eternal ages upon the Jutland banks.

Sad as our losses are--and the gallant _Lutzow_ has sunk in sight of
home--I am filled with pride.

We have met that great armada the British Fleet, we have struck them
with a hammer blow and we have returned. I was asleep in my cabin when
the news came that Hipper was coming south with the British battle
cruisers on his beam. In five minutes we were at our action stations.
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