The Battle of Jutland Cambridge Military Histories Series

This is a major new account of the Battle of Jutland, the key naval battle of the First World War in which the British Grand Fleet engaged the German High Seas Fleet off the coast of Denmark in 1916. Beginning with the building of the two fleets, John Brooks reveals the key technologies employed, from ammunition, gunnery and fire control, to signalling and torpedoes, as well as the opposing commanders' tactical expectations and battle orders. In describing Jutland's five major phases, he offers important new interpretations of the battle itself and how the outcome was influenced by technology, as well as the tactics and leadership of the principal commanders, with the reliability of their own accounts of the fighting reassessed. The book draws on contemporary sources which have rarely been cited in previous accounts, including the despatches of both the British and German formations, along with official records, letters and memoirs.

1. Building the battlefleets; 2. Technologies; 3. Orders for battle; 4. Preliminaries; 5. The run to the south; 6. The run to the north; 7. Around windy corner; 8. The remains of the day; 9. Night and morning; 10. Technology and tactics; 11. An unpalatable result; Bibliography; Index.

John Brooks read Natural and Electrical Sciences at St John's College, Cambridge, before pursuing an industrial career in computing and telecommunications. After the publication of his first historical paper on circular dividing engines in 1992, Dr Brooks joined the Department of War Studies at King's College London. His 2001 doctoral thesis was the basis of his book Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland: The Question of Fire Control (2005), which was the first work to challenge the then widely accepted views of 'revisionist' naval historians. Dr Brooks has also published articles on naval fire control, ordnance, policy and tactics, as well as articles for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.