Battle of Jutland anniversary

The most important sea engagement of World War One - the Battle of Jutland - is being commemorated 90 years on.

The Imperial War Museum is holding an exhibition on HMS Belfast, while wreaths have been laid at the scene of the confrontation, off Denmark's coast.

One of the last survivors, 109-year-old Henry Allingham, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, was at the exhibition's launch.

Some 8,648 British and German sailors lost their lives in one day's fighting on 31 May into 1 June 1916.

From the BBC. It is worth remembering that casualty rates of this order were the norm for industrial-age warfare (the British army suffered over 19,000 dead during the first day of the Somme) -- not to play down the hellishness of contemporary combat, but rather to appreciate just what previous generations went through.

Posted by David on May 31, 2006 9:06 AM