On 19 Jun 2014, at 23:09, Kurt Feltenberger <kurt@thepaw.org> wrote:

>> I can imagine that if a 'real' battleship had blown up instead of just the BC's, the conclusions arrived at would've been a lot different.
>
> They originally blamed it on the only real difference between a BC and a BB - the armor.  IIRC, one of the recent documentaries even mentioned that there was a report at the Admiralty that suggested it was ammo handling that caused the three losses at Jutland, but the First Seal Lord (IIRC, it was him) at the time quashed it.

Part of the problem was that the BC squadron was based further South and did not have the same access to gunnery training. Plus the gun ranges had increased to the point where the rangefinders + prediction tables were struggling to calculate a firing solution. Beattie's solution was increasing the rate of fire.

I don't think it was Beattie who was first sea lord when the report came out - he'd replaced Jellicoe as the Admiral of the Grand Fleet and Jellicoe had been bumped up to First Sea Lord.

Phil Kitching