A target-allocation error leaves Moltke unengaged

Beatty intended the two rear British ships to engage Blücher while the leading ships worked forward through the German line. Tiger's captain instead interpreted the signal as an instruction to join Lion against Seydlitz, leaving Moltke without an opponent. Moltke could therefore fire at Lion without taking return fire from an assigned British ship. The duplicate engagement also made shell splashes harder to distinguish, because Lion and Tiger could mistake one another's fall of shot for their own. The error combined signaling ambiguity with degraded gunnery observation at the moment the British needed disciplined target distribution.