The summer of 1916 saw the long-deferred confrontation of Germany’s High Seas Fleet and Great Britain’s Grand Fleet in the Battle of Jutland—history’s biggest naval battle, which both sides claimed as a victory. Admiral Reinhard Scheer, who became commander in chief of the High Seas Fleet in January 1916, planned to contrive an encounter on the open sea between his fleet and some part of the British fleet in separation from the whole, so that the Germans could exploit their momentary superiority in numbers to achieve victory. Scheer’s plan was to ensnare Admiral Beatty’s squadron of battle cruisers at Rosyth, ...(100 of 31671 words)