Admiral Reinhard Scheer: High Seas Fleet Commander at Jutland 1916
Admiral Reinhard Scheer commanded Germany's High Seas Fleet at Jutland. His strategic problem was the reverse of Jellicoe's: Germany possessed a powerful battle fleet but not enough strength to seek a straightforward decisive engagement with the entire Royal Navy. Scheer's solution was to use offensive sorties in the hope of isolating and destroying part of the British fleet before the Grand Fleet could concentrate.
Career and command
Scheer joined the Imperial German Navy in 1879 and served in torpedo, staff and ship commands. He became commander of the High Seas Fleet in January 1916 after Admiral Hugo von Pohl became seriously ill.
The strategic trap
Scheer knew that the High Seas Fleet could not safely challenge Britain's numerical superiority on equal terms. He therefore sought limited offensive opportunities. The May 1916 operation aimed to use Hipper's battlecruisers and other forces to draw out a British formation that could be attacked by the main German fleet.
The plan was undermined by British signals intelligence. Room 40 intercepted and interpreted German wireless traffic, allowing the Admiralty to order Jellicoe's Grand Fleet to sea.
31 May — from hunter to hunted
Hipper's force drew Beatty south as planned, and the High Seas Fleet appeared to be gaining the local concentration Scheer wanted. The situation reversed when Beatty turned north and led the German fleet toward Jellicoe.
When the Grand Fleet deployed across his course, Scheer faced a dangerous concentration of British battleship fire. He ordered major fleet turns away and used torpedo attacks and a battlecruiser charge to cover withdrawal.
Escape and consequence
Scheer's fleet escaped through the night and German propaganda could point to heavier British ship and personnel losses. But the operational objective of breaking British maritime superiority was not achieved.
The High Seas Fleet remained a significant threat that the Royal Navy had to respect, but it did not overturn British command of the North Sea. Germany increasingly relied on unrestricted submarine warfare to attack Britain's economic and maritime lifeline.
1918
By 1918 Scheer held a senior naval-war leadership role. A planned final High Seas Fleet sortie at the end of the war contributed to the naval mutinies that spread through Germany and helped accelerate political collapse.
Scheer's problem is a useful case of asymmetric strategy. If a force cannot win the contest it is being offered, it tries to change the terms — isolate part of the enemy, create a local advantage or attack the system somewhere else. Jutland shows both the logic of that approach and the danger when intelligence allows the stronger opponent to concentrate first.
