On 23 January 1915, a force of German battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Franz von Hipper sortied to clear the Dogger Bank of any British fishing boats or small craft that might be there to collect intelligence on German movements. But the British were reading their coded messages and sailed to intercept them with a larger force of British battlecruisers under the command of Admiral Beatty, which included "Indomitable". Contact was initiated at 07:20 on the 24th when the British light cruiser spotted the German light cruiser . By 07:35 the Germans had spotted Beatty's force and Hipper ordered a turn to the south at , believing that this would suffice if the ships that he saw to his northwest were British battleships and that he could always increased speed to 's maximum speed of if they were British battlecruisers.