Now, concerning the battle: please read the attached newspaper report published four days afterwards...

Report from “Frankfurter Zeitung”, November 13th 1917:

“German fleet sinks enemy battlecruiser”

“Four days ago, a battle took place between the forces of our glorious navy and British ships. A group of five battlecruisers and two battleships accompanied by one small cruiser and 19 torpedo boats patrolling the North Sea not far from the place of last year’s victorious Skagerak encounter sighted an enemy strike force of about nine enemy battlecruisers and twenty destroyers at 14:05 hours. With good visibility of about 25000 metres, both forces closed in on each other, and the enemy opened fire around 14:10 hours. He formed a battle line holding a northeastern course, with five modern battlecruisers in the middle, four slightly older ones in the rear and the destroyers in the lead. With our own forces, the battlecruisers led the way, followed by the battleships and two half-flotillas of torpedo boats, whereas the cruiser and the rest of the torpedo boats were yet shielded by the battlecruisers. Both sides capital ships exchanged numerous salvoes, which damaged our leading battlecruiser Derfflinger and several enemy battlecruisers. The two rear half-flotillas then attempted a torpedo attack on the enemy rear, but were repulsed losing two torpedo boats, several more were damaged. Meanwhile the enemy continued to pound our brave ships with grenades, but we returned the fire valiantly and managed to cripple one of the older battlecruisers so it had to leave the line of battle. It was followed by our battleships and a half-flotilla of torpedo boats, which fended off an enemy destroyer squadron trying a torpedo run. Meanwhile, the enemy had scored numerous hits on the Derfflinger so it had to leave the line of battle. At 15:08 hours, a grenade from one of our battlecruisers pierced the armour of a turret on an enemy battlecruiser in the leading group, igniting the charges stored there. The resulting fire expanded to the main magazine and caused a tremendous explosion litteraly ripping the ship apart. After that, the enemy capital ships turned to leave the battle, and their destroyers attacked the battle line of our battlecruisers which had to turn away to avoid enemy torpedoes. Most of the attacking destroyers were sunk by our torpedo boats, either by gunfire or by our torpedoes. After that, our ships lost contact with the enemy and turned for home. Two days later, British newspapers reported the loss of the battlecruiser Tiger and twelve destroyers in an engagement with the enemy near the Norwegian coas with many livbes lost, of the crew of the battlecruiser only five could be rescued. Our forces only lost two torpedo boats, the battlecruiser Derfflinger was severely damaged, most of the other ships were only slightly damaged. There were few fatalities, as the remains of the crews of the sunk torpedo boats could be rescued after the battle, and we made a number of prisoners from the enemy destroyers. The commander of our victorious forces, Vizeadmiral Meyer-Kretschmer, was very pleased at the outcome of the battle and praised the commanders of the torpedo boats, Kapitän John O’Day and Konteradmiral Phillip Driscoll, for their brave and spirited attacks, both of them have been proposed for decorations. When the news of the battle reached the fleet base at Wilhelmshaven, there were spontaneous victory demonstrations on the streets and all the bells were rung. The Emperor was very pleased at the outcome of the battle and declared that this was a further step on the way to victory.”