The British forces split going around the shallow Southwest Patch of the Dogger Bank; Beatty's ships passed to the north while the 2nd Battle Squadron passed to the south as they headed west to block the main route through the minefields defending the English coast. This left a gap between them through which the German light forces began to move. At 12:25, the light cruisers of the II Scouting Group began to pass the British forces searching for Hipper. They spotted a German cruiser a few minutes later and Beatty turned his battlecruisers towards the German ships, thinking they were the advance screen for Hipper's ships. Those were 50 km (31 mi) behind. Another British communications failure allowed the German light cruisers to escape and they alerted Hipper to the location of the British battlecruisers. The German battlecruisers wheeled to the northeast of the British forces and escaped.