Review as featured in

Ships Monthly - July 2023

riginal published in 2016, this new complete and unabridged paperback edition is Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of Appendices, seven pages of Notes, and a seven page Index, "Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes" is an exceptionally well written, organized and presented account that is an inherently fascinating read and an important and valued contribution to community, college, and university library World War I history collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, and military history buffs that "Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes" is also available in a digital book format.


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Midwest Book Review

Often provides interesting counterpoints to the Anglo-centric perspectives of most of the English language histories of the battle.

The National Maritime Historical Society

As featured by

Mercator Magazine, May 2019

The book goes through the battle with a minute by minute description of the events of the battle. It is also heavily populated with maps (an absolute necessity for naval battles). The author also contends that the Warspite, which did a lazy circle through some of the battle, did so because of damage received from the German fleet.

This is an excellent addition to one's library, to see a different side and take on the events of the battle.

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A Wargamer's Needful Things

Gary Staff's Skagerrak: The Battle of Jutland Through German Eyes is a challenging place to start. Information rich, engaged with the battle's historiographical controversies, it is a fine book for those already studying the battle.

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Roads To The Great War Blog

I increased my knowledge of Jutland, and enjoyed Staff’s account. Recommended.

Naval SITREP, issue 52, April 2017 - reviewed by Larry Bond

The material for this fascinating work has been
culled from archives in Britain and Germany. Many
of those too have been translated for the first time and published here.

A volume thoroughly to be recommended to
students of the naval history of WWI.

Ships in Scale, November/December 2016 - reviewed by Roger Marsh

Gary Staff is the author of numerous books about the Imperial German Navy, its ships and battles. This book describes the battle of Jutland
(Skagerrak, in German) making use of official documents but much enlivened by the letters and individual descriptions of officers and crew
members who were actually there.

The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, Vol. XXVII, No. 1, January 2017 - C. Douglas Maginley

This account of Jutland from a German viewpoint – or Skaggerak as they call it - adds a new perspective to the growing pile of books in this Jutland centenary year. Scheer, “aggressive and pugnacious”, took command of the High Seas Fleet in January 1916. The German fleet offensive in 1916 commenced with more raids and bombardment on the UK East coast, advance U boat deployments in May and growing awareness of the need to disguise their fleet movements by wireless deception.

Jutland will always be fertile ground for debate and this book is a detailed and worthy contributor. Highly recommended.

Warship World - September/October 2016 - PCW-M

In short, alongside stories of remarkable experience and great heroism, Staff presents a picture of the Skagerrak fight which severely dents the British portrayal of the Jutland battle. The fight, in modern terminology, was asymmetrical because the Germans aimed to inflict damage on the British fleet and then retire to harbour, while the British sought to annihilate the German fleet as a fighting force. Both sides could, therefore, claim a victory – the British in having the enemy fleet in harbour and not in the North Sea and the Germans in keeping the fleet in being and as an effective force. The real loser, as Staff notes, was the Royal Navy, with its tradition of invincibility and aggressively pursuing an enemy now broken. Jellicoe and Beatty may not have lost the fleet in an afternoon, but over twenty-four hours they denuded it of a reputation earned before the days of Nelson.

Australian Naval Institute - John Johnston