 At 05 : 00 on 23 April 1918 , the entire High Seas Fleet , including Bayern and Baden , left harbor with the intention of intercepting one of the heavily escorted convoys . Wireless radio traffic was kept to a minimum to prevent the British from learning of the operation . However , at 05 : 10 on 24 April , the battlecruiser Moltke suffered severe mechanical problems and had to be towed back to Wilhelmshaven . By 14 : 10 , the convoy had still not yet been located , and so Scheer turned the High Seas Fleet back towards German waters . In fact , there was no convoy sailing on 24 April ; German naval intelligence had miscalculated the sailing date by one day . 
