On May 31, 1916, the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet met at the Battle of Jutland, located off Denmark’s North Sea coast. Neither side achieved a decisive victory.
During World War I, Britain imposed a naval blockade of Germany. The German Navy, being much smaller than the British Royal Navy, could not engage the latter in full open combat. The German plan at Jutland was to engage and destroy a portion of the British fleet.
The Battle of Jutland involved some 250 ships and 100,000 men, and was the only major naval surface encounter in World War I. Both sides claimed victory. The British lost more ships and men, and the navy was criticized by the British press for failing to achieve a decisive outcome. However, the battle was a strategic British victory, as the Royal Navy had forced the German surface fleet to retire to Germany, where it would remain as a “fleet in being” for the rest of the war. Britain controlled the North Sea and Germany was denied access to the Atlantic and British shipping lanes. By 1917, the German Navy turned to its U-boats to launch unrestricted submarine warfare to destroy Allied and neutral shipping.