Hipper set sail on 15 December for another raid and successfully bombarded several English towns, but British destroyers escorting the 1st BCS had already encountered German destroyers of the High Seas Fleet in the early morning and fought an inconclusive action with them. Communications failures meant that Beatty was not notified of this encounter for several hours afterwards, but he turned in pursuit of the German ships once he learned of their presence. The lead British ships were closing in on the Germans when Beatty learned that Scarborough was being shelled later that morning and he turned west to intercept the other German force.