Speed was increased, and the British squadrons rushed at full speed towards the scene of conflict. Other messages came in from the ships in advance reporting that the enemy's force, consisting of the Blücher, three battle-cruisers, and six light cruisers, had altered course to south-east, while a number of destroyers were heading to the north-west. The main body of the enemy very shortly came in sight, but they were at a great distance, and making off as fast as they knew how. After them ploughed the British leviathans and their satellites, but it was not till nine minutes after nine that the Lion got in her first hit on the Blücher at something like 10 miles distance!
The enemy were in "line ahead", the Blücher being the rearmost ship. Their light cruisers were away ahead and their destroyers on their port flank, apparently meditating a dash against the advancing British. Our flotillas, with their attendant cruisers, were at this time away on the port quarter of the battle-cruisers, where they had been placed so as not to obstruct the aim of the big guns by their smoke, but the "M" division of destroyers was now sent ahead in order to attend to the German flotilla.
By this time the leading German ship—supposed to be the Seydlitz—was on fire, and so was the third ship in their line. The enemy's destroyers now began to stoke up, and threw out thick black clouds of smoke, under cover of which their big ships altered course to the northward. As soon as this manœuvre was apparent, the British ships, which by now were tearing through the water at tremendous speed, turned to follow, whereupon their destroyers again evinced a disposition to attack. But upon the Lion and Tiger turning their guns upon them they thought better of it, and returned to their former position. Our light cruisers kept station on the port quarter of the enemy, ready to pounce upon any cripples. Just after a quarter to eleven the Blücher, which had been gradually falling astern, turned out of the line to port. She was on fire, had a heavy list, and was evidently very badly mauled. A few minutes later the periscopes of a number of submarines were noticed on the starboard bow of our battle-cruisers, which at once turned to port to avoid them.
At the pace at which our ships were travelling these insidious foes would soon be left behind. Soon afterwards the flagship, having received damage which could not be at once repaired, was ordered to go off to the north-west, the admiral calling the destroyer Attack alongside and going in her to the Princess Royal, on board of which he rehoisted his flag. On arrival he was informed that the Blücher had been sunk, and that the remainder of the enemy's ships were making off to the eastward in a badly-damaged condition.
The Seydlitz and Derflinger, particularly, were said to have been desperately knocked about. But as the battle had now approached the area of the German mine-fields, it was wisely determined to break it off and return to English waters, the Lion, which had received a shot in her condensers, being taken in tow by the Indomitable. The only ships on our side that were hit were the Lion and the Tiger, and the little Meteor, which led the destroyers interposed between the German destroyers and our main line; and the total casualties were only fourteen officers and men killed and twenty-nine wounded. The German losses must have been terrible.
One of the survivors of the Blücher gave a vivid account of the effects of our gunnery.[101] "The British guns were ranging. Those deadly waterspouts crept nearer and nearer. The men on deck watched them with a strange fascination. Soon one pitched close to the ship, and a vast watery pillar, a hundred metres high, fell lashing on the deck. The range had been found. Now the shells came thick and fast, with a horrible droning hum. At once they did terrible execution. The electric plant was soon destroyed, and the ship plunged in a darkness that could be felt. Down below there was horror and confusion, mingled with gasping shouts and moans as the shells plunged through the decks. At first they came dropping from the sky. They penetrated the decks, they bored their way even to the stokehold. The coal in the bunkers was set on fire. Since the bunkers were half-empty the fire burned merrily. In the engine-room a shell licked up the oil, and sprayed it around in flames of blue and green, scarring its victims and blazing where it fell. Men huddled together in dark compartments, but the shells sought them out, and there death had a rich harvest.
"The terrific air-pressure resulting from explosion in a confined space left a deep impression on the minds of the men of the Blücher. The air, it would seem, roars through every opening and tears its way through every weak spot. All loose or insecure fittings were transformed into moving instruments of destruction. Open doors bang to and jamb, and closed iron doors bend outwards like tin plates, and through it all the bodies of men are whirled about like dead leaves in a winter blast, to be battered to death against the iron walls." Has Dante beaten this description of an Inferno?