We made contact with Hipper at 5.30 p.m., [1] and Beatty turned north
with his cruisers and fast battleships and we pursued.
[Footnote 1: This is 4.30 G.M.T.--Etienne]
Two of the great ships had been sunk by our battle cruisers, and we had
hopes of destroying the remainder, when at 6.55 the mist on the
northern horizon was pierced by the formidable line of the British
Battle Fleet.
Jellicoe had arrived!
Three battle cruisers became involved between the lines, and in an
instant one was blown up, and another crawled west in a sinking
condition. Sudden and terrible are events in a modern sea-battle.
Confronted with the concentrated force of Britain's Battle Fleet we
turned to east, and for twenty minutes our High Seas Fleet sustained
the unequal contest.
It was during this period that we were hit seventeen times by heavy
shell, though, in my position in the after torpedo control tower, I
only realized one hit had taken place, which was when a shell plunged
into the after turret and, blowing the roof off, killed every member of
the turret's crew.
From my position, when the smoke and dust had blown away, I looked down
into a mass of twisted machinery, amongst which I seemed to detect the
charred remains of bodies.
At about 7.40 we turned, under cover of our smoke screen, and steered
south-west.
Our position was not satisfactory, as the last information of the enemy
reported them as turning to the southward; consequently they were
between us and Heligoland.
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