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Battle Of Jutland: The Navy’s Bloodiest Day

Factual Documentaries / 1 x 60' / HD, Airline, DVD, Non-Theatric

True North Productions for BBC Two

On May 31st 1916, the British Royal Navy precipitated an apocalyptic head-to-head battle with the German Imperial fleet. 151 British warships – many the most modern in Britain’s Grand Fleet and manned by sailors from Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – confronted the German High Seas Fleet’s 99 ships. This was supposed to be Britain’s second Trafalgar.  Instead, the Battle of Jutland was the bloodiest day in the history of the Royal Navy.  During 12 chaotic and violent hours, over 6,000 Allied sailors died and 14 giant British warships sank to the bottom of the North Sea.

Why did so many men die? Why were so many British ships lost? What was it like to fight on that day? Where exactly are the ships today?

A century on, historian Dan Snow, engineer Dr Shini Somara and Dr Nick Hewitt of the National Museum of the Royal Navy join forces to try to uncover the answers to those questions – and to commemorate and honour the sacrifice of those many thousands who died during the world’s biggest sea battle.

In the course of their hands-on investigations, they discover that the Battle of Jutland – for long regarded an Allied disaster – was in fact a pivotal moment in WW1. Jutland it turns out is the forgotten battle where the First World War was won – and lost.