German commerce raiders in World War I

The German commerce raiders of World War I were surface vessels used by the Imperial German Navy for its Handelskrieg ("Trade war"), a campaign against Allied seaborne trade. The ships comprised warships, principally cruisers, stationed in the German colonial empire before the war began, express liners commissioned as auxiliary cruisers and later, freighters outfitted as merchant raiders. These vessels had a number of successes and had a significant effect on Allied naval strategy, particularly in the early months of the war.