 Following her commissioning in February 1914 , Rostock was assigned as a torpedo boat flotilla leader with the High Seas Fleet . On 24 January 1915 , Rostock formed part of the support for Admiral Franz von Hipper battlecruisers in the I Scouting Group during a sortie to destroy British light forces known to be operating near the Dogger Bank . The ship steamed with three other light cruisers and nineteen torpedo boats . Rostock and several of the torpedo boats were tasked with screening the port flank of the battlecruiser squadron . The German group encountered five British battlecruisers , resulting in the Battle of Dogger Bank , during which the armored cruiser Blücher was sunk . Rostock participated in the bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24 April 1916 , and as part of the screen for the I Scouting Group . While the battlecruisers bombarded Lowestoft , Rostock and five other cruisers engaged the Harwich Force . Shortly thereafter , the battlecruisers intervened and forced the Harwich Force to withdraw . The German squadron then broke off and returned to port . 
