Filming the Battle of Jutland
In 2006 we were asked to help in the filming of the ‘Battle of Jutland’ episode for the ‘Battlefield Detectives’ series made by Granada for ‘The History Channel’
During May & June we filmed at HMS Excellent & onboard HMS Belfast - this coincided with our usual week onboard in June. At HMS Excellent we were filmed on the D.R.I.U. (Damage Repair Instruction Unit). This is a reconstruction of a three deck section of a modern warship complete with all fittings & machinery. The whole unit is mounted on hydraulic rams which tilt & roll the ‘ship’ to replicate list due to action damage. The unit is then flooded by pumping water through various hole & splits in the structure. These have to be repaired to prevent the ‘ship’ from taking on too much water.
Filming took the best part of 6 hours in cold water, using hammocks, wedges or anything else to hand to stem the flooding.
Filming on Belfast centred on the Command’s difficulty in signaling to other ships in the conditions of the day, thus preventing Beattie from being able to manoeuvre his cruiser force effectively.
