Falklands, Jutland And The Bight [Illustrated Edition]

Contains 33 maps, plans, and illustrations.

“Barry Bingham was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Battle of Jutland, the huge engagement between the British and German navies in May 1916. Of four VCs awarded for that battle he was the only Ulsterman or even Irishman so honoured, and the only VC winner to survive the battle.

“The honourable Edward Barry Stewart Bingham was born in Bangor Castle, County Down; he was the third son of John Barry George Bingham, 5th Baron Clanmorris,…Barry joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman (often described as the "lowest form of life" in the service - by people in it), after school at Arnold House, Llanddulas, Wales and a spell on HMS Britannia, a permanently-moored training ship at Dartmouth, England.

“The outbreak of war in 1914 …nevertheless there were two early naval clashes in which Bingham saw action. Now a lieutenant-commander, one of the gunnery officers, on the battlecruiser HMS Invincible (the world's first ship of this kind), on 28 August 1914, there came the Battle of Heligoland Bight…Essentially, the British plan was to send lighter vessels to attack German ships to lure them out where they would be attacked by heavy British ships including Bingham's. The plan came off successfully, as several German ships were sunk, enough that the strategic aim of discouraging German patrols was achieved.

“On 8 December the same year, Invincible was one of the heavy ships sent to the South Atlantic to "avenge" the British defeat at the Battle of Coronel on November 1…German fleet commanded by Admiral von Spee and including two heavy cruisers had shattered a much lighter British squadron. What was especially shocking, Bingham recounted in his memoirs, was that survivors of sunken ships were not rescued by the German vessels, even though the seas were sufficiently calm. It was important for the Royal Navy that they destroy the German force,…Invincible and another battlecruiser, Inflexible, were ordered south….The British ships put in at the Falkland Islands for coaling, one day before the Admiral Spee decided to attack the Falklands, totally unaware of what he was to find there. It was an easy victory for the Royal Navy; in particular, the two British battlecruisers which took on their two nearest German counterparts were far faster, and had a weight of shot three times greater which could be delivered far out of range of the German guns…

“The long-expected showdown between the British and German fleets came on 31 May 1916, at the Battle of Jutland. By this time Bingham captained the destroyer HMS Nestor, and had also under his command two similar vessels, the Nicator and the Nomad. These and nine other destroyers were ordered to attack the German battlecruiser squadron commanded by Admiral Hipper. The purpose of such destroyer attacks was to approach large enemy ships to as close a distance as possible and fire torpedoes at them. They first encountered the protective flotilla of German destroyers, two of which were sunk, some British destroyers were though disabled. Nevertheless, Bingham led his own vessel along with Nicator to continue their attempt to attack the German battlecruisers and managed to close within 3,000 yards, close in naval terms, but the overwhelming firepower of heavier German ships was too much for Bingham's lighter force, and his ship was seriously damaged, though a circling German destroyer, sensing an easy kill, closed in only to discover that there was nothing wrong with Nestor's guns….

“Many of the crew survived and with Bingham were picked up by the German destroyer S-15, whose captain summoned him. Although he could see Bingham was soaked through, he offered no change of clothes, and according to Bingham, was "thoroughly Prussian and discourteous", though he ensured his prisoners were well fed while in his charge. Bingham would spend the rest of the war as a prisoner in Germany…”Ulster Biography.

“The book is well worth reading.”- Th