 During the fleet sortie on 18 – 19 August 1916 , the I Scouting Group , which was the battlecruiser reconnaissance force of the High Seas Fleet and commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper , was to bombard the coastal town of Sunderland in an attempt to draw out and destroy Beatty 's battlecruisers . As Moltke and Von der Tann were the only two remaining German battlecruisers still in fighting condition after the Battle of Jutland , three dreadnoughts were assigned to the unit for the operation : Bayern , and the two König @-@ class ships Markgraf and Grosser Kurfürst . Admiral Scheer and the rest of the High Seas Fleet , with 15 dreadnoughts of its own , would trail behind and provide cover . The British were aware of the German plans and sortied the Grand Fleet to meet them . By 14 : 35 , Scheer had been warned of the Grand Fleet 's approach and , unwilling to engage the whole of the Grand Fleet just 11 weeks after the decidedly close call at Jutland , turned his forces around and retreated to German ports . 
