This on-line edition of Admiral Reinhard Scheer's World War One memoirs is based directly on the original, published in 1920. Admiral Scheer, who assumed command of the entire German High Seas Fleet in 1916, was in favor of both an aggressive surface fleet policy and unrestricted submarine warfare. On May 31, 1916, he led the German fleet into the battle of Jutland, one of the great naval battles of this century. In the battle, the German fleet performed admirably against the Royal Navy, but it was unable to change the strategic realities of the naval blockade which continued to strangle Germany. The Germans referred to Jutland as The Battle of the Skagerrak.