Reginald Bacon (1863–1947)

So, for the innocent reader, just what was the scandal of the battle of Jutland? Apart from the general disappointment in Britain that the Royal Navy could not deliver a decisive naval victory against Germany when the one opportunity that was ever offered came, there was the question of just why the British battlecruisers seemed to perform so poorly against their German opposition in that battle. For the more knowledgeable professional the scandal was how the commander of the British scouting force, David Beatty, seemed to botch the mission that had been handed to him and then tried to have his errors of command glossed over when the time came to write the official history (and when Beatty just happened to be commander of the Royal Navy). What these reprints capture is the raw bitterness felt in some circles at the time over the shabby treatment John Jellicoe, overall British commander at Jutland, seemed to have received; most enlightening.

There are, of course, some ironies in reading these period accounts. Both authors go after what they see as wrong-headed accounts of the battle with great glee, including that of one Arthur Pollen. The irony here being that Pollen was an innovator in naval gunnery technology and the general modern sense is that the Royal Navy made an error by not biting the bullet and buying Pollen's system; perhaps more damage would have been done to the German fleet when it mattered if such had been the case. Also, there is the additional irony of hindsight in that much is made of the performance of John Tovey of the destroyer HMS "Onslow" at Jutland and who just so happened to go on to have an estimable career in World War II at flag rank.… (more)