During the night of May 31-June 1, 1917, as the battle of Jutland raged, the British 1st Cruiser Squadron was wiped out. The force commander took his four ships across the British battle line- blocking their view with coal smoke- to try to sink an already-crippled German light cruiser. They paid for this mistake heavily- flagship Defense was blown to pieces by a magazine explosion, Warrior was crippled and sank the next day, and the other two ships- Duke of Edinburgh and Black Prince- were driven away.
During the night, Black Prince finally caught up with the Grand Fleet's main battle group, and attempted to join formation... only to find that in the darkness, they had made a fatal mistake- what they had done was pulled up alongside Scheer's High Seas Fleet at jaw-droppingly short range. In this painting, the German dreadnought Thuringen has illuminated the hapless British cruiser, and is dumping her wing turrets at her. At least two other dreadnoughts did the same, and Black Prince was utterly ruined- she staggered away into the night ablaze and sank with all hands at some point before dawn.
This isn't an exaggeration. The range shown here is the real deal from German reports- guns that could (and had, earlier in the night!) reached miles to hit targets now were engaging at less than 500 yards, against a ship that couldn't hope to survive 11-inch shells in the best of times.
