The enemy, on seeing him, had turned S. toward the German Battle Fleet, which was steaming up from the S. some 50 miles off, and he followed. At 3.48 Beatty opened fire at a range of 18,500 yards (or rather more than 10½ land miles), and the enemy did the same. Six British ships with broadsides of 32 13·5-in. and 16 12-in. guns were now shooting at five German ships, whose broadsides were 16 12-in. and 28 11-in. guns. Beatty slowly closed on the enemy till a distance of 14,000 yards parted the squadrons; meanwhile the light cruisers were engaged with craft of their kind. It was in this preliminary action with the odds in our favour that two of Admiral Beatty’s splendid battle-cruisers--the _Queen Mary_ and _Indefatigable_--were destroyed. The loss of these two ships reduced Admiral Beatty’s armoured ships to four and his weight of metal to an approximate equality with the German battle-cruiser squadron, which was still five ships strong, no single vessel in it having as yet been put out of action. At 4.8, Beatty was in some degree supported by the fire of the 15-in. guns in the Fifth Battle Squadron, which opened at 20,000 yards--a long range in misty weather--and the enemy’s fire seemed to slacken. A submarine attack was beaten off by the vigilance and skill of the British destroyers, which soon after 4 were flung in on the enemy in a great attack, meeting in their impetuous charge a German light cruiser and 15 destroyers. All through this encounter the battle-cruisers were still pounding one another and rapidly nearing the German Battle Fleet. From 4.15 to 4.43 he reports that the fighting was “of a very fierce and resolute character,” but at 4.18 the third enemy ship was seen to be on fire. The haze had now thickened, and the enemy could only be dimly made out. At 4.38 the German Battle Fleet emerged from the mist to the S.E., and was seen and reported by the Second Light Cruiser Squadron, scouting in advance, to Admiral Beatty, who at 4.42 turned in his course, steaming N.W. instead of S.E., towards Admiral Jellicoe and the British Battle Fleet. The Germans turned in the same way, their battle-cruisers taking station at the head of the enemy’s line and pursuing Beatty. As they executed this turn, the Fifth Battle Squadron closed them, steaming in the opposite direction, engaged them with all its guns, and then turned and fell in astern of Beatty, who now had eight ships in line, proceeding at a speed of something over 21 knots. The enemy’s battle fleet was in action, and the Germans had concentrated in superior force on a part of the British Fleet.