H.M.S. Lion at the Battle of Jutland

Captain's Report¹

SIR,—I have the honour to report that on May 31, 1916, H.M. Ship under my command, flying your flag, was in action with the enemy under the following circumstances :—

At 3.25 P.M., G.M.T. enemy ships were reported on the starboard bow, bearing E. by N.

At 3.30 P.M. enemy ships were in sight from Lion and a range of 23,000 yards obtained.

At 3.44 P.M. the enemy, who were rapidly closing, were identified as 5 German battle-cruisers.

2. Enemy opened fire at 3.47 P.M., Lion replying half a minute later, the range being 18,500, course E.S.E. Lion was twice hit by heavy shell at 3.51 P.M. At 4.0 P.M. a shell disabled "Q" turret, and shortly afterwards Indefatigable was seen to be blown up, evidently by a magazine explosion.

3. At 4.2 P.M. the range was 14,600 and as the enemy appeared to have our range, course was altered on two or three occasions to 1 point to throw him out. The enemy appeared to be hit several times by our shell. Lion was firing at the leading ship, which was either Lützow or Derfflinger.

4. At 4.12 P.M. our course was S.S.E. and range 21,000 and course was altered to S.E. to close the enemy. At this period more than one enemy ship was firing at Lion and she was hit several times, but no important damage was done, though several fires were started, and there was a large number of killed and wounded, chiefly from a shell that exploded on the mess deck in the canteen flat.

5. At 4.26 P.M. a very great explosion was seen in the Queen Mary and she entirely disappeared.

6. At 4.38 P.M. the enemy battle-fleet was sighted ahead, and course was altered 16 points to north, enemy battle-cruisers responding so as to take station ahead of their battle-fleet.

7. Lion reopened fire at 4.38 P.M., re-engaging enemy leading ship (Von Her Tann?); shortly after we passed wreckage of Queen Mary, with survivors in water, and a destroyer. The ship was now hit several times, the range being 15,000 yards. The ship had fires in several places, including a cordite case in the starboard 4-in. battery, which I ordered the 4-in. crews to extinguish, but this could not immediately be done owing to their extent and to the pressure on the fire mains being lost from perforations. All fires were eventually got under.

8. About this time a fire, which had been smouldering in "Q" turret ignited the charges still in the trunks: this killed all the magazine and shell-room parties and reached to the mess deck, where it burnt some of the ship's company. The magazine doors being shut, however, saved a more serious explosion. A fire was also reported in "X" magazine, but this proved to be an error due to smoke penetrating down from a heavy shell burst in the Sick Bay, which killed a large number of men in the vicinity.

9. At 5.1 P.M. fire was shifted to Lützow class again, range, 15,000 yards. Lion was hit twice by big shell, one of which wrecked the ship's galley compartment. At 5.12 P.M. Lion ceased fire owing to enemy being obscured, and did not reopen until 5.41 P.M. The visibility at this time was decreasing, and when fire was reopened on a ship that appeared to be of the König class battleship, the range was 14,000 yards, the enemy being just visible. Ship's course was now N.E. by N.

10. At 5.46 P.M. the range was 14,000 yards and the enemy was observed to be hit by two salvoes causing him to alter course to starboard and to cease fire.

11. At 5.56 P.M. the battle-fleet was in sight on the port bow. Altered course to N.E. by E., and at 6.4 P.M. to east, the enemy battle-cruisers bearing S.E.

12. Defence and Warrior now crossed Lion's bow and were engaging a light German cruiser, who was seriously injured by them. This caused Lion to cease fire and to lose touch with the enemy.

13. At 6.21 P.M. the Third Battle-cruiser Squadron was sighted, and took station ahead, and Lion reopened at distant ships on the starboard beam (König class ?). At 6.29 P.M. course was E. and S. and at 6.32 P.M. enemy heavy ships again came into view and opened fire on the 3rd B.C.S. At 6.36 P.M. Invincible blew up.

14. Course was continued to be altered to starboard to close the enemy, and at 6.37 P.M. was altered to E.S.E.; at 6.44 to S.E., and 6.48 P.M. to S.S.E. At 6.53 P.M. speed was reduced to 18 knots to keep station on the battle-fleet, who were leading away to port owing to a destroyer attack. Lion continued to engage the leading ship of enemy, occasionally ceasing fire when he became invisible. Very few hits wore made on the ship subsequent to this, the enemy's fire appreciably slackening.

15. The ship continued to circle to starboard. At 7.3 P.M. our course was altered to S.S.E., and at 7.6 P.M. to south ; at 7.9 P.M. to S.S.W., and at 7.11 P.M. to S.W. by S.

16. Fire was reopened on the leading ship of the enemy at 15,000 yards at 7.15 P.M. and speed was increased to 22 knots ; at 7.25 P.M. to 24 knots.

At 7.19 P.M. the enemy's leading destroyers made a heavy screen of black smoke to protect their ships from our gunfire.

At 7.32 P.M. course was S.W., and 7.50 P.M. W.S.W. The enemy was still not sufficiently visible to open fire, and this continued until 8.21 P.M. when the flashes of his guns were again seen on our starboard beam.

At 8.23 P.M. Lion opened fire with rapid salvoes on his leading ship, either Lützow or König class. Our shooting appeared to be very effective, and the enemy appeared on fire at 8.27 P.M.

17. The enemy now turned away more to starboard, and the light was failing. Lion ceased fire at 8.30 P.M. our course then being N. 35° W.

18. At 8.40 P.M. a heavy bump was felt on the starboard side. This appeared to me like a heavy hit on the water-line, but this was not the case, and it has not yet been ascertained what was the cause. It is possible Lion may have run over a sunken ship, and divers are examining her bottom.

Shortly afterwards, Indomitable hauled out of line and reported she had been torpedoed, which was subsequently negatived, which seems to imply that she had the same experience as Lion.

19. The enemy was not sighted again.

DAMAGE.

20. The damage to the ship is not serious, except that "Q" turret is wrecked, but is reparable. The ship was hit altogether twelve times by enemy heavy shell, but the damage, which I have already reported to you separately, does not seriously affect our seaworthiness or fighting efficiency, and the ship is now ready for sea.

CONDUCT OF OFFICERS AND MEN.

21. The conduct of the officers and ship's company was in every detail magnificent.

The ship has been in commission for so long, and the men are so highly trained, and have such a fine spirit, that even in action they can do almost anything without their officers.

The unnerving sights that occurred, with the heavy casualties, which amounted to 95 killed and 49 wounded, mostly in the first two hours of the action, were a tremendous strain on the strongest discipline, yet there was never the least sign of wavering in the least degree from their duty.

On visiting the mess deck twice during the action while the ship was temporarily disengaged, I observed nothing but cheerful determination, zeal to succour the wounded, and thoughtfulness for the good safety of the ship to keep her efficient.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

A. E. M. CHATFIELD,

Captain.

The Vice-Admiral Commanding

Battle Cruiser Fleet

Reminiscences of "Q" Turret, H.M.S. Lion

Taken from The Beatty Papers I pp. 253–256.

BTY/6/14/1

Copy

Lion,

31 May – 1 June 1916,

At 3.35 p.m. the hands were all at their usual work or asleep as the case may be, whether they were watchkeepers or day men. Five minutes later the bugle sounded (Action). In a few moments the crew were rushing from place to place to get as soon as possible to their different stations. Mine was the magazine of "Q" [354] Turret, my duty was to select the cordite from the magazine in accordance with the age and lot number, for if cordite is fired without knowing the exact quality it is impossible to get good shooting. However, our Chief Gunner had the different bins marked with cardboards, No 1 action and so on.

On arriving in the magazine I got rid of my superfluous clothing. When we had been down a few minutes we got the order to load with armour piercing lyddite and full charge of cordite. We started slinging out quarter charges until all No 1 action was used up in the starboard mag. About fifty-four rounds had been fired before we changed over to the port-mag. The change had been effected and about ten rounds fired when a heavier explosion than usual occurred and dense smoke came down the trunk, stopping progress until we had shipped our respirators. The time was 4.20 or thereabouts. Two men were then brought up from the Shell Room, both had been working in the Gun house, and were badly-wounded, they were passed along the messdeck to the medical station. Standing by the magazine door I heard the Officer of Turret give the order (CLOSE MAGAZINE DOORS—Q TURRET OUT OF ACTION). The Corporal and I closed the port magazine door and clipped it up, by the time we had finished, the handing room crew had gone up the iron ladder to the switchboard flat which is immediately above, and being rather a small place, was rather crowded; from this flat is another iron ladder which leads to the messdeck. About then the Chief Gunner came along to see everything was in order, finding the turret was out of action he ordered several of us to put out fires on the messdeck. Just as he and I got clear the ignition of the cordite occurred and the blast pushed us along. The space of about ten minutes elapsed between the projectile exploding and the ignition of the cordite, which happened to be in the cages, hoppers and possibly a charge in the handing room (Broken ¼ charges that got damaged while handling).

Doubtless some burning clothing fell from one of the ramming numbers into the open cage and caught the cordite afire. Owing to the fact that the top of the turret was partially blown off there was no explosion, but the flames travelled right through the turret and the adjacent compartments. After I had assisted the stokers under the Engineer Lt. to put out a fire on the messdeck, which [355] was caused by a shell exploding in the funnel casing, I reported myself to the Captain R.M. [Captain Francis R. Jones] in the after battery. My job from then was to carry the wounded from the engaged side to the disengaged side of the ship as was requisite. We carried the severely wounded to the bathrooms, where they were put under anaesthetic. The news then came through that Queen Mary had been sunk, and that we were engaging the German Battle Fleet. The Commander came along giving us the cheerful information that Jellicoe was in sight and we were hauling out and I am sure we all felt anxious after the loss of Q. M. During that period we were mostly engaged (that is those below decks) in listening for concussions and trying to locate the place that had been hit. A great amount of small calibre shell must have hit the armour belt and dropped off. One eleven inch went through the port side and destroyed the navigator's cabin, incidentally my kit also, it afterwards exploding in the funnel. The Lion even now has a kink in her midship funnel that appears rather odd. There was about four inches of water on all the messdecks from the fire hoses, and washing about in it were odds and ends of clothing, boots and burnt articles; the electric light gave out and we had to stumble through the water in the dark, striking matches or by the dim light of a candle. The Chief Gunner and I went down to the Shell Room at about six o'clock to find out if it was possible to salve any of the ammunition. The Handing Room, Switchboard, Flat and Shell Room were completely burned out, the crew were lying in all directions, some still hanging on the ladder in a last attempt to get out. On finding that it was impossible to salve any of the projectiles for use in the other turrets the shell room was flooded. The Captain of Marines sent for me then to go to the Gun house to find the Major and remove some of the casualties. I got into the Gun house through the manhole on top and assisted by another marine got out seven people from the right cabinet. The Chaplain [The Reverend Cecil Lydall] was one of these. The Major was in the range-finder Position close by the voice pipe. There was a great deal of smoke coming from behind the ready use shell bin and we gave the alarm that four common shell were being roasted and were likely to cause another explosion. With the assistance of several more marines the fire was put out and the remainder of the casualties were removed. Thev were then taken aft, identified if possible and sewn into hammocks.

[356]This carried on most of the night 31st of May.

We were served out with a ration of corned beef as the bakehouse and galley had suffered, and at sundown on the 1st of July, the men who had given all were buried in the sea.

The upper deck was a chaos, and the ship had been holed in many places. However, when we arrived into port we coaled and ammunitioned ship and were prepared for sea in two hours.

Major Harvey and the Destruction of "Q" Turret

Only three men survived, the turret Sergeant² and two others, one of these being the Sick Berth Attendant,³the other being Private Willons, R.M.L.I.⁴

Notes

¹ Jutland Despatches, pp. 143–146.

² Chatfield, p. 143.

³ Fawcett & Hooper, p. 94.

⁴ Beatty Papers I, pp. 353–356.