Dreadnoughts

It is a winter's day in late 1914; the 'Great War' is 4 months old. In the North Sea two battlefleets, one British and one German, are steering on a course which will shortly bring them into contact. The German ships are on their way to carry out a 'hit and run' bombardment of targets on the east coast of Great Britain. The British force has been exercising off the Firth of Forth, but were diverted south to head off the Germans when their presence was betrayed by signal traffic intercepted by Admiralty intelligence experts. The same experts have advised the British commander that the enemy's strength is similar to his own, 4 battlecruisers, 4 light cruisers and 12 destroyers The German admiral has been similarly fortunate; a patrolling Zeppelin has sighted the British force and passed on its composition. With 6 hours of daylight left the opposing ships sight each others' smoke. The 2 Commanders consider how best to deploy their units...