1st Edition, 1976, printed in Great Britain, before the 1st U.S. printing ~ "The biggest naval battle in history occurred off the coast of Jutland in the afternoon of May 31, 1916 when the German High Seas Fleet confronted a six-mile line of grey-steel dreadnoughts of the British Grand Fleet. In this momentous "clash of Titans" more than 200 warships of the rival navies were involved in a series of bitterly fought actions that lasted throughout the night. The result could determine the course of the First World War; as Churchill put it, "Britain could have lost the war in an afternoon"."