In 1914, Germany possessed a global colonial empire, from Africa to the Pacific. Steamers interlinked these colonies and the homeland, while small naval forces protected this important network and the colonies from both local and foreign threats. A handful of warships sufficed to police the empire in most areas, except Germany's Chinese possession, Tsingtao, where a larger force known as the East Asiatic Cruiser Squadron was based. These dispersed forces also served the larger Imperial German strategy of posing a threat to enemy shipping in the event of war. When the Great War broke out in August 1914, these detached ships and squadrons faced a coalition of the world's great naval powers, France and Great Britain. Since the Allied blockade ended any hope of these ships returning home, they had three choices: scuttle, seek internment, or launch hit and run attacks on Allied shipping and colonies for as long as possible. The last option was chosen and within a few days, German warships left their colonial stations to attack the Allies. The campaign that followed lasted until the late hours of the war. Once the overseas raiders had been hunted down, armed merchant ships departed from Germany, breaking through the allied blockade, and more than half would survive to successfully return home up to a year later. By the end, Germany's Great War surface raiders covered six times more territory geographically than its more well know submarine campaigns. The story of the individual raiders has been covered well enough in the existing literature, but with few exceptions it focuses on the story, not the result or impact of the raiders on Allied shipping and strategy. Furthermore, the German surface raiding campaign has never been assessed on its own terms. This study attempts to rectify this by offering an overview of the campaign, launched in two distinct phases, and providing a close examination. Using largely archival and primary source material this study concludes that the impact of a handful of German raiders throughout the war, was significantly greater than has been previously determined.
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