progress.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48So, clearly there were changes while they were making these plans.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52In this period, technology was simply not standing still.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56And in fact, around the time Queen Mary herself was being built,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59the next generation of fast battleships were actually
0:15:59 > 0:16:04- being designed and laid down.- Wow.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07The Queen Mary was at the cutting edge of ship technology.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09Built for power and armoured against attacks.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14'But even as she was being launched, they were adapting her.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18'This makes me wonder if they KNEW there were flaws in her design.'
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Astonishingly, the Queen Mary sank after only seven hits,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30while German ships took far more punishment.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33At Southampton University,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37there's a whole department dedicated to testing just that -
0:16:37 > 0:16:40why some ships stay afloat and others don't.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42So what do you do in a tow tank, then?
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Well, in a tow tank, we drag ship models along...
0:16:44 > 0:16:48'Professor of Ship Dynamics Phillip Wilson is going to help me
0:16:48 > 0:16:51'compare British and German ship design.'
0:16:51 > 0:16:54We're going to take to the water to put it to the test.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58- So I have a plan of HMS Queen Mary. - OK.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00'I want to compare the Queen Mary
0:17:00 > 0:17:03'to a German ship that was her near equivalent,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06'and in fact helped to sink her - the Seydlitz.'
0:17:07 > 0:17:09There it is, the Seydlitz.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12It's about 700 feet long, so similar in length,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16similar in beam, similar armament, but the difference will be
0:17:16 > 0:17:19where the watertight compartments are.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22- So how many watertight compartments were there in the Queen Mary?- OK...
0:17:22 > 0:17:27'Battleships were divided into internal watertight sections.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29'This prevented any flooding caused by shell damage
0:17:29 > 0:17:32'from spreading, to keep the ship afloat.'
0:17:32 > 0:17:35..15, 16, 17.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39So, crucial question...
0:17:39 > 0:17:41How does that compare to the Seydlitz?
0:17:41 > 0:17:45Let's have a see. So we've got 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48- 16, 17, 18.- 18.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52So just one more. The Seydlitz's...
0:17:52 > 0:17:55- damage is really well documented. - Gosh.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59So the Germans took photographs of every single hit.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03Treffer number 18.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06This one's pretty impactful.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08- Treffer number 14.- Horrendous.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13This is why I'm so intrigued because the Seydlitz was able to limp back
0:18:13 > 0:18:17- to port, even though it was hit 24 times.- Good grief!
0:18:17 > 0:18:18Yeah, that picture is incredible.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21Isn't it just? And how many times was the Queen Mary hit?
0:18:21 > 0:18:25- The Queen Mary was only hit seven times. And it sank.- And it sank.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29- So I'm determined to know what the difference was.- OK.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33We're going to use the Queen Mary's plans to build
0:18:33 > 0:18:35an engineering model of the ship's hull,
0:18:35 > 0:18:37and test it in the towing tank.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43With the information we have on the damage to the Seydlitz,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and the help of a computer simulation, we can subject the
0:18:46 > 0:18:49Queen Mary model to the same flooding damage
0:18:49 > 0:18:50to see how quickly she sinks.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56For the first time, we can use computer-aided engineering to
0:18:56 > 0:19:00put the theory of inferior British design to the test.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10But after my visit to the dreadnought warship in Texas,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14I'm investigating another theory for the huge loss of life at Jutland.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18The British admirals had astonishing firepower
0:19:18 > 0:19:20and speed at their command.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24So why weren't they able to exploit those technological advantages?
0:19:24 > 0:19:26'Could their tactics be to blame?'
0:19:26 > 0:19:28- Hello, Dan.- How are you doing?
0:19:28 > 0:19:29Very good to see you.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33'At the time of Jutland, none of the admirals had fought a major battle.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35'And, despite their hi-tech ships,
0:19:35 > 0:19:40'their greatest influence was a man who'd been dead for a century.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42'Lord Nelson.'
0:19:42 > 0:19:45- A very grand entrance. The great man himself.- Yes.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47He was an iconic character.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50He was crucial for the Navy through the 19th century
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and into the 20th century, still until today.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56'Admiral Lord West believes Nelson cast a very long shadow
0:19:56 > 0:19:59'here in the Admiralty and out at sea.'
0:19:59 > 0:20:02Nelson gave the Royal Navy this habit of victory,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05and when the First World War came the country
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and the Navy thought, "There'll be another Trafalgar,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10"we'll wipe out a German fleet - this is what we do."
0:20:10 > 0:20:12And of course that didn't happen.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17This is the Admiralty boardroom,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20which I used as First Sea Lord for the Navy board meetings.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23- Another Nelson portrait, looking down.- Yet again looking down.
0:20:23 > 0:20:24Just in case you forget.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27So when you sat in that chair, you were sitting in the chair
0:20:27 > 0:20:32that some very illustrious admirals had been in before.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36'At the Battle Of Jutland, the Royal Navy was led by two key men.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39'In overall charge was Admiral Sir John Jellicoe,
0:20:39 > 0:20:41'Commander of the Grand Fleet.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44'His deputy was Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty.'
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Jellicoe was very much a detail man.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51It weighed heavily on his shoulders. He knew he could
0:20:51 > 0:20:54lose the war for Britain in one day.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56Beatty was much more gung-ho,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58he saw himself as very much as a Nelson, actually.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01"Engage the enemy more closely, let's get in there and fight them."
0:21:03 > 0:21:07'And that meant firing hard and fast, just like his predecessor.'
0:21:07 > 0:21:10The interesting thing is Nelson is very celebrated,
0:21:10 > 0:21:12but he always faced inferior enemy commanders.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17In fact, these two faced tough opposition in these Germans.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20'They were Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24'recently appointed commander of Germany's High Seas Fleet,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27'and his deputy, Vice Admiral Franz Von Hipper.'
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Scheer was very, very intent on there being a fleet action to try
0:21:31 > 0:21:34and whittle down the size of the Grand Fleet.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37He said, "We must make a part of the Grand Fleet come towards us
0:21:37 > 0:21:38"and destroy it piecemeal.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41"Then we can finally have a real battle against the Grand Fleet."
0:21:41 > 0:21:44So he wanted to lure the British out,
0:21:44 > 0:21:48- whittle away at their numerical superiority.- Absolutely.
0:21:48 > 0:21:49On the eve of battle,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53the British commanders seemed to have all the advantages.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58More ships, bigger guns and what should surely have proved decisive -
0:21:58 > 0:22:00better intelligence.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03In a room here in the Admiralty that was so secret
0:22:03 > 0:22:06some in the naval hierarchy couldn't even work out where it was,
0:22:06 > 0:22:11a group of code-breakers was working on intercepted German messages.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15'That room was called Room 40.'
0:22:15 > 0:22:18I've always loved the sound of "Room 40".
0:22:18 > 0:22:21It just conjures up all sorts of images of James Bond
0:22:21 > 0:22:23and secret services.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27It was where the Admiralty assembled German speakers who could
0:22:27 > 0:22:30make sense of the messages that were being
0:22:30 > 0:22:34intercepted by the Navy's wireless telegraphy stations.
0:22:34 > 0:22:40That makes it the ancestor of Bletchley Park, Enigma, GCHQ,
0:22:40 > 0:22:44all of the world of cyber and intercepts that we live with today.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51'GCHQ historian Tony Comer has a copy of a captured German
0:22:51 > 0:22:54'code book, which enabled staff in Room 40
0:22:54 > 0:22:57'to start decrypting enemy signals.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01'To understand why the commanders didn't push home their intelligence
0:23:01 > 0:23:03'advantage, we need to look
0:23:03 > 0:23:06'at the hours immediately before the battle.'
0:23:06 > 0:23:08What we've got here is an original German naval chart
0:23:08 > 0:23:11of the North Sea, from the First World War.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14Early in the morning of the 30th of May,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18there are a couple of intercepted messages, which are decrypted,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23that the German fleet is to be assembled in the outer roads by 9pm.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26So here we go, let's put the German fleet in the outer roads here.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28The Brits know they are there.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30So, at the moment, they're on top of the game,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32they know what's going on.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36'This intelligence prompts Jellicoe and Beatty's fleets out to sea.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38- Beatty is coming out of here. - Beatty comes out.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Jellicoe, but he's bringing the might of the super-dreadnoughts
0:23:42 > 0:23:45down here from Orkney. And they're going east, right?
0:23:45 > 0:23:47So they're hoping to ambush them somewhere around here.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50This is hundreds of years of history turned on its head,
0:23:50 > 0:23:52when what you did in the olden days was go out to sea,
0:23:52 > 0:23:54have a look to see if you can see the enemy ships
0:23:54 > 0:23:57and then go and fight them. This is just a new world.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00'But the British commanders weren't ready to relinquish
0:24:00 > 0:24:04'some of their control, especially to civilians.'
0:24:04 > 0:24:08The intercepted messages are being handed to the cryptanalysts.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12That causes some difficulties between the professional
0:24:12 > 0:24:16naval officers and their new civilian colleagues.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18This requires a level of central control from London
0:24:18 > 0:24:20that the Navy is just not used to.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22I mean, you've got somebody afloat thinking,
0:24:22 > 0:24:26"What on earth does this guy in London know about my job?"
0:24:26 > 0:24:28'But to some extent they were right,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31'because the intelligence was not always clear.'
0:24:31 > 0:24:33The telegram goes from the Admiralty to Jellicoe.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37"No definite news, enemy. It was thought fleet had sailed,
0:24:37 > 0:24:41"but directional signals places flagship on the Jade at 11:10."
0:24:41 > 0:24:42On the river. Hang on. OK,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46I'll move these guys back into their river harbour.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49'But, due to a breakdown in communication between Room 40
0:24:49 > 0:24:53'and Admiralty chiefs, this intelligence was wrong.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56'The German fleet had in fact already sailed.'
0:24:56 > 0:24:58Do the Brits leave harbour?
0:24:58 > 0:25:00They still leave harbour, but although the British are at sea
0:25:00 > 0:25:03they're not expecting to find the Germans.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06'Jellicoe advanced slowly to save fuel.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09'And his deputy, Beatty, forged ahead,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13'not realising this was playing into Scheer's hands.'
0:25:13 > 0:25:16So the intelligence aspect of Jutland is a bit of a tragedy,
0:25:16 > 0:25:17really, isn't it?
0:25:17 > 0:25:21'Being able to decrypt intercepted German messages should have
0:25:21 > 0:25:25'given the British a clear advantage.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29'But it was a technological leap too far for the admirals at sea,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32'who didn't trust it and failed to exploit it.'
0:25:35 > 0:25:37Jellicoe's deputy, Admiral Beatty,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40was steaming east, spoiling for a fight.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45And that same afternoon, on May 31st, his wish was granted
0:25:45 > 0:25:48when a scouting party from his Battlecruiser Squadron came
0:25:48 > 0:25:50face-to-face with the enemy.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57At 2:20pm, HMS Galatea sent a wireless message to Beatty's
0:25:57 > 0:25:59battle cruiser fleet.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02"Urgent, five cruisers, probably hostile, in sight,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05"bearing east southeast, course unknown."
0:26:05 > 0:26:07'They had sighted the foremost elements
0:26:07 > 0:26:09'of the German High Seas Fleet.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13'The Battle Of Jutland had begun.'
0:26:13 > 0:26:15"The atmosphere is good.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20"The crew, numbering about 16, have all got their individual jobs.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24"The guns being loaded, the next order was passed.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26" 'Bring the guns to the ready.'
0:26:26 > 0:26:28"When the guns are brought to the ready,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31"you simply wait for the open fire.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35"We were looking forward to a chance to have a crack at the enemy.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38"We were keen. This was the day we were waiting for."
0:26:43 > 0:26:46In the very first moments of the battle, you can see how
0:26:46 > 0:26:50modern practices had not been fully embraced by the admirals at sea.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54Beatty was eager to pursue the enemy
0:26:54 > 0:26:58and he sent a crucial message for his fleet to change course.
0:26:58 > 0:27:04But instead of using newly invented wireless, he used signal flags.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08This was a tried-and-tested system dating from the age of sail.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13But with the new dreadnought warships, the whole concept
0:27:13 > 0:27:17of naval battles had changed, and so had the size of the battlefield.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22Hi, Dan, how are you doing? Good to see you.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26A vital part of Beatty's fleets, the Fifth Battle Squadron,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29a group of powerful super-dreadnoughts,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31were following five miles behind.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37But just how easy is it to read a flag signal at that distance?
0:27:37 > 0:27:40I'm heading out with the Navy on their training ship,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43HMS Exploit, to find out.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45And Nick is going to fly a flag signal
0:27:45 > 0:27:47from Southsea Castle in Portsmouth.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49Look at the size of these flags.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Southsea Castle, this is warship Exploit, we're on our way. Over.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59HE BLOWS WHISTLE
0:28:01 > 0:28:03We've reached our target, but even with
0:28:03 > 0:28:08the help of Chief Petty Officer Dan Powditch, I can't see a thing.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10What's... Visibility is less than five miles, isn't it?
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Well under five miles at the moment.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15You see, that's interesting, because at the Battle Of Jutland,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18ships were spread well over five miles, so conditions like this,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21- they wouldn't have been able to even see their admiral.- Not at all.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24At the moment, Nick, we can't see the shore, let alone the flag,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28so I think we better close for about three miles. Over.
0:28:28 > 0:28:29- Amidships.- Amidships.
0:28:31 > 0:28:32It is a hazy day today, isn't it?
0:28:32 > 0:28:35But then we're told the Battle Of Jutland was very murky, very cloudy.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38And there was all the huge amounts of smoke being created by all
0:28:38 > 0:28:40the battleships themselves.
0:28:41 > 0:28:47At three miles, I'm still having problems. So we close into two.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50Black and white lighthouse, it's just to the right of there.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54There's a pennant, a white pennant with some red on it.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Then there's a Union Jack with a border, and then there's
0:28:57 > 0:29:00a yellow with a black spot, a big one, at the bottom.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04We can refer to this, which was the 1913 Fleet Signal Book.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07So the white pennant comes as leading ships together,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11the rest in succession to the point or degree indicated.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15So he's ordering a change of course.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19'Together, Delta and Hotel indicated the direction south-southeast.'
0:29:19 > 0:29:21OVER RADIO: So we think we've worked it out.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25We have to alter course, leading ships, and the rest turning
0:29:25 > 0:29:27in succession to south-southeast.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31- How about that?- That's spot-on, Dan, absolutely correct.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36In the days of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39the battlefield would have been mere metres wide.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42But by Jutland, the ships were stretched out over miles
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and the air was thick with coal smoke.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50When Beatty signalled to his fleet to change course, the message
0:29:50 > 0:29:54wasn't picked up by the Fifth Battle Squadron five miles away.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58By the time they took action, they'd fallen ten miles behind.
0:30:00 > 0:30:01His use of flag signals
0:30:01 > 0:30:06and his gung-ho attitude in steaming ahead without the super-dreadnoughts
0:30:06 > 0:30:10had put his whole fleet, including the Queen Mary, at risk.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15This didn't faze Admiral Beatty.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17After all, his battle cruisers were faster
0:30:17 > 0:30:21and had superior weaponry to the Germans.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23But here's the problem -
0:30:23 > 0:30:26in this new age of fast-moving super-dreadnoughts, with powerful
0:30:26 > 0:30:28long-range guns,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31hitting a target was more difficult than it had ever been.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Today, before any Royal Navy warship, like HMS Portland,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41sets off on a mission, it does weeks of training.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44I've come on board Portland just as they're about to conduct what
0:30:44 > 0:30:46they call their gunnery serial.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49They'll be firing all their guns, large and small,
0:30:49 > 0:30:53checking they all work, and also practising hitting a target.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00But in the run-up to Jutland, Beatty's squadron had been
0:31:00 > 0:31:03stationed at Rosyth, in the shelter of the Firth of Forth,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07and had barely been able to practise firing their guns at all.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13To watch these powerful guns up close, I'm in full safety gear.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Four, five, about to function.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17Four, five, about to function.
0:31:20 > 0:31:21Oh!
0:31:23 > 0:31:26The sound, there's a shock wave that hits you, it passes
0:31:26 > 0:31:29straight through your body, it's like an electric shock, almost.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33And that is a fraction of the size of the guns
0:31:33 > 0:31:35they were using at Jutland.
0:31:37 > 0:31:38To get these guns firing,
0:31:38 > 0:31:43most of the important work happens down below, in the operations room.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47JSA bearing 234, range 22,400 yards, going to start a safety check.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51Nowadays, the captain is down here in the bowels of the ship.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53This is the ops room, this is the brains of the operation.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56Back then, of course, it was on the bridge, they needed to see.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59The best equipment they had for monitoring the enemy's position
0:31:59 > 0:32:00was the eyeball.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03- Zero two, engage.- Zero two, shoot.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10But they did have a new piece of technology at Jutland to
0:32:10 > 0:32:12help them hit the target.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15And optical engineer Alan Ray from Thales
0:32:15 > 0:32:17has brought one on board today.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21- Right, Alan, what have you got here? - OK, this is an FT37 rangefinder.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24It's very representative of the range-finding technology
0:32:24 > 0:32:26which was used at the Battle Of Jutland.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28So they actually had some kit that helped them
0:32:28 > 0:32:31- to calculate how far the ships were away?- Absolutely.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34This was state-of-the-art technology in 1916.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36And these guys would have been right up at the top of the ship,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38above the smoke, hopefully,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40and they'd try and pick out the enemy ships?
0:32:40 > 0:32:43So there's a tanker there.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47OK, I've got that tanker in my eyepiece right now.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49And if you adjust that control there, that will
0:32:49 > 0:32:51move the prisms at either end.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54You'll see the targets slowly starting to align.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57You then make the measurement in the left-hand eyepiece.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00OK, sounds complicated.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02This is the worst job on the ship.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05I'd rather clean out the bilges.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10- Remember, you're under fire as well. - Thank you!
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Oh, it is so fiddly, but I actually am getting it slightly.
0:33:14 > 0:33:16You can see, there's a ghost ship, and then the real ship,
0:33:16 > 0:33:18and you've just got to try and get them to overlap.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21- Get them to- line up. So, I'm going to take a punt here, Alan.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25I reckon it's about 4,200 metres. Where's Keith?
0:33:25 > 0:33:28Keith, have you got a distance to that ship?
0:33:28 > 0:33:32'Lieutenant Commander Keith Bowers has used a laser rangefinder
0:33:32 > 0:33:34'to measure the distance.'
0:33:34 > 0:33:364,040 metres at the moment.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40That's not bad, is it? For an amateur, a novice.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43Very good, very close. Only 160 metres out.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45Of course, if you were in Jutland now in a turret,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47the ship would be pitching around,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50no stabilisation. We're on a quite calm, stable platform at the moment.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52It makes it a lot easier for you today.
0:33:52 > 0:33:53I'm patting myself on the back,
0:33:53 > 0:33:56- but I've still missed the ship, haven't I?- Absolutely.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00This gets you close, but you've got to get those
0:34:00 > 0:34:03shells on such a tiny target.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06And you've got to be able to hit that target before it hits you.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11You've got to remember, the distances at Jutland were much, much
0:34:11 > 0:34:15more than 4,000 metres, they were distances of over 20,000 yards.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19The enemy ships would be obscured in the haze, in the gun smoke.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23The crew would have been deafened and distracted.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26I'm amazed they got any shells anywhere near their targets.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Range-finding technology had not kept pace with gunnery.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Though Beatty's guns could fire further than his enemy,
0:34:36 > 0:34:40he had to delay shooting until his men could fix their target,
0:34:40 > 0:34:42by which time he had lost that advantage.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46In the first phase of the battle,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49it was the Germans who registered far more hits.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52And to compensate for their lack of practice
0:34:52 > 0:34:56and the difficulty of range-finding, Beatty demanded his gunnery
0:34:56 > 0:35:00teams did everything possible to increase the rate of fire.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10After sighting the enemy, Beatty turned his fleet in pursuit,
0:35:10 > 0:35:12unaware they were drawing him towards
0:35:12 > 0:35:14the rest of the High Seas Fleet.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19Within two hours, he'd lost two of his battle cruisers,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22Indefatigable and Queen Mary,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25and more than 2,000 British sailors were dead.
0:35:30 > 0:35:31I want to work out
0:35:31 > 0:35:34whether so many British sailors died at Jutland not because of
0:35:34 > 0:35:38tactics, but because the ships they sailed in were inherently unsafe.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43At the time, many believed German ships were more resilient
0:35:43 > 0:35:46than British ones, and therefore safer.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Back at Southampton University, Professor Philip Wilson
0:35:50 > 0:35:52and his colleague, Dr Jon Downes,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56have built an engineering model of the hull of the battle cruiser
0:35:56 > 0:36:00HMS Queen Mary, which they're launching in their towing tank.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04So what's the plan for the experiment?
0:36:04 > 0:36:08Well, the plan is to use the Queen Mary model to mimic what
0:36:08 > 0:36:12happened to the Seydlitz. So, would the Queen Mary have sunk had
0:36:12 > 0:36:16it had the same number of hits as the Seydlitz had, which didn't sink?
0:36:16 > 0:36:20The German battle cruiser, Seydlitz, was hit 24 times,
0:36:20 > 0:36:24but still managed to limp badly damaged back into port.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29We're going to subject our model to the same damage,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31'and a computer program will simulate
0:36:31 > 0:36:34'how it causes the ship's compartments to flood.'
0:36:35 > 0:36:40So if I run that, you can see there the first five hits
0:36:40 > 0:36:43have got a very small amount of water entering the vessel.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46Following the computer's calculations, we're
0:36:46 > 0:36:49pouring an equivalent quantity of water into the areas of the
0:36:49 > 0:36:53ship that would have been flooded after those first five hits.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58The next six or seven hits did very little damage as well
0:36:58 > 0:37:01because they were hitting the superstructure.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Then we come to a major hit, amidships.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06The twelfth hit on the Seydlitz caused serious flooding.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11We can see the vessel is beginning to sink lower in the water there.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14That's it, keep it coming, keep it coming.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17It's amazing how much water you can get on this ship,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20and it's not really changing where it sits in the water.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23No, it's gone down only a very small amount.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25- And we've taken a lot of damage there.- 12 hits.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28And that's more than the Queen Mary took altogether.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32The Queen Mary was hit only seven times before she sank.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35Here, as the hit count reaches 20, she's still afloat.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39The big one is to come yet.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41The final hit to the Seydlitz came
0:37:41 > 0:37:43from a torpedo which struck near the bow.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Gosh, I think it's going to sink.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52'Now it puts our model under serious strain.'
0:37:55 > 0:37:57You can see the bow going way down now.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59'But still she doesn't sink.'
0:37:59 > 0:38:03So the Queen Mary has had all the hits that the Seydlitz had.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06- And yet she's still afloat. - All 24 hits.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09So there really doesn't seem to be any difference between the designs.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11Yes.
0:38:11 > 0:38:12By the end of our experiment,
0:38:12 > 0:38:16a century-long debate has been put to rest.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20British ship design was not intrinsically inferior to German.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24It was not the reason why so many British ships sank
0:38:24 > 0:38:28while their German equivalents limped home to port.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37So if ship design wasn't at fault, what was?
0:38:37 > 0:38:40The five largest British ships had one thing in common.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44Witnesses described catastrophic explosions on board
0:38:44 > 0:38:46before they sank.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51There's a powerful account of the Queen Mary's last moments
0:38:51 > 0:38:53from a German officer who watched her go down.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58"Black debris of the ship flew into the air and immediately afterwards
0:38:58 > 0:39:01"the whole ship blew up with a terrific explosion.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06"A gigantic cloud of smoke rose, the mast collapsed inwards
0:39:06 > 0:39:10"and the smoke cloud hid everything and rose higher and higher.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15"Finally, nothing but a thick black cloud of smoke remained
0:39:15 > 0:39:18"where the ship had been."
0:39:18 > 0:39:21It seems to me such a devastating explosion could only have
0:39:21 > 0:39:25been caused by a direct hit on the ship's magazine,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29full of high-explosive shells and propellant, or cordite.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35A direct hit might just explain one loss,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38but could all five British ships have been so unlucky?
0:39:39 > 0:39:43This is the deep magazine where they store the ammunition.
0:39:43 > 0:39:44Now, as the name suggests,
0:39:44 > 0:39:46it's right down in the bottom of the ship.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50We are below the water line now, and that meant it could be
0:39:50 > 0:39:53a very unpleasant place to be in a battle.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59The deep magazine holds hundreds of high-explosive shells.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02And at Jutland, they were purposely overstocked
0:40:02 > 0:40:04because of their fast-firing tactics.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09On HMS Portland, Chief Petty Officer Simon Piles
0:40:09 > 0:40:11is in charge of ammunition.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Here we go, OK. That is your classic shell there.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18- Yeah.- Can I have a go? How heavy is it?
0:40:18 > 0:40:20Give it on the old legs rather than... Oh, my...!
0:40:20 > 0:40:22OK. HE LAUGHS
0:40:22 > 0:40:24- So that...- Yeah.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26In there, that's the cordite, right?
0:40:26 > 0:40:27Yeah.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31'Nowadays, the cordite and the high explosive
0:40:31 > 0:40:33'are all encased in one shell.'
0:40:34 > 0:40:38But at Jutland, cordite was added to the shell in the gun turret.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42Four big bags for every shot.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44- That's incredibly dangerous. - Yeah, very dangerous.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48I'll put that back. So on a big battleship in Jutland,
0:40:48 > 0:40:50they'd have had hundreds, over 1,000 shells.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52Over 1,000, I would say, yeah.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54Also you'd be trying to get shells and the cordite to the gun
0:40:54 > 0:40:56- as quickly as possible.- Yeah.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58Perhaps it's not as safe as it could have been.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02The high rate of fire meant a constant supply of shells
0:41:02 > 0:41:05and bags of cordite had to be kept ready in the confined space
0:41:05 > 0:41:08of the gun turret.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Magazine doors were propped open to speed up the process.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22'Royal Navy crews were bypassing safety procedures
0:41:22 > 0:41:25'to achieve the high rates of fire being asked of them.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28'It sounds highly risky and I want to find out
0:41:28 > 0:41:30'what the consequences could have been.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34'We're at Cranfield University's weapons testing range,
0:41:34 > 0:41:35'on Salisbury Plain.'
0:41:35 > 0:41:38I guess, I mean, that's what's so fascinating about Jutland
0:41:38 > 0:41:39is how those big ships blew up.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42There's plenty of potential, they were crammed with high explosives.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45We know there were massive explosions on board.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48What we don't know is whether cordite played a role
0:41:48 > 0:41:51in sending those ships to the bottom of the sea.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57We're meeting explosives expert, Trevor Laurence.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00OK, so what we've got here is a modern-day equivalent of cordite.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03So would it have been in this kind of form, then?
0:42:03 > 0:42:05Yes, this is a typical way that you would keep a gun propellant,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08in this sort of stick form inside these bag charges.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11If I put a match to that, what would happen?
0:42:11 > 0:42:15Standby. Three, two, one, firing.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Set alight in open air, cordite produces a flame
0:42:21 > 0:42:22that seems easy to control.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25- OK.- Lot of smoke. - Yes, indeed.- Yeah!
0:42:25 > 0:42:28But as you can see, that burned really slowly.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30Especially in explosive terms.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Now Trevor is setting light to the same amount of propellant,
0:42:34 > 0:42:37but enclosed in a metal ammunition box.
0:42:38 > 0:42:39Firing...
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Confined in a box or a gun barrel,
0:42:44 > 0:42:46the cordite behaves very differently.
0:42:46 > 0:42:47It explodes.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52So those three little bags did this kind of damage.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Indeed, and that's all because we confined it.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56There's a big pressure build-up inside there.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58When that happens, it become strong enough
0:42:58 > 0:43:01that it overcomes the confinement and it vents.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03- The lid blew off.- Exactly.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09At Jutland, there were hundreds of big sacks of cordite.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11But most of them were down in the magazine,
0:43:11 > 0:43:14protected by the ship's armour from anything but a direct hit.
0:43:20 > 0:43:22So now we've built a mini version of that part of the ship,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24along with a gun turret,
0:43:24 > 0:43:28to try and find out what might have happened in the battle.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30Right, Trevor, there's our battleship.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33- There it is. Ready to go. - A gun turret and magazine.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39So I've got a cross-section of the Queen Mary here.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41OK. Right.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44So basically a slice, straight down the middle.
0:43:44 > 0:43:46So this represents the gun turret,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50where there would be a small amount of propellant ready for use there.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53- So that's that bit on the drawing. - That's it up here, exactly.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55This represents our revolving hoist,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58which is the link between the gun turret and the magazines
0:43:58 > 0:43:59that store the main amount of propellant.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01So the Queen Mary's magazines
0:44:01 > 0:44:03would have been absolutely stuffed with high explosives.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Yeah, exactly. They're going into a major battle.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12We're going to load our makeshift magazine
0:44:12 > 0:44:13just like the ships at Jutland.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15So Trevor, how much are we putting in here?
0:44:15 > 0:44:20We're putting about 30kg of propellant in the main container.
0:44:20 > 0:44:21We need to save six of these,
0:44:21 > 0:44:24cos they're going to go into the turret box.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30We're mimicking the conditions at Jutland as closely as possible.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32The cordite in the gun house
0:44:32 > 0:44:35and the doors to the deep magazine left open.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37- So propellant in the gun turrets. - OK.
0:44:37 > 0:44:39The lift is open.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42And the magazines are stashed.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44OK, we're all good to go, then.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48Now Trevor's going to set light to the propellant,
0:44:48 > 0:44:52just in the top compartment, to simulate a hit on the gun turret.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54- OVER RADIO:- 'Roger. Ready.'
0:44:54 > 0:44:57OK, Shini. I'm getting nervous here.
0:44:57 > 0:45:02Firing in three, two, one. Firing.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Whoa!
0:45:15 > 0:45:16It's blown it up.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19- That would sink a ship, wouldn't it? - Yeah.
0:45:19 > 0:45:20Structural damage.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25The range's slow-motion cameras show how quickly the fire spreads
0:45:25 > 0:45:28from the smaller to the larger compartment.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32You can clearly see the flash travelling down from our gun turret
0:45:32 > 0:45:34down into the magazine.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36Such is the power of the explosion up in the turret,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39it can just drive it down into the hull of the ship.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41It's got nowhere else to go.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44- So it's taking the path of least resistance.- Exactly.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47So it's had to vent out the best move it's got, which is
0:45:47 > 0:45:50down into the magazine, the last place you'd want it to be going.
0:45:52 > 0:45:53In the heat of the battle,
0:45:53 > 0:45:56if the cordite stacked in the armoured turrets was set alight,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00the pressure would have forced a flash fire down the shaft
0:46:00 > 0:46:03into the magazine below, packed full of high explosive.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12That build-up of pressure has bowed the whole thing,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15- and it's started to fail along that seam here.- Yeah.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19And it has effectively ripped this in half down either side,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22which is exactly what happened to those battle crews at Jutland.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25Exactly. If it had been a little bit more highly confined,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27then it would have torn the whole thing apart.
0:46:29 > 0:46:30At Jutland, the ship's armour
0:46:30 > 0:46:33would only have increased the force of the explosion.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36And when you think of those battle cruisers,
0:46:36 > 0:46:37how armoured they were,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40I mean, they were just solid metal boxes.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43It's interesting to think that the armour that was put on the outside
0:46:43 > 0:46:44to protect from the outside threat
0:46:44 > 0:46:47actually made the internal event that much worse.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53The commanders had put firepower before safety.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57Bags of cordite stacked in the gun turret,
0:46:57 > 0:47:00some split in the haste to reload.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04Magazine doors propped open, against safety procedure.
0:47:04 > 0:47:09All created the perfect conditions for a catastrophic explosion.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15Far from being destroyed by the might of the German onslaught,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19it's likely that the biggest British ships at Jutland sank
0:47:19 > 0:47:22because of their own unsafe practices.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26The result was a death toll of more than 6,000 men.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36- NICK:- Such large numbers of deaths can be hard to grasp,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39so for my exhibition I've been meeting relatives of those
0:47:39 > 0:47:44who died at Jutland to get a sense of what individual men went through.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47- Well, here are the two brothers. - Yeah.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51And this is Archie, my uncle.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53And this is my father, Bertie.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55They look so serious, don't they?
0:47:55 > 0:48:00Bertie survived, and Archie was a casualty of Queen Mary.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02'Elizabeth Dickson lost her uncle
0:48:02 > 0:48:05'to one of the battle's devastating explosions.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09'Archie had followed his brother Bertie into the navy.'
0:48:09 > 0:48:11- He was just 16.- 16?
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Yes, very young, and Dad was maybe just 18.
0:48:15 > 0:48:20And he discovered about the death of his brother
0:48:20 > 0:48:23when he was looking through the periscope, you know,
0:48:23 > 0:48:24expecting to see Queen Mary.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27And he knows at that point that his brother's gone.
0:48:29 > 0:48:30I must show you this.
0:48:30 > 0:48:35'Every bereaved family was sent a commemorative plaque.'
0:48:35 > 0:48:37There's Britannia and this big lion.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40- Yours is obviously much-loved and cherished.- Yes.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42But some families really resented receiving this
0:48:42 > 0:48:46as some sort of compensation for a lost child.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51'Letters reveal the pain of losing a son.'
0:48:51 > 0:48:54- These are your grandmother's... - Yes.- ..letters to Bertie.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57How poignant is that? "My dearest and only boy."
0:48:57 > 0:48:59- "My dearest and only boy." - He wasn't the only boy, was he,
0:48:59 > 0:49:01- until the Battle Of Jutland.- No.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06"We can't tell each other in writing what we are feeling today.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11"My world was divided into three parts.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13"And a third has crumbled away."
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Goodness. Absolutely heartbreaking, isn't it? Isn't it?
0:49:18 > 0:49:21Archie's mother, Kathleen, was desperate to find out
0:49:21 > 0:49:23how her son died.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26There were only 18 survivors of the Queen Mary.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32Jocelyn Storey is one of them, and they started up a correspondence.
0:49:32 > 0:49:37He had to convey which appalling fate Archie suffered,
0:49:37 > 0:49:41whether he was burned to death in this turret.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45There's another survivor, Humphrey Durrent.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49She goes to see him in hospital,
0:49:49 > 0:49:54and she says, "He was just able to speak to me."
0:49:54 > 0:49:56And he died about five days later.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02Kathleen questioned why Archie and so many others had to die.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05My grandmother was not someone given to anger,
0:50:05 > 0:50:12but she did say about Admiral Beatty and his tactics,
0:50:12 > 0:50:16"For no other reason than to demonstrate British pluck,
0:50:16 > 0:50:19"he would deserve to be shot."
0:50:19 > 0:50:20Goodness.
0:50:20 > 0:50:25And this is because she believed that Archie would be still with her
0:50:25 > 0:50:29if the strategy hadn't followed the lines that it did.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33And therefore, she speaks for so many other women.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39The explosion on the Queen Mary,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42probably caused by the mishandling of cordite,
0:50:42 > 0:50:44left more than 1,000 families
0:50:44 > 0:50:47with no grave to visit to mourn their loved ones.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51And little or no information about how they had died.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05Just after the Queen Mary sank so catastrophically,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Beatty turned his battered battle cruisers north,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11leading the German High Seas Fleet
0:51:11 > 0:51:14straight into the path of Admiral Jellicoe's Grand Fleet.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Now the navies went head-to-head.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22Two more big British ships, Defence and Invincible,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24sank following gigantic explosions.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28By the end of the battle,
0:51:28 > 0:51:33Britain had lost a total of 14 ships, while Germany had lost 11.
0:51:33 > 0:51:396,094 British sailors had died, and 2,551 German.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45But the might of Jellicoe's Grand Fleet, once it joined the battle,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47was too much for the Germans.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52Under cover of darkness, their High Seas Fleet fled back to port
0:51:52 > 0:51:55and never challenged the British again for the rest of the war.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00"We steamed over the scene of the action.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04"We passed masses of floating wreckage, spars, ditty boxes,
0:52:04 > 0:52:07"fragments of lifeboats and many bodies.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11"After steaming about this gruesome locality,
0:52:11 > 0:52:15"the scene of many triumphs and losses, for many hours,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17"we shaped course for home."
0:52:20 > 0:52:22Despite the German retreat,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25in Britain, because of the huge loss of life,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29Jutland was viewed by many as a humiliating defeat.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32And an irrelevant sideshow to the war on land.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37But I think there's another way of judging
0:52:37 > 0:52:39the importance of the Battle Of Jutland.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42The Royal Navy's key objective
0:52:42 > 0:52:45was to enforce a blockade of the North Sea,
0:52:45 > 0:52:47Germany's only shipping route.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51Blocking it stopped vital resources from reaching them.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57And, despite British losses at Jutland, the blockade stood firm.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00At the Imperial War Museum,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03curator Ian Kikuchi has a collection of artefacts
0:53:03 > 0:53:06that give clues about how effective it was.
0:53:06 > 0:53:12So this first object is actually a pair of wartime bloomers.
0:53:12 > 0:53:13Bloomers?
0:53:13 > 0:53:16They're actually made of woven paper.
0:53:16 > 0:53:17So they have no cotton.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20This is the blockade really starting to bite them.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25This is a roll of lace that's been cut up for use as a bandage.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27So this is basically lace from clothing?
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Clothing or possibly curtains or something like that.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32That's not going to go down very well at home.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34- If you were asked to sacrifice your curtains...- Yes.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36..you know things aren't going well.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40'German propaganda posters hold more evidence
0:53:40 > 0:53:43'of how resources were running thin.'
0:53:43 > 0:53:45So this is a poster for a product called He-Ka,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48which was a kind of Fleischersatz, a meat substitute.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50Yeast and potato soup.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52Sounds absolutely disgusting.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55So this is a society that's starting to run out of food.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58Yes, this is... By this point the blockade is being called
0:53:58 > 0:54:01the hunger blockade, it's causing hunger in Germany.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04It's masking a really quite desperate situation.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09It's hard to gauge just how desperate things became in Germany,
0:54:09 > 0:54:12because most of our information comes from government propaganda.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17So this is presented as the impact of blockade on Germany.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20And we've got five children, five brothers.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23'The numbers they carry are their ages.'
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Now they're going to bring out two normal children.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28Two normal children. Here you are, significantly bigger.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31- I mean, that's pretty dramatic. - Yeah, it's really sad.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34- So this is malnutrition.- Yeah.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37'Dr Mary Cox, a historian at Oxford University,
0:54:37 > 0:54:39'was looking for reliable evidence
0:54:39 > 0:54:42'to measure how the blockade affected German health.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46'She came across a rare book
0:54:46 > 0:54:47'which revealed the true extent
0:54:47 > 0:54:50'of the deprivation children had suffered.'
0:54:50 > 0:54:53Somebody collected the heights and weights of schoolchildren
0:54:53 > 0:54:55from different schools across the country.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58We have records for 23 different cities.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Almost 600,000 schoolchildren.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04If deprivation is of long enough duration, and severe enough,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07we would expect that it would change the growth patterns of children.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10OK. 64 thousand dollar question is, does it?
0:55:10 > 0:55:11- Yes, yeah.- OK.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15So here, in this column we have the age of the child.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19- Yeah.- And then the mean height for specific years.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21So if we look at 6½- to 7-year-old children,
0:55:21 > 0:55:26the mean height of children that age in 1913 was 115 centimetres.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30- OK.- And if you look from 1915 to 1916, it goes to 114 then 113.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32OK. It's dramatic, isn't it?
0:55:32 > 0:55:35What we're seeing just here, in this small example,
0:55:35 > 0:55:39just in a matter of couple of years, they're two centimetres smaller.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43'There's evidence of a sharp decline after the Battle Of Jutland.'
0:55:43 > 0:55:46So in particular the winter of 1916-1917
0:55:46 > 0:55:48is known as the "turnip winter".
0:55:48 > 0:55:52Turnips were a foodstuff that were primarily eaten by pigs.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54- OK.- But people in Germany were so hungry that they were...
0:55:54 > 0:55:56- Being forced to eat pig food.- Yeah.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00So this is a letter written in Essen in August 1917.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03This woman is writing a letter to her husband,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05and she comments on their daughter, Erica.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08"Erica loses more and more weight and looks bad.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12"She's no longer the healthy, strong child of whom we were so proud.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16"In the last six months, we've just had too little fat in the food.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18"This winter will be even worse.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20"You ought to hear her whine for buttered bread."
0:56:20 > 0:56:23So this blockade is effective
0:56:23 > 0:56:26and it's being waged against the civilian population.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31The blockade was also affecting German troops on the front line.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34And, however unacceptable we find it today,
0:56:34 > 0:56:37starving people of resources and food
0:56:37 > 0:56:39was a vital weapon in winning the war.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45Jutland showed the Germans they couldn't break the blockade
0:56:45 > 0:56:47by going head-to-head with the Royal Navy,
0:56:47 > 0:56:50and they never risked it again.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57The Battle Of Jutland was certainly no glorious victory.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02But here in Trafalgar Square, in the shadow of Nelson's Column,
0:57:02 > 0:57:06the British admirals at Jutland have a place of honour.
0:57:06 > 0:57:09Statues of Jellicoe and Beatty
0:57:09 > 0:57:12are testament to its significance to the First World War.
0:57:12 > 0:57:16And the fountains are also dedicated to their memory.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19The reality is that we won that war
0:57:19 > 0:57:22because of the pressure of naval power,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25and Jutland was the key victory.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28That victory ensured that Britain would not be defeated
0:57:28 > 0:57:30and that Germany ultimately would be defeated.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33And therefore I see it as the most important battle
0:57:33 > 0:57:35that Britain fought in the First World War.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41But that was small comfort for the families of the thousands of men
0:57:41 > 0:57:46who died in the grey wastes of a cold ocean, far from home.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48Families that had no grave to visit
0:57:48 > 0:57:51and just a small bronze plaque to record their loss.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56Many of those that died were so young, like Archie Dickson,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59and Leonard Kilburn, barely out of childhood.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03We can now better understand
0:58:03 > 0:58:06why there was such a huge loss of life on that spring day.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10Why some of the Royal Navy's newest ships sank so quickly.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14And how that could have been avoided.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20But, after 100 years, perhaps it's time to recognise
0:58:20 > 0:58:23the true importance of the Battle Of Jutland,
0:58:23 > 0:58:27a last great and terrible clash of battleships,
0:58:27 > 0:58:30a battle which ultimately led to Allied victory
0:58:30 > 0:58:33in the First World War.