Whose victory?

Jellicoe has been heavily criticised by historians for failing to destroy Scheer´s fleet and for breaking away from the battle by turning away from a torpedo attack by German destroyers. Some historians have argued that a decisive British victory at Jutland would have shortened the war by as much as two years. On the other hand, Germany´s fleet was much smaller and could not afford to lose the ships it did lose. Scheer got his remaining ships safely back to a well-defended port and there they stayed for the rest of the war. This gave Britain control of the seas since the German fleet was bottled up in its harbour. In this sense, then, Jutland was a British victory.

The Grand Fleet was able to blockade Germany and stop vital supplies reaching her by sea, and this blockade was very important in forcing Germany to surrender in November 1918. However, Germany´s submarine (U-boat) fleet was unaffected by Jutland and caused terrible losses to Britain´s merchant shipping. At one stage, in April 1917, Britain had only six weeks supply of corn left because the U-boats had sunk so many British merchant ships carrying food to Britain.

Neil Demarco: Britain and the Great War; Oxford University Press, 1992/2000, page 16 f.