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[Rods2]

We had a navy of this sort of size.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/here-are-all-the-ships-in-the-us-navy-2015-4

[The Sheriff]

And now we haven't, get over it.

[BazaJT]

Didn't really do us much good at Jutland though.How many did we lose?And how many did the Germans lose?

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Um... apologies but if I might venture - if the Royal Navy wasn't the size it was at the time of Jutland, then we'd have lost Jutland. Suggesting that because the then-massive Royal Navy 'Didn't really do us much good' is a bit akin to saying the RAF 'didn't do much good' in the Battle of Britain. They stopped the Germans invading.

There was a terrible loss of life on both sides, and for no apparent material gain. Which is basically a relatively accurate sum-up of War in general.

I fully respect your opinion BazaJT, and had both fleets basically sent out a telegram that morning and said 'look, we're an even match, shall we just leave War for today and just assume in any clash we'd get hundreds of our boys killed for no good reason' then that would have been the preferable option. Same with so many battles over so many centuries.

There was a famous bit of banter between the US and Royal Navy during some War games - something along the lines of "Hey there Cap'n ----, how's the World's second biggest Navy doing?" The reply from the Captain/Admiral whoever in the RN came-
"Very well, thank you. How's the world's second best?"

 

[BazaJT]

In terms of ships lost we did lose at Jutland,however the German High Seas Fleet was never allowed to put to sea en mass to challenge the Grand Fleet again so on that point we won.Don't get me wrong we needed a strong navy then and I believe strongly that we still do,and army and airforce too.I think the "second best"signal was sent by Earl Mountbatten.

[Rods2]

The Royal Navy's blockade of Germany forced it to end the war in November 1918, where they had run out of food and resources for making war.

Likewise, the British relied on trade to conduct the war. Germany's U-boat campaign could have potentially starved us, but we learn't hard earned lessons from our losses and the eventual adoption of the convoy system, the introduction of SONAR and depth charges. All of which were crucial for a much bigger U-boat campaign in WWII.

Main lesson from Battle of Jutland was don't use Battlecruisers against Battleships, where they had battleship sized guns, but cruiser depth of armour, which was easily penetrated by battleship shells. When a magazine was hit, not much of the ship was left.

The Battlecruiser Hood was used in the same way in WWII against Bismark with sadly the same predictable result.

[BazaJT]

For anyone interested there's a very good book titled The Man Who Bought A Navy by Gerald Bowman,which tells the story of the bloke who bought the German High Seas Fleet after it had been scuttled by its crews in Scapa Flow when the peace was finally signed in 1919 and salvaged most of it for scrap.No mean feat raising ships in those days!

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Very interesting stuff, Will have a look 

[Gaffers]

In simple terms:

Number of naval ships does not dictate your naval capability.

[The Sheriff]

In simple terms:

Number of naval ships does not dictate your naval capability.

No. But only having two tends to have a detrimental effect.

[tunnie]

In simple terms:

Number of naval ships does not dictate your naval capability.

No. But having none finished, tends to have a detrimental effect.

Fixed 

[The Sheriff]

In simple terms:

Number of naval ships does not dictate your naval capability.

No. But having none finished, tends to have a detrimental effect.

Fixed 

We have a ship, just nothing to put on it

It would be ideal for rescuing migrants.

[Gaffers]

Dont believe everything you read in the papers about the military.  On every occasion less one I was in the vicinity of something in the Army that made it to the media it was never even close to being factually correct.  The one that was more or less correct was the birth of the baby at Bastion.

As for the capability of our armed forces stories, there be a little smoke and mirrors going on

[The Sheriff]

Dont believe everything you read in the papers about the military.  On every occasion less one I was in the vicinity of something in the Army that made it to the media it was never even close to being factually correct.  The one that was more or less correct was the birth of the baby at Bastion.

As for the capability of our armed forces stories, there be a little smoke and mirrors going on

We know, Matt, but still understaffed and underfunded.

[Gaffers]

Dont believe everything you read in the papers about the military.  On every occasion less one I was in the vicinity of something in the Army that made it to the media it was never even close to being factually correct.  The one that was more or less correct was the birth of the baby at Bastion.

As for the capability of our armed forces stories, there be a little smoke and mirrors going on

We know, Matt, but still understaffed and underfunded.

Always has been and always will be, including 100 years ago