War History Online has an
article about a commemoration of the
Battle of Jutland:
Very rarely does one witness events like the one that is planned by British and German naval authorities for next year. Warships from Britain and Germany will lay wreaths in commemoration of the fallen soldiers from the both sides in the famous Battle of Jutland (photo). Twenty-five hundred German and six thousand British sailors perished in the clash in 1916 during the First World War.
The ceremony will take place on 31 May 2016 off the Danish coast near Jutland Bank, as commemoration of the centenary of the famous battle. The ceremony will kickstart a series of events remembering the events and fallen soldiers of the battle in Germany and the United Kingdom. In the UK, a commemorative service will take place at St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall on the Scottish island of Orkney. There are preparations to lay paving stones to pay tributes to four recipients of the Victoria Cross at Jutland. In Germany, however a variety of different events are being planned. Quite a few ceremonies will be held in Wilhelmshaven, known as the home to the German High Seas Fleet , part of the Imperial German Battle Fleet.
Early on in the First World War, German war tactics heavily relied on the effective and safe coded communication that enabled them to ambush Allied convoys and wreak havoc on British shipping. British code breakers painstakingly broke through German codes and its mechanism, and soon managed to crack the code. The very first piece of information that Royal Navy commanders received was the presence of German warships off the Danish shore. Britain saw this as an opportunity to gain the upper hand over the German navy by ambushing German warships, thus giving Germans a taste of their own medicine. British fleets anchored at the natural harbors of Orkney and caught the German off guard some seventy miles off the Danish shore. The battle involved more than a hundred thousand men on both sides, on board two hundred and fifty ships, and continued for three days. Britain quickly faced a setback when two of its more reliable warships sank, killing 2,200 sailors. By the end of the battle, the German fleet took advantage of the dark and managed to escape, quickly proclaiming victory over Britain.
Despite the fact that Germany always maintained victory in the Battle of Jutland, in reality it was a victory for Britain. After retreating from the battle, the German campaign in the waters surrounding Britain fundamentally shifted from an open ambush strategy to more of stealth missions using U-boats, The Guardian reports.
For the Royal Navy, the Battle of Jutland was a success because it upheld British honor and superiority, restricting Germany to a very small operational patch of water. Although U-boats were still very damaging to the convoys, and quite effective in ambushing, but deploying an adequate convoy method rendered U-boats ineffective, and some actually were destroyed while trying to stage an ambush on trade convoys.
The British government is spending £50m towards commemoration of the centenary of World War One across the country. A significant amount is being spent in generating interests among pupils and young adults about the events of the First World War and its historic significance.
Rico says how quickly we forget...
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