The Battle of Jutland - On Board HMS Indomitable

Robert Harris, my Great Grandfather in law, had been serving on board HMS Indomitable as a stoker since the outbreak of war and was involved in the pursuit of the Goeben, the shelling of the forts at Dardanelles and the Battle of Dogger Bank.

Robert Harris - HMS Indomitable

On May 22nd The 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron commanded by Admiral Hood, including Indomitable had sailed north to Scapa Flow with Invincible and Inflexible for intensive gunnery practice temporarily assigned to the Grand Fleet.

On the morning of May 30th Indomitable was in Pentland Firth for 12 inch gun practice, the results of which were described as “highly satisfactory” and by 3.45pm was back at anchor at Scapa Flow. The British were expecting another excursion by the German navy from decoded message intercepts. The entire Grand Fleet, along with Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers, was ordered to sea to prepare for an excursion by the German High Seas Fleet and at 6.25pm Admiral Jellicoe told Hood to raise steam for 22 knots. The stokers set to work and at 8.50pm Indomitable was ordered to weigh anchor and ten minutes later moved out to sea accompanied by fellow Battle Cruisers Invincible and Inflexible, two light cruisers Chester and Canterbury and four destroyers.

May 31st - The Battle of Jutland

In order to support Beatty 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron, Admiral Hood took his three battle cruisers around 25 miles ahead of the Grand Fleet and at about 2:30pm Invincible intercepted a radio message from the British light cruiser Galatea, attached to Beatty's Battle cruiser Force, reporting five enemy battle cruisers in sight and later signals reporting that he was engaging the enemy on a south-easterly course. At 4:06pm Hood ordered full speed and a course of south-southeast in an attempt to converge on Beatty. Indomitable and the other Invincibles belched black smoke and dashed away to support Beatty. At 4:56pm, with no British ships in sight, Hood requested Beatty's course, position and speed, but never received a reply.

Hood continued on course until 5:40pm when gunfire was spotted in the direction to which his light cruiser Chester had been dispatched to investigate other gunfire flashes. Chester encountered four light cruisers of Hipper's 2nd Scouting Group, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Pillau and Elbing, and was badly damaged before Hood turned to investigate and was able to drive the German cruisers away from her.

At 5:53pm Invincible opened fire on Wiesbaden, Indomitable and Inflexible followed two minutes later. The German ships turned for the south after fruitlessly firing torpedoes at 6:00pm and attempted to find shelter in the mist. As they turned Invincible hit Wiesbaden in the engine room and knocked out her engines while Inflexible hit Pillau once. 

HMS Indomitable

The 2nd Scouting Group was escorted by the light cruiser Regensburg and 31 destroyers of the 2nd, 9th Flotillas and the 12th Half-Flotilla which attacked the 3rd BCS in succession.

They were driven off by Hood's remaining light cruiser Canterbury and the five destroyers of his escort. In a confused action the Germans only launched 12 torpedoes and disabled the destroyer Shark with gunfire. Having turned due west to close on Beatty's ships, the three Invincibles were broadside to the oncoming torpedoes, Invincible turned north, while Inflexible and Indomitable turned south to present their narrowest profile to the torpedoes. All the torpedoes missed, although one passed underneath Inflexible without detonating. As Invincible turned north, her helm jammed and she had to come to a stop to fix the problem, but this was quickly done and the squadron reformed heading west.

At about 6:19pm, Hood led his three battle cruisers in an 180 degree turn placing him some 4,000 yards ahead of HMS Lion and Admiral Beatty. Hipper moved within range of Hood's 3rd Battle cruiser Squadron, but was still also within range of Beatty's ships. Hipper's battle cruisers were 9,000 yards away and all three Invincibles almost immediately opened fire on Hipper's flagship Lutzow and Derfflinger.

At first, visibility favoured the British: Indomitable hit Derfflinger three times and Seydlitz once, while Lützow quickly took 10 hits from Beatty’s flagship HMS Lion, Inflexible and Invincible, including two below-waterline hits forward by Invincible that would ultimately doom Hipper's flagship.

But at 6:30pm, Invincible abruptly appeared as a clear target before Lützow and Derfflinger. The two German ships then fired three salvos each at Invincible, and sank her in 90 seconds. A 12 inch shell from the third salvo struck Invincible's Q-turret amidships, detonating the magazines below and causing her to blow up and sink. Invincible broke in half, with both halves perpendicular on the sea bed.

There were a few survivors nearby. These men waved as Inflexible and Indomitable swept past. “I have never seen anything more splendid” said an officer in Indomitable “than these few cheering as we raced by them”.

All but six of her crew of 1,032 officers and men, including Rear-Admiral Hood, were killed.

Inflexible and Indomitable remained in company with Beatty for the rest of the battle. They encountered Hipper's battle cruisers only 10,000 yards away as the sun was setting about 8.19pm and opened fire. Seydlitz was hit five times before the German battle cruisers were rescued by the appearance of the pre-dreadnought battleships of Rear Admiral Mauve and the British shifted fire to the new threat. Three of the pre-dreadnoughts were hit before they too were able to turn into the gloom.

Although classes continued into the night and the early hours of the 1st June as the German High Seas fleet broke through the British lines to escape back to port in Germany Indomitable saw no further action during the battle of Jutland.

One can only imagine the experiences of a stoker deep in the bowels of a fast moving battle cruiser. Hard physical work and probably unaware of the strategic naval action and manoeuvres taking place, no knowledge of the fate of Indomitable's sister ships, destroyed in massive explosions with huge loss of life.

A midshipman on Indomitable provided a graphic picture of the effort made in the engine and stoke rooms.

"The furnaces devoured coal as fast as a man could feed them. Black, begrimmed and sweating men working in the ship's side dug the coal out and loaded it into skids which were then dragged along the steel deck and emptied on the floor plates in front of each boiler.... If the ship rolled or pitched there was always a risk that a loaded skid might slide and crush a man. Looking down from the iron catwalk above, the scene had all the appearance of one from Dante's inferno....Watching the pressure gauges for any fall in the steam pressure, the Chief Stoker walked to and fro, encouraging his men. Now and then the telegraph from the engine room would clang and the finger on the dial move round to the section marked "more steam". The Chief would press the reply gong with an oath, "What do the bastards think we're doing? Come on boys, shake it up, get going." and the sweating men would redouble their efforts, throw open the furnace doors and shovel still more coal into the blazing inferno."

(Description of Indomitable stokers recounted following the Battle of Dogger Bank)

The loss of the three battle cruisers at Jutland, Invincible, Queen Mary and Indefatigable "which had prompted Beatty's famous Jutland quote "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today" led to the force being reorganised into two squadrons, with Inflexible and Indomitable in the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron. 

References

Castles of Steel - Robert K Massie