on Seydlitz. In return she had been hit by the Germans sixteen times, but only suffered one man killed and twenty wounded. Battle of Jutland On 31 May 1916 Lion was the flagship of Admiral Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet which had put to sea to intercept a sortie by the High Seas Fleet into the North Sea. The British were able to decode the German radio messages and left their bases before the Germans put to sea. Hipper's battlecruisers spotted the Battlecruiser Fleet to their west at 15:20, but Beatty's ships did not spot the Germans to their east until ten minutes later. Almost immediately afterwards, at 15:32, he ordered a course change to east-south-east to position himself astride the Germans' line of retreat and called his ships' crews to action stations. Hipper ordered his ships to turn to starboard, away from the British, to assume a south-easterly course, and reduced speed to to allow three light cruisers of the 2nd Scouting Group to catch up. With this turn Hipper was falling back on the High Seas Fleet, then about behind him. Around this time Beatty altered course to the east as it was quickly apparent that he was still too far north to cut off Hipper. This began what was to be called the 'Run to the South' as Beatty changed course to steer east-south-east at 15:45, paralleling Hipper's course, now that the range closed to under . The Germans opened fire first at 15:48, followed almost immediately afterwards by the British. The British ships were still in the process of making their turn as only the two leading ships, Lion and , had steadied on their course when the Germans opened fire. The German fire was accurate from the beginning, but the British overestimated the range as the German ships blended into the haze. Lion, as the leading British ship, engaged , her opposite number in the German formation. Lützows fire was very accurate, and Lion was hit twice within three minutes of the Germans' opening fire. By 15:54 the range was down to , and Beatty ordered a course change two points to starboard to open up the range at 15:57. Lion scored her first hit on Lützow two minutes later, but Lützow returned the favour at 16:00 when one of her 305 mm shells hit 'Q' turret at a range of . The shell penetrated the joint