The Goeben and Breslau lesson for distant raiders

The counterfactual does not send a Scharnhorst-derived battleship to create a larger Battle of the River Plate. German planners remembered how Goeben and Breslau reached Ottoman waters but delivered only a limited direct advantage to Germany. Their presence tied down older British pre-dreadnoughts and the semi-dreadnoughts Lord Nelson and Agamemnon rather than a decisive share of the Royal Navy. A later sortie also ended with the ships damaged while escaping through a minefield. The lesson is to keep scarce capital ships concentrated where they can support the fleet instead of marooning them in distant theatres.