The Final Stages of the War 915the German code, hoped to have the last laugh when the entire Grand
Fleet suddenly appeared. The German and British fleets stumbled into
each other off the coast of Denmark, in the Battle of Jutland, May 31 —
June 1, 1916. In a heavy exchange of gunfire, the British lost fourteen
ships and about 6,000 men; eleven German ships were sunk and about
1,500 men were killed. Both sides claimed victory, but British losses were
heavier, surprising and embarrassing British naval leaders (such that one
admiral turned to a junior officer and stammered, “Chatfield, there seems
to be something wrong with our bloody ships today!”). Yet in the end, it was
the German fleet that fled, leaving the Royal Navy in control of the seas
for the duration of the war.
The continuing success of the British blockade led Germany to announce
on February 1, 1917, that its submarines would attack any ship in “war
zones.” In March 1916, the U.S. government had forcefully protested the
sinking of the British ship Sussex in the English Channel, with the loss of
American lives. Germany agreed to the “Sussex pledge,” reaffirming the
agreement to give up unrestricted submarine warfare. But pressure came
from the German high command to turn loose the submarine fleet, now
120 strong, as the only hope for knocking Britain out of the war. This was a
calculated risk, like the invasion of Belgium in 1914, because it would surely
entail American intervention. Two weeks earlier, the United States had
intercepted a coded telegram from the German foreign secretary, Arthur