The ships of the II Battle Squadron took part in all of the major fleet actions in the first three years of the war. These included the support missions for the battlecruisers of the I Scouting Group as they bombarded the British coast in attempts to lure out part of the British Grand Fleet, such as the raids on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914 and on Yarmouth and Lowestoft in April 1916. At the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, the ships formed the rear of the German line, though they saw relatively little combat during the daylight action apart from a brief skirmish with the British battlecruiser squadron. The squadron consisted of only six ships at the time, as had been transferred temporarily to the Baltic for guard duty and was in such poor condition that Scheer removed the ship from the squadron. In the night fighting against the British destroyer flotillas, was torpedoed and sunk, killing her entire crew. Her loss highlighted the vulnerability of the other pre-dreadnoughts to underwater attack, and the II Battle Squadron thereafter remained in port when the High Seas Fleet sortied. On 15 August 1917, the II Battle Squadron was disbanded; the former members of the squadron were thereafter decommissioned and used in subsidiary roles or employed as guard ships.