Chapter · 36:48-41:39

Training, cohesion, and battlecruiser survivability

Sturdee's command is expected to improve gunnery practice, cooperation with the Fifth Battle Squadron, and attention to unsafe ammunition-handling routines.

Notes

The proposed staff change gives several months to alter how the battlecruiser force works with the Grand Fleet and the Fifth Battle Squadron. More coordinated training would include gunnery work with the wider fleet and a less dismissive relationship with Evan-Thomas's fast battleships. Sturdee would also press for Renown and Repulse as quickly as possible, although the ships were not far enough advanced for a few months of urgency to make either available at Jutland. A command focused on winning while bringing ships home is more likely to challenge open shell and magazine doors kept open to accelerate ammunition supply. These changes do not make battlecruisers invulnerable, but they alter the risks they carry into Jutland.