Readiness and shell testing through repeated false alarms

The Grand Fleet repeatedly mobilized for reports of German sorties and returned without the decisive battle its crews expected. Jellicoe therefore had to sustain readiness, morale, and fighting discipline across long stretches of waiting. Live-fire exercises trained the ships while giving him direct evidence about the continuing defects in British shells. The same complaints that had troubled armaments firms during his Third Sea Lord tenure now returned from the commander-in-chief. Shortages and the Army's immense ammunition demands on the Western Front limited how quickly the Navy's case could be answered, but Jellicoe kept pressing it.