“At 12:47 P.M. the signal to ‘Open fire and engage the enemy’ was made.
“The Inflexible opened fire at 12:55 P.M. from her fore turret at the right-hand ship of the enemy, a light cruiser; a few minutes later the Invincible opened fire at the same ship.
“The deliberate fire from a range of 16,500 to 15,000 yards at the right-hand light cruiser, who was dropping astern, became too threatening, and when a shell fell close alongside her at 1:20 she (the Leipzig) turned away, with the Nürnberg and Dresden, to the southwest. These light cruisers were at once followed by the Kent, Glasgow, and Cornwall, in accordance with my instructions.
“The action finally developed into three separate encounters besides the subsidiary one dealing with the threatened landing.”
It is plain from this that when the speed was limited by that of its slowest ship, that is, the Carnarvon, the squadron was unable to gain on the Germans at all. The time, therefore, had come to force the enemy to a decision, and full speed was once more ordered. The British squadron from now until the next decisive move was taken, must be pictured in this way—the two battle-cruisers and Glasgow racing along at twenty-six or twenty-seven knots; Cornwall and Kent following along at their best speed—probably a knot and a half or two knots less—and Carnarvon bringing up the rear. She must soon have been left considerably behind. For an hour then the two squadrons had probably been keeping about twenty-one knots at a distance of about 19,000 yards. Half an hour’s chase at twenty-five knots brought the range to 17,000 and twenty-five minutes later, to something less than 15,000.
The German squadron was now under fire and Von Spee made the signal, “I intend to fight the battle-cruisers as long as I can, the light cruisers are to scatter and to escape if possible.” The reader will of course realize that up to this moment Leipzig, Nürnberg, and Dresden had been limiting their speed by the speed of Scharnhorst. This was undoubtedly Von Spee’s second mistake, if we assume he was wrong in not attacking the British squadron as it issued from the harbour. By keeping his light cruisers with him until the British were within ten miles of him, he brought their chance of escape to a very low ebb indeed. It is clear that Admiral Sturdee’s drop in speed at 11:20 completely deceived him. He probably thought that none of the British cruisers could exceed the speed the Vice-Admiral then ordered.
We now have to treat of the rest of the day’s work as three separate actions, though it is really more correct to call it four, because the actions between Kent and Nürnberg, Cornwall and Glasgow with Leipzig had, after the first phase, no influence one upon the other. We will deal first, as the Vice-Admiral does, with the action with the armoured cruisers.