A Black Sea role for the Deutschland class

Control of Romanian oil and trade with the Soviet Union initially give Germany reasons to avoid widening the conflict, but Soviet cooperation with the Far Eastern Allies makes that relationship unstable. One speculative German option is an early move south through Romania and Bulgaria toward Georgia and the Baku oil fields instead of the historical advance through Poland and toward Moscow. Bulgarian cooperation might provide the political route and even a nominal local navy for German ships transferred into the theatre. In the Black Sea, Deutschland-class cruisers would face little comparable heavy naval strength and could operate without long ocean passages taxing their unreliable diesels. Short operating distances and weak opposition reduce several weaknesses that limited the class elsewhere.