Cassell, 2001, $9.95, ISBN: 0-304-35848-7, 350 pgs., trade paperback

This reprint of a 1995 book brilliantly and exhaustively explains the battle of Jutland in 1916, as well as briefly summarizes other actions, like Dogger Bank. This virtually minute-by-minute, shell-by-shell account of the battle draws heavily on the official German Navy records, indeed, quoting them extensively through the text.

And best of all are the marvelous multitude of maps plotting movements down to the individual destroyer. Also interspersed are waterline and overhead views of various ships with brief statistics on displacement, length, beam, and number of main guns. How many? Eighty-one, about half maps and half ship views. Now this is how a battle should be diagrammed.

The text reads well and Tarrant does an outstanding job of piecing together a multi-element battle into a coherent narrative. I applaud the use of minutes (Central European time--remember, this is from the German perspective not the British Greenwich Mean Time perspective), and yards in describing events concerning 100 German and 151 British ships. Appendices list them, plus shells fires and hits taken casualties, and a 30-page summary of German wireless transmissions and signals.

If you have even the slightest interest in Jutland, or if you'd like one book on the battle, Jutland: The German Perspective deserves a spot on your library shelf. It is an excellent reference book that's also a good read.