Visibility and position limited the targets available to Bellerophon, which sat well back in the Grand Fleet's line. Her reported expenditure was about sixty-two 12-inch rounds, including forty-two armour-piercing capped and twenty common pointed capped shells, plus fourteen 4-inch rounds. A hit on Derfflinger probably damaged a rangefinder near the conning tower and B turret, while Bellerophon's main guns also engaged German destroyer flotillas when those were the only visible targets. She emerged undamaged, illustrating how fire at Jutland concentrated on ships that could be seen near the head of formations. Her modest ammunition expenditure is best read in the context of smoke, line position, and target opportunity rather than as evidence of poor readiness.
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Bellerophon's limited but effective fire at Jutland
From fourteenth in the deployed line, Bellerophon fired about sixty-two 12-inch shells, hit Derfflinger's conning-tower area, and engaged destroyers through smoke.