Actually, I was counting what would be brought to the battle if it was a full fledged involvement of both sides.
sorry, my list was a bit off ... getting ready for bed at that point and not at my best ...
If it was a meeting battle with what was available when Ingenohl fist met to British destroyers, you would have had the Dreadnoughts and B's of the HSF against Beatty and Warrender, possibly Packenham's Ca's as well, however, Hipper's battle cruisers would have been more to the west, inside the minefields at that time.
Basically I was referring to modern dreadnoughts as anything built after the pre-dreads ... that would include Nassau's , and no, they would not compare well to the Orion/KGV's
I haven't been able to find a clear complete reading of the courses that day, however for the number of TB's that were available, 4 or 6 RN destroyers shouldn't have had the impact they did historically.
.. if a battle had of occurred, I really think it would have been for the most part inconclusive. Beatty might do something stupid, and Warrender wsn't the brightest. However, Ingenohl would have to be wondering where the rest of Jellicoe's ships were, and if a handful of destroyers spooked him, I wondering just how he'd react to a half dozen dreadnoughts with battle cruisers in support. Given the intelligence and scouting technologies available, I'm thinking he probably would have done the same as he did historically.
If Ingenohl chose to pursue the retiring British he would eventually be down to the 6 most modern ships available... the helgolands would be hard pressed to maintain maximum speed for long with their reciprocating machinery, while the Nassau's couldn't match the British ship's speed at all.
The result would be to leave the HSF scattered over a wide area, and still not knowing where Jellicoe was.
The fight, if it happened, would be a 'dine and dash' for the HSF. sink what you can, before the British bug out. Anything that can be slowed will probably be overwhelmed, but I would doubt a complete destruction of the British forces.
One point that should really be taken into consideration from that time point was the orders from the Kaiser regarding preserving the fleet, in combination with the thought that Ingenohl wasn't to be advancing that far north in the first place.
Even considering Beatty and Warrender, I would think that once they figured out they were dealing with the whole HSF, they'd make a very good effort to break off. Now I'm not saying in that scenario they would get away scot free, however a good portion will survive.
the superiority in TB's needs to be off set against the weather, as in the case of Hipper he had detached his TB's early, and on the way home they were reported as well ahead of him. Yes there are an abundance of German TB's , but with the present sea state it would be a challenge for them to get in to an advantageous attack position.
---- to me, the action that was the biggest disappointment was Hipper's later escape. With Warrender and Beatty blocking the northern and central exits, and the 3rd Battle squadron blocking the south, he should have been wrapped up.
imagine ... Hipper vs the 3rd Battle Squadron ....might have been interesting.
