A month later, on 15–16 December, she participated in the bombardment of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby. Along with the armored cruiser , "Roon" was assigned to the van of the High Seas Fleet, which was providing distant cover to Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's battlecruisers while they were conducting the bombardment. During the operation, "Roon" and her attached destroyers encountered the British screening forces; "Roon" came in contact with the destroyers and , but no gunfire was exchanged and the ships turned away. Following reports of British destroyers from "Roon" as well as from , Admiral von Ingenohl ordered the High Seas Fleet to disengage and head for Germany. At this point, "Roon" and her destroyers became the rearguard for the High Seas Fleet. "Roon", by this time joined by the light cruisers and "Hamburg", encountered Commander Loftus Jones' destroyers. Jones shadowed "Roon" for about 45 minutes, at which point "Stuttgart" and "Hamburg" were detached to sink their pursuers. Twenty minutes later, "Roon" signaled the two light cruisers and ordered them to abandon the pursuit and retreat along with the rest of the High Seas Fleet. In the meantime, Vice Admiral David Beatty received word of "Roon"s location, and in an attempt to intercept the German cruisers, detached the battlecruiser to hunt the German ships down, while his other three battlecruisers followed from a distance. While still pursuing the retreating Germans, Beatty had become aware that the German battlecruisers were shelling Hartlepool, so he decided to break off the pursuit of "Roon" and turn towards the German battlecruisers.