Spee turned to the south in the hope of disengaging while the British had their vision obscured, but only opened the range to before the British saw his course change. This was futile as the British battlecruisers gave chase at . Forty minutes later, the British opened fire again at . Eight minutes later, Spee turned again to the east to give battle; this time, his strategy was to close the range on the British ships so he could bring his secondary armament to bear. He was successful, and they were able to open fire at 15:00 at maximum elevation. On this course, the smoke bothered both sides, but multiple hits were made regardless. Those made by the Germans either failed to detonate or hit in some insignificant area. On the contrary, "Gneisenau" had her starboard engine room put out of action. Sturdee ordered his ships at 15:15 back across their own wakes to gain the windward advantage. Spee turned to the northwest, as if to attempt to cross the British T, but actually to bring "Scharnhorst"s undamaged starboard guns to bear as most of those on his port side were out of action. The British continued to hit "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" regularly during this time and "Scharnhorst" ceased fire at 16:00 before capsizing at 16:17 with no survivors. "Gneisenau" had been slowed by earlier damage and was battered for another hour and a half by "Inflexible" and "Invincible" at ranges down to . Despite the damage her crew continued to fire back until she ceased firing at 16:47. Sturdee was ready to order 'Cease fire' at 17:15 when an ammunition hoist was freed up and she made her last shot. The British continued to pound her until 17:50, after her captain had given the order to scuttle her at 17:40. She slowly capsized at 18:00 and the British were able to rescue 176 men. She had fired 661 twelve-inch shells during the battle and had only been hit three times because she was often obscured by "Invincible"s smoke. Only one man was killed and five wounded aboard the battlecruisers during the battle.