Raw firepower did not make the newly concentrated Grand Fleet ready for battle. Jellicoe had to turn roughly 160 ships, including an unprecedented dreadnought force, into one formation capable of maneuvering on command. Its operational logic resembled an age-of-sail battle fleet more closely than the distributed task groups familiar from the Second World War. No peacetime Royal Navy exercise had regularly assembled a force on this scale because ships were needed across several stations and concentrating them was expensive. The later American battle-fleet and scouting-fleet scheme carried forward the recognizable division between Jellicoe's main body and its battlecruiser scouts. The scale made common doctrine, practiced signals, and captains able to interpret orders essential rather than optional.
Chapter · 47:35-50:45
An unprecedented fleet that had to move as one
The Grand Fleet's roughly 160 ships had to become a single coordinated weapon, not a collection of later-style task groups operating independently.