Surface raiders and diversion from a decisive theatre

A Soviet intelligence-history unit spent most of two decades recovering, translating and evaluating German surface-raider reports. Its conclusion was that a raider becomes useful when the response draws sufficient enemy strength away from a critical theatre. The Soviet assessment treated the Second World War as a weaker general example because much of the surface raiding occurred in areas already considered critical. The First World War supplied the example of two British battlecruisers sent to the Falkland Islands in response to German armoured cruisers. Early in the Second World War, the hunt for Graf Spee also committed substantial forces, including Ark Royal, Renown and cruisers. Germany still needed to exploit the opportunities those diversions created. In a Cold War conflict of uncertain duration, keeping enemy units occupied elsewhere could reduce the forces available against the main Soviet effort.