destroyers closed in on the German line, and after having endured a hail of gunfire, maneuvered into a good firing position. Each ship launched two torpedoes apiece at König and Grosser Kurfürst, although all four weapons missed. In return, a secondary battery shell from one of the battleships hit Nestor and wrecked her engine room. The ship, along with the destroyer , was crippled and lying directly in the path of the advancing German line. Both of the destroyers were sunk, and German torpedo boats stopped to pick up survivors. At around 18:00, König and her three sister ships shifted their fire to the approaching s of 5th Battle Squadron. König initially engaged until that ship was out of range, then shifted to . However, the faster British battleships were able to move out of effective gunnery range quickly. Shortly after 19:00, the German cruiser had become disabled by a shell from the British battlecruiser ; Rear Admiral Paul Behncke in König attempted to maneuver his four ships to cover the stricken cruiser. Simultaneously, the British III and IV Light Cruiser Squadrons began a torpedo attack on the German line; while advancing to torpedo range, they smothered Wiesbaden with fire from their main guns. König and her sisters fired heavily on the British cruisers, but even sustained fire from the battleships' main guns failed to drive off the British cruisers. In the ensuing melee, the British armored cruiser was struck by several heavy caliber shells from the German dreadnoughts. One salvo penetrated the ship's ammunition magazines and, in a massive explosion, destroyed the cruiser. Shortly after 19:20, König again entered gunnery range of the battleship and opened fire on her target. She was joined by the dreadnoughts , , , and . However, König rapidly lost sight of Warspite, as she had been in the process of turning east-northeast. Nearly simultaneously, British light cruisers and destroyers attempted to make a torpedo attack against the leading ships of the German line, including König. Shortly thereafter, the main British line came into range of the German fleet; at 19:30 the British battleships opened fire on both the German battlecruiser force and the König-class ships. König came under especially heavy fire during this period. In the span of 5 minutes, fired 9 salvos at König from a range of 12,000 yards; only one shell hit the ship. The 13.5-inch shell struck the forward