Since the days of the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy had been the acknowledged as the most powerful maritime force on the planet. Britain could boast more warships, and particularly more Dreadnoughts and battle-cruisers than any other nation. But the Germans had undertaken an enormously expensive shipbuilding program designed to place the Kaiserliche Marine on an equal footing with the Royal Navy. Since the outbreak of war between the two nations in 1914, the British public had waited in eager anticipation for the moment when the opposing battle fleets would meet at sea.

After a number of smaller engagements, major elements of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet, finally faced each other across the grey seas of the North Sea off Jutland. Instead of the great victory that the British expected, the result was disappointingly inconclusive, with the Grand Fleet losing more men and more ships than the Germans.

In this insightful and unique investigation into the battle, naval historian Richard Osborne draws on the words of the key players to resolve the many disputes, controversies and myths that have surrounded this battle throughout the intervening 100 years.

"I know, yet another book about the Battle of Jutland! I've lost track of how many books on Jutland have been issued or reissued to mark the centenary of the battle. Some have been better than others and this is one of the better volumes. In this book the author, Richard Osborne, draws on the wordsof the key players to examine the many disputes, controversies and myths that have surrounded this battle throughout the intervening 100 years. It contains a fairly straightforward account of the battle itself, but what makes this book different is that, wherever possible, the story of the battle is told through newspaper accounts, official documents and eyewitness accounts...The hardback book is 309 pages long and contains several pages of photographs of ships that took part in the battle. There are detailed Appendices which provide details of the ships which formed both fleets, a comprehensive list of notes and references, an extensive Bibliography and a detailed index.
At £25 I feel this volume is good value for money and I thoroughly recommend this book."

The second of these brief reviews of works published this year on the Battle of Jutland, as we approach the end of its centenary year, also makes for fascinating reading. The source material is, as the publisher prints on the book’s cover: “History’s Greatest Sea Battle Told Through Newspaper Reports, Official Documents and the Accounts of Those Who Were There." The author, naval historian Richard Osborne, has assembled the words of many of those involved in order to investigate the many disputes, disagreements, and controversies that arose in 1916 and have never satisfactorily been resolved to this day. Still, no firm conclusion has been drawn and no final answers reached, but the reader will be left much the wiser for having read this excellent work. The book is illustrated with a number of contemporary photos. The front cover illustration depicts Vice- Admiral Beattie’s flagship HMS Lion leading the battlecruisers during the Battle of Jutland.