Destroyers v Battleships in Total Darkness - Jutland Night Battle Documentary

It’s 9pm on May 31st 1916, and the Battle of Jutland has raged for the last six hours. With more than 200 ships involved, it has been the largest clash between fleets of battleships in history. As the light now begins to fail and darkness sets in, both sides stumble back towards each other, struggling to tell friend from foe, and heading towards one of the most chaotic engagements in naval history.

0:00 - The Battle of Jutland until nightfall
1:38 - The Last Daylight Engagements
3:38 - Incogni
4:47 - A Goodenough Cruiser Battle
6:28 - The Entire German Fleet vs some destroyers
11:37 - Goldsmith's confusion
12:59 - The sinking of SMS Pommern
13:33 - Aftermath

Credits:

Lead Animation for this video by:
Christiaan Dorman

Supporting animation by:

Artwork by:

Written, Directed and Produced by:

Sources:

Robert Massie, Castles of Steel
Anthony Gordon, The Rules of the Game
V.E Tarrant – Jutland, the German Perspective

Music Credits:

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Other music and SFX from Epidemic Sound

[Rationalific]

This was so frustrating... So many ships were like, "Hey, you guys are on our side, right?" and then the response is just "BOOM!". Imagine being a sailor and going through so much training only to have your ship signal its location to the enemy and get immediately blown up without being able to do anything.

[bubbles]

Being lost at sea in the dark, watching everybody sail away is beyond my comprehension.

[LegioXIII-SPQR]

Those engagement distances were absolutely insane - basically the naval equivalent of knife fighting range

[cacildeasa]

British: * flashes light *
Germans: * F L A S H E S L I G H T S *

[GerardMenvussa]

If it were not for the tragic loss of life, some parts of this battle could be nearly comical.
9:04 The 3 destroyers colliding, evacuating to one another
12:15 The commander unknowingly taking his conga line of destroyers across the line of enemy battleships, not realizing how many boats were following him

If this were a movie, I would probably criticizing the writers for coming up with silly gags in the middle of battle :o

[Murmanskkk]

"You think a destroyer can't do a battleships job? Let me prove you wrong."

*gets absolutely obliterated*

[santoast]

How well did radios work at this time, and how many ships even had them? I feel like this is a unique battle for a lot of reasons, but mostly for its role as the last time ships acted with so little communication between them.
To me, just the tiniest bit of communication between the destroyer captains and Jellico would have resulted in a massive night duel, and the near total destruction of the High Seas Fleet. Not that the Grand Fleet would come out unscathed, of course.

[billhanna]

Thank you for another superbly enlightening piece of history.

[LNgKhoi]

I can get the chaotic part, but the part that no other ships around coming to see what's going on was a bit a beyond me. Couldn't anybody beside the British destroyers seen or heard the guns and ship explosions? I get that night battles can be confusing as hell, but the lack of more response from the British fleet was even more confusing to me.

[historigraph]

Thanks for watching everyone! Just to let you know I am aware of the animation error at around 11:00 - this is totally on me (Josh). I left a layer turned on that I shouldn't have and didnt catch it before release.

[PaulfromChicago]

I do hope your next video goes into responsible parties, discipline for failures, and historiography. Battles are good, but the systems that govern discipline and logistics are absolutely fascinating. And continue to be relevant.

[huntclanhunt]

6:45

It was not, in fact, a long way to Tipperary...

[dclark]

Jellico's moment of glory...the masterful deployment of the Grand Fleet to trap the German Fleet.

Scheer demonstrating brilliant competence to survive the trap.

The entire battle shows the Royal Navy conclusively demonstrating that their senior officer corps was distinctly incompetent...up to and including Beatty. Only Jellicoe knew what he was about.

[deezntes]

Between you and Drach I have my WW1 Jutland series collection that I could listen to over and over again

[MXB]

Scheer: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" The Pommern paid the ultimate price for that but it could have been worse. Gutsy, brilliant move. I've read accounts of the battle before but it seems the night action was pawned off as some sort of afterthought. Looks like it was the defining moment of the whole engagement. Also seeing it is (to me) worth a billion words.

[censoreduser]

Great video as always, quality always takes time

[SmokeJam]

Always engaging to have a battle visualized like this. For people like me who have only the slightest clue about naval war doctrine and their execution, the reality is still very abstract to grasp. Hence it is highly enlightening and immersive to have it presented this way. Thank you for another high quality video!

[pomazzzz]

What a video! It's amazing how you managed to convey the sense of confusion and dread this battle must have been like with simply a top down view of animated ships. Well done!

[johnedreslin]

An excellent presentation of this little-discussed part of the Battle of Jutland. I learned a lot.

[thetalesofdaneandco]

A fantastic followup to Historigraph's previous video "The Battle of Jutland: Clash of Dreadnoughts"