Some sources say that the Royal Navy received information from undisclosed sources that Franz Hipper, commander of a squadron of German cruisers, had left for Kiel on May 30. It was assumed that Kiel wanted to bomb towns on the east coast of England, as he had done in previous months. Following on from the great victories of the Royal Navy at the two Battles of Dogger Bank, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe saw this information as the perfect opportunity to lure the Germans into a trap, into a decisive naval battle.
But it was the Navy that found itself trapped. Admiral Scheer, commander of the German fleet, knew the British were looking for a fight, and launched his battle squadron a few hours after Hipper's. This second group consisted of more than twenty battleships, cruisers, and dozens of destroyers and torpedo boats.
Jellicoe took out two groups to counter the Germans:cruiser squadrons 1 and 2, as well as the 5th battle squadron, all from Rosyth, under the command of Admiral David Beatty, as well as the Grand Fleet under the command of Jellicoe himself, from Scapa Flow. The 5th Battle Squadron included four battleships:Malayan, Barham, Valiant and Warspite, attached to Beatty for gunnery training.