The Battle of Jutland and the teaching of naval warfare at the French Army’s higher war school in Paris,1920-21

Abstract

The French Army promoted and practiced inter-service familiarity in advanced professional studies carried out at its well-established higher war school in Paris that reopened immediately after the First World War. As part of the curriculum, naval officers lectured to army officers on naval tactics and strategy with a strong historical focus. This activity involved early teaching by one of the French Navy’s leading original thinkers in the interwar period. Recent war experience against the Germans provided rich content for those lectures. The naval battle of Jutland was one case given particular consideration. A mimeographed typescript copy of the original lectures indicates that the French showed interest in a sea encounter with which they were only tangentially involved.