Scorched by fire, blackened by soot and cordite, this is the silk battle ensign of the Royal Navy’s greatest ‘castle of steel’, last seen flying from HMS Warspite as she clashed with the Germans at Jutland.
With the 100th anniversary of the greatest naval battle fought in World War I approaching in few months, the Royal Navy is pulling out all the stops to revisit its greatness at its pinnacle of strength and celebration of their strategic (tactical is up to debate) victory at the Battle of Jutland.
Currently the IWM is taking their remaining Jutland battle flags out of storage and prepping them for display. The Jutland ensigns found range in size between 148 square feet down to just 15½ square feet and belonged to battleships Warspite (she suffered heavy damage and 30 casualties) and Bellerophon (came through unscathed), battle-cruiser Indomitable (where she severely damaged the German battle-cruisers Seydlitz and Derfflinger), destroyers Marksman and Obedient, and cruiser Warrior (lost on June 1 1916).
Services of thanksgiving in the Orkneys, a combined Anglo-German sail past and ceremony over one of the vessels lost in the titanic clash of dreadnoughts, the unveiling of cruiser HMS Caroline in Belfast as a museum ship and living memorial to the Grand Fleet, plus commemorations at the naval memorials in Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth – where the names of most of the 6,094 sailors and Royal Marines killed are listed.
