In the German line the _Waldersee’s_ forward military mast tottered and could be seen swaying at each instant, the network of steel girders had been badly damaged. The _Caprivi_ was on fire amidships, and smoke was pouring up from the fire. The _Moltke_ was without one of her four funnels. The _Manteuffel’s_ stern had been wrecked till the structure of the ship above the armour looked like a tangle of battered girders. The _York_ and _Roon_ were less shattered, but gaping wounds could be seen in their sides. The _Friedrich Karl_ had lost the upper portion of her after military mast. The _Prince Heinrich_ was slightly down by the bow, and was drooping astern. Sparks and splinters flew upwards from the steel sides of the great ships as the projectiles went home; the din was indescribable; mingled with the dull note of the heavy guns was the crackling of the smaller guns and the beating of the pom-poms, playing a devil’s tattoo in this furious encounter of the mastodons. The German Admiral saw that the two fleets were steadily nearing the _Bismarck_, and essayed once more the manœuvre which he had already tried, a manœuvre studiously practised in the German Navy, which had for ten years been daily experimenting with battle-evolutions, and testing its captains’ nerves till they were of steel. In these difficult and desperate manœuvres, it was remarked then--and it has since been proved by experience--the Germans surpassed their British rivals, not because the German officer was braver or more capable, but because he was younger taught to display initiative to a higher degree than the personnel of the British fleet, and better trained for actual battle. The four last cruisers in the German line suddenly altered course and steered straight at the British line, while behind them, as before, followed six torpedo boats. Through the intervals at the head of the German line came the other six boats--an evolution which they had constantly rehearsed in peace, and which they carried out with admirable precision and dash in the crisis of battle--and charged the head of the British line. The rest of the German squadron maintained its original course, and covered the attack with a terrific fire, all its guns accelerating the rapidity of their discharge till the air hummed with projectiles. The attack was suddenly and vigorously delivered. The British ships at the rear of the line met it and countered it with success by turning together south and steaming away, so that the German effort in this quarter ended with a blow to the air.