The wider war

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A was the sinking of the Lusitania (7 May 1915). B was Germany's decision to resume unrestricted submarine warfare from 1 February 1917, sinking any ship in the waters around Britain without warning, including neutral American ships.

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Source A presents Jutland as a German triumph because it shows British warships sinking in smoke while a German battleship fires at them, and the caption claims 'The English fleet beaten!' Admiral Scheer, the German commander, is shown surrounded by oak leaves, a German symbol of victory and strength, as if he were a national hero. The postcard was based on real German successes: at Jutland, which Germans called the Battle of the Skagerrak, Britain lost 14 ships, including three battlecruisers that blew up, and about 6,100 men, compared with German losses of 11 ships and about 2,550 men. The Kaiser celebrated a great victory and claimed the 'spell of Trafalgar' had been broken. However, the postcard was published in June 1916 to boost morale at home, when Germans were suffering from food shortages caused by the British blockade and from heavy losses at Verdun. It ignores the fact that the German fleet fled back to port and never again challenged the Grand Fleet, so Britain kept control of the North Sea.

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Source B is useful because it shows several reasons why the campaign was failing, seen by someone who had visited Anzac Cove in 1915. Murdoch blames poor planning and leadership, especially the failure at Suvla Bay. This fits what we know: the Suvla landing in August met little resistance, but General Stopford failed to push inland quickly, so Turkish reinforcements occupied the hills and the offensive failed. Murdoch's description of sickness and low morale is also accurate; by late summer heat, flies, dysentery and shortages of water had left most of the men sick. Its provenance adds to its usefulness, because it was written while the campaign was still going on and was a private letter, not a censored newspaper report. It also shows the growing criticism of the campaign, since the letter reached British ministers and helped lead to Hamilton's recall in October 1915. However, Murdoch spent only a few days at Anzac, and as an Australian writing to his own Prime Minister he praised the Australians and blamed the British, so it is one-sided and exaggerated in places.

Source C is useful for a different set of reasons: decisions made at the top. Churchill is right that the navy did not renew its attack after 18 March 1915, when three battleships were sunk by mines, and that the landings came about five weeks later, giving the Turks and their German adviser Liman von Sanders time to strengthen their defences. Kitchener had delayed sending the 29th Division, and Fisher and others gave only half-hearted support. However, Churchill was the main supporter of the campaign and lost his post at the Admiralty because of it, so in the 1920s he wanted to show that the plan was good and that others had ruined it. He had access to official papers, but his account is a defence of himself.

Overall the two sources are useful together: B shows the failures on the ground and C the failures of planning and support in London. However, both writers blame others, and neither says much about the most important reason of all, the determination of the Turkish defenders, led by commanders like Mustafa Kemal, who held the high ground. An historian would need to use them alongside other evidence.

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On 31 May and 1 June 1916 the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet fought the Battle of Jutland, the only full-scale clash of battle fleets in the war. Judged by the losses on the day, Germany did better. However, judged by what the battle changed, Britain was the real winner. I therefore only partly agree with the statement.

There is strong evidence for a German victory in the battle itself. Britain lost 14 ships, including three battlecruisers, Indefatigable, Queen Mary and Invincible, which blew up with almost all their crews, while Germany lost 11 ships, mostly smaller. About 6,100 British sailors were killed, more than twice the German figure of about 2,550, and Britain lost nearly twice the tonnage. German gunnery was accurate, and British weaknesses were exposed: the battlecruisers had thin armour, cordite had been stored unsafely to speed up firing, and signalling was poor. Admiral Scheer also escaped from a much larger British fleet, slipping behind it during the night. The Kaiser claimed that 'the spell of Trafalgar has been broken', and the German public celebrated a great victory.

However, Germany did not achieve what it set out to do. Scheer had hoped to trap and destroy part of the Grand Fleet to reduce Britain's advantage in numbers, but Britain still had far more dreadnoughts after the battle, and Jellicoe's fleet was ready for action again within days. The High Seas Fleet, by contrast, retreated to port and, although it came out a few times afterwards, never again risked a full battle. This meant that Britain kept control of the North Sea and the blockade of Germany continued, causing growing food shortages that undermined German morale. Admiral Scheer himself admitted to the Kaiser that even a successful sea battle would not force Britain to make peace, and that only U-boat attacks on British trade could do so. This led to the decision to resume unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, which brought the USA into the war against Germany. The idle German fleet also became a centre of discontent, and sailors' mutinies in 1918 helped spark the German revolution. As one American newspaper put it, the German fleet had attacked its jailer but was still in jail.

In conclusion, Jutland was a German tactical success, because Germany sank more ships and killed more men, but it was not a German victory in any sense that mattered. Jellicoe, whom Churchill described as the only man who could lose the war in an afternoon, avoided disaster, and the balance of naval power was unchanged. Because Britain kept control of the seas and the blockade went on, while Germany was pushed into the U-boat gamble that brought America into the war, Jutland was a strategic victory for Britain.