Shortly before 16:00, Hipper's force encountered Vice Admiral Beatty's battlecruiser squadron. The German ships were the first to open fire, at a range of approximately 15,000 yards (14,000 m). When the British ships began returning fire, confusion amongst the British battlecruisers resulted in "Moltke" being engaged by both "New Zealand" and "Tiger". The British rangefinders had misread the range to their German targets, and so the first salvos fired by the British ships fell a mile past the German battlecruisers. At 16:52, "Moltke" hit "Tiger" with two main gun shells, but neither of these hits caused any significant damage. "Moltke" then fired a further four shells, two of which hit simultaneously on the midships and after turrets, knocking both out for a significant period of the battle.