The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command

by Andrew Gordon (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $6.69

  When hundreds of warships belonging to the two most powerful fleets in the world clashed off the coast of Denmark in 1916, the encounter had the potential to reshape the political map forever. However, there were devastating failures of communication and command and, while the Battle of Jutland met Britain's strategic need for continued maritime dominance, the Royal Navy failed to crush its numerically inferior German opponent. The encounter has remained an enduring source of controversy ever since. A remarkable saga of genius, tragedy and passive corruption emerges. In telling this remarkable story of Nelsonic pragmatism overwhelmed by peacetime vested interests, Andrew Gordon shows what had changed for the worse in the 'rules of the game' during a long century of peace, and draws fascinating and challenging conclusions.

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $6.55

  At Jutland in 1916, the British Grand Fleet, the most powerful in the world, finally engaged and should have crushed its German rival. It failed to do so and this text aims to reveal that important failures in its handling originated in conflicting styles of command and different understandings of the rules of the game. Andrew Gordon here examines issues of peace and war relevant not only to Jutland but to all fighting services, and to the present as well as the past.