CASTLES OF STEEL

May 1916 – World War 1: as the bloodshed and stalemate of the land war continues, over 100 ships of the British Grand Fleet are moored at Scapa Flow.

 

Yet even under the command of respected Admiral John Jellicoe, the most powerful navy the world has ever seen appears to be doing little to help end the war other than swing idly at anchor.

 

Then the German High Seas Fleet senses an opportunity to lure Britain’s fast but poorly-armoured battle cruisers – under the impetuous Vice-Admiral David Beatty – into a trap. Its aim? To deliver a knock-out blow that will cripple the Royal Navy, and hand ultimate victory to the Kaiser.

 

But as Jellicoe continues the War Cabinet’s strategy of blockading Germany by sea and starving her into submission, British politicians, the press and the public alike grow increasingly impatient for an end to the stalemate, and long for a crushing Trafalgar-like victory at sea.

 

In the balance rest the lives of tens of thousands of British sailors, including 15-year-old Jack Cornwell. Then the fog of war lifts, and the British and German Fleets finally meet for ‘Der Tag’, The Day. The fate of the sailors – and the war – soon to be decided in the grey wastes and blasting winds off the Danish coast, west of Jutland…

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