Scheer pursued without recognizing that the orderly British withdrawal might lead toward a larger force. The horizon then became an arc of gun flashes as more than a hundred Grand Fleet heavy guns entered the action. The German operational concept had been reversed: British battlecruisers had delivered the High Seas Fleet to Jellicoe just as Scheer intended his scouting force to deliver Beatty. Missing reconnaissance and Scheer's expectation of British confusion helped turn determination into dangerous, unthinking aggression against overwhelming strength.
Notable Point · 1:05:14-1:08:15
Beatty turned Scheer's trap against him
Scheer read the British withdrawal as flight until the Grand Fleet's gun flashes revealed that Beatty had drawn the High Seas Fleet into the very kind of ambush Germany intended.