 Indefatigable , accompanied by Indomitable , under the command of Admiral Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne , encountered the German battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau on the morning of 4 August 1914 headed east after a cursory bombardment of the French Algerian port of Philippeville , but Britain and Germany were not yet at war so Milne turned to shadow the Germans as they headed back to Messina to recoal . All three battlecruisers had problems with their boilers , but Goeben and Breslau were able to break contact and reached Messina by the morning of the 5th . By this time war had been declared , after the German invasion of Belgium , but an Admiralty order to respect Italian neutrality and stay outside a six @-@ mile ( 10 km ) limit from the Italian coast precluded entrance into the passage of the Strait of Messina where they could observe the port directly . Milne therefore stationed Inflexible and Indefatigable at the northern exit of the Straits of Messina , still expecting the Germans to break out to the west where they could attack French troop transports ; he stationed the light cruiser Gloucester at the southern exit and sent Indomitable to recoal at Bizerte , where she was better positioned to react to a German sortie into the Western Mediterranean . 
