While they were thus engaged the _Princess Royal_ singled out the
_Derfftinger_ for her target. The light British cruiser _Aurora,
Arethusa_, and _Undaunted_ were far ahead of the rest of the British
fleet and were firing at the _Moltke_, but thick black smoke which
poured from their funnels as their engines were speeded up got
between the gunners of the _Lion_ and their target, the _Moltke_,
completely obscuring the latter. As a result the three light British
cruisers were ordered to slow down and to take positions to the
rear.
By eleven o'clock there were fires raging on both the _Seydlitz_
and the _Derfftinger_, and Admiral Hipper decided to try to save
his larger ships by sacrificing the destroyers that accompanied
them. Consequently the German destroyers put their bows right toward
the large British ships and charged, but the fire which they drew
was too much for them and they gave up this maneuver.
The British destroyer _Meteor_, which had been maintaining a perilous
position between the battleships, then attempted to torpedo the
_Bluecher_, which had fallen far to the rearward to be abandoned by
the rest of the German fleet. Badly damaged as the _Bluecher_ was,
the crew of one of her guns managed to get in some final shots,
one of them nearly ending the career of the British destroyer. The
_Arethusa_ had also come up and prepared to launch a torpedo. Cruiser
and destroyer torpedoed her at about the same moment, and later,
while within 200 yards of the sinking German ship the _Arethusa_
sent another torpedo at her.
Pages:
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358