Soon thereafter the German main battleship fleet was sighted to the southward, steering north. The hostile fast squadrons thereupon turned northward, closing the first part of the fight, which lasted about an hour.
The British retired at high speed before the German fleet, which followed closely. The German battle cruisers continued the artillery combat with increasing intensity, particularly with the division of the vessels of the Queen Elizabeth type, and in this the leading German battleship division participated intermittently. The hostile ships showed a desire to run in a flat curve ahead of the point of our line and to cross it.
At 7.45 o’clock in the evening British small cruisers and destroyers launched an attack against our battle cruisers, who avoided the torpedoes by manoeuvring, while the British battle cruisers retired from the engagement, in which they did not participate further as far as can be established. Shortly thereafter a German reconnoitring group, which was parrying the destroyer attack, received an attack from the northeast. The cruiser Wiesbaden was soon put out of action in this attack. The German torpedo flotillas immediately attacked the heavy ships.
Appearing shadow-like from the haze bank to the northeast was made out a long line of at least twenty-five battleships, which at first sought a junction with the British battle cruisers and those of the Queen Elizabeth type on a northwesterly to westerly course, and then turned on an easterly to southeasterly course.
With the advent of the British main fleet, whose centre consisted of three squadrons of eight battleships each, with a fast division of three battle cruisers of the Invincible type on the northern end, and three of the newest vessels of the Royal Sovereign class, armed with fifteen-inch guns, at the southern end, there began about 8 o’clock in the evening the third section of the engagement, embracing the combat between the main fleets.
Vice-Admiral Scheer determined to attack the British main fleet, which he now recognized was completely assembled and about doubly superior. The German battleship squadron, headed by battle cruisers, steered first toward the extensive haze bank to the northeast, where the crippled cruiser Wiesbaden was still receiving a heavy fire. Around the Wiesbaden stubborn individual fights under quickly changing conditions now occurred.
The light enemy forces, supported by an armored cruiser squadron of five ships of the Minotaur, Achilles, and Duke of Edinburgh classes coming from the northeast, were encountered and apparently surprised on account of the decreasing visibility of our battle cruisers and leading battleship division. The squadron came under a violent and heavy fire, by which the small cruisers Defense and Black Prince were sunk. The cruiser Warrior regained its own line a wreck and later sank. Another small cruiser was damaged severely.
Two destroyers already had fallen victims to the attack of German torpedo boats against the leading British battleships and a small cruiser and two destroyers were damaged. The German battle cruisers and leading battleship division had in these engagements come under increased fire of the enemy’s battleship squadron, which, shortly after 8 o’clock, could be made out in the haze turning to the northeastward and finally to the east. Germans observed, amid the artillery combat and shelling of great intensity, signs of the effect of good shooting between 8.20 and 8.30 o’clock particularly. Several officers on German ships observed that a battleship of the Queen Elizabeth class blew up under conditions similar to that of the Queen Mary. The Invincible sank after being hit severely. A ship of the Iron Duke class had earlier received a torpedo hit, and one of the Queen Elizabeth class was running around in a circle, its steering apparatus apparently having been hit.
The Lützow was hit by at least fifteen heavy shells and was unable to maintain its place in line. Vice-Admiral Hipper, therefore, transshipped to the Moltke on a torpedo boat and under a heavy fire. The Derfflinger meantime took the lead temporarily. Parts of the German torpedo flotilla attacked the enemy’s main fleet and heard detonations. In the action the Germans lost a torpedo boat. An enemy destroyer was seen in a sinking condition, having been hit by a torpedo.
After the first violent onslaught into the mass of the superior enemy the opponents lost sight of each other in the smoke by powder clouds. After a short cessation in the artillery combat Vice-Admiral Scheer ordered a new attack by all the available forces.