Battle of the Denmark Strait Beatty, likewise, felt he needed to engage German Admiral Franz Hipper's battlecruisers with his own forces instead of drawing the Germans toward Admiral John Jellicoe and the British Grand Fleet. Holland, like Beatty, possessed superiority in the number of heavy ships he possessed, yet he was encumbered by inferiority in fighting effectiveness of those units. Moreover, Holland's deployment of his units compared to Beatty's deployment at Jutland. Beatty and Holland both attacked while German units were well before the beam. As a result, the midships and after turrets of Beatty's ships could barely fire on the enemy; Holland's ships could
Night action at the Battle of Jutland positions. At 2130 Koch's boats came under friendly fire from battleships of the third battle squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Paul Behncke, though escaped damage. They were further hampered by the need to minimise sparks from the funnels which might give away their position. The result of all these difficulties was that they first met destroyers at the rear of the British fleet rather than the capital ships further ahead. At 2150 Koch sighted the fourth Destroyer Flotilla under Captain Wintour on the destroyer leader HMS "Tipperary" heading north to their night station. Initially he mistook the ships for the German