Two cruisers flying the Ottoman flag that were not Ottoman but German; two crews dressed in Turkish uniforms but mostly made up of suspiciously blond and pale-skinned sailors; two vessels named Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midilli whose real names were Goeben and Breslau and that they bombed the cities of Odessa, Sevastopol and Feodosia causing Moscow to declare war on Istanbul. We are talking about one of the most convoluted episodes of all those that contributed to the outbreak of the First World War.
In the early summer of 1914, Europe was enjoying what is popularly called armed peace. The growing tension between the Western powers, especially the German and British empires with the Austro-Hungarian, Russian and French empires sitting in the front row and other countries contributing their grain of sand in the form of regional territorial conflicts, gave rise to the feeling that sooner rather than later an armed conflict would end up unleashing, although no one imagined the scope it would have.
That is why everyone launched an arms race and took positions. However, when hostilities finally began, the Kaiserliche Marine he had only a couple of ships stationed in the Mediterranean in his Mittelmeerdivision :the battle cruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau . The first, of the Moltke class, had been launched in 1911, was 180.6 meters long by 30 meters wide and displaced 25,000 tons at a maximum speed of 28 knots; the other, of the Magdeburg class and in service since 1910, was 136 meters long by 14 meters wide, weighed 5,281 tons and could sail at 27 knots.
Both were under the command of Admiral Wilhelm Souchon and their mission was to intercept any troop transport between Algeria and France if there was finally a war. The problem was that, despite all the signs, it caught them by surprise:the Goeben was repairing its boilers in the port of Pula (north of what is now Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, an ally of the Kaiser) and, Given the new situation, he risked being blocked in the Adriatic by the enemy, so he had to go out and join his partner with unfinished work.
They carbonized in Italy, although this country did not want to commit itself more because it wanted to maintain a neutral position, and then they prepared to face whatever came. And what was coming was a British squadron under the command of Admiral Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne, whose mission was initially to cover the aforementioned transfer of soldiers to France, later it expanded its mission to end the threat posed by the two German ships. For this, Milne had the Mediterranean British Fleet , which was based in Malta and consisted of three battle cruisers (HMS Inflexible, HMS Indefatigable andHMS Indomitable ), four armored cruisers, four light cruisers, and fourteen destroyers.
A fearsome force, part of which was launched in early August in search of the Germans while another, fearing that they might try to reach the Atlantic, posted itself in the Strait of Gibraltar. The escort of the French transports went into the background, especially when they decided to suspend operations as a precaution. A providential prudence because Souchon had reached the North African coast and on August 3, receiving confirmation that Berlin had declared war, he bombarded the Algerian ports of Philippeville (now Skikda) and Bona (now Annaba).
Then he coalesced again to Messina and, following orders from Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, headed for the Dardanelles. Meanwhile, neither the British nor the French found those two cruisers, in part because the former had been instructed to be careful, thinking that they might encounter the Austria-Hungary fleet and the latter were looking in the opposite direction to that taken by the Teutons. Finally, on the morning of August 4, Milne located the enemy ships but took no action against them because London had not yet officially declared war.
The British simply followed them, something they could do only because the Goeben's boilers were not at full capacity… until they themselves started having technical problems with theirs. Thus, the Indomitable and the Indefatigable were left behind and only the Dublin she was able to keep up, although she ended up losing contact due to the fog. Souchon had taken the opportunity to land again in Messina, safe due to his neutral character. Of course, Milne awaited his departure nearby, aware that the Italian authorities required his rival to set sail within twenty-four hours, insufficient time to complete the carbonation.
Indeed, the deadline was met and both the Goeben like the Breslau they had to sail with insufficient coal to fulfill Von Tirpitz's order to reach Istanbul, which had announced that it too would remain neutral anyway. An additional bad news, that the Austro-Hungarian fleet could not come to his aid, left Souchon in a delicate situation, since returning to Pula would mean being trapped in the Adriatic, as at the beginning. So he opted for a risky move:also go to the Turkish capital with the idea of trying to force his government to enter the fray in some way.
And so, the two ships sailed east on August 6 and the British admiral sent behind a squadron commanded by Ernest Troubridge, made up of the armored cruisers Defense, Black Prince, Warrior and Duke of Edinburgh , eight destroyers and, as reinforcement, the Dublin . Despite their numerical inferiority, the firepower of the Germans was much superior and so was their armor; in fact, there was a brief exchange of fire between the Breslau and the Gloucester in which the first was hit but without consequences. On the other hand, the Germans were also faster and soon lost sight of their pursuers.
There was also another circumstance, which was the entry into the war of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That led Admiral Milne to turn back, towards the Adriatic, with part of his ships. Meanwhile, the Goeben and the Breslau they charred on a Greek island and resumed their journey, reaching the Dardanelles on August 10. Berlin pressured the government of Enver Pasha to allow their passage but neutrality prevented it, so a truly surprising compromise solution was reached.
Since the Turks had indignantly witnessed the seizure by the British government of two ships ordered from Newcastle shipyards, the Sultan Osman I and the Reshadieh (which were incorporated into the Royal Navy under the names of HMS Agincourt and HMS Erin ), they decided to "buy" the German cruisers, incorporating them into their naval force. The operation became official on August 16, raising the red flag with the crescent on its sterns and changing their names:the Goeben became the Yavuz Sultan Selim and the Breslau became the Midilli , although both continued to be managed by their crews and commanded by Souchon, who received the position of commander in the Ottoman Navy.
All three sides involved were convinced that they had made a master move:the Turks because they remained neutral and swelled their forces despite the London offense; the British because they had managed to imprison two powerful enemies in that place, moving them away from the western Mediterranean; and the Germans because they had gotten rid of their pursuers by forcing them to maintain a squad just to watch them and they were also preparing to carry out the second part of their cunning plan.
This consisted of forcing Enver Pasha to enter the war on his side, something for which it was necessary to provoke his neighbor, the Russian Empire. As most of the maritime traffic in this country was through the Dardanelles, closing that passage would be a true casus belli for Moscow and, thus, on September 27 the Russian ships were vetoed their departure from the Black Sea. Any possible diplomatic outlet was diluted on October 29 when Souchon led his ships, accompanied by an Ottoman squadron, to bombard the Russian ports of Novorossiysk, Feodosia, Odessa and Sevastopol. 
In this way, the plan came out round; As expected, on November 2 Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, which abandoned its neutrality to ally itself with the Triple Entente. It also had multiple side effects. Personal first, as Admirals Milne and Troubridge were sacked and, although they were publicly exonerated (the latter even had to face a court-martial), their careers were temporarily tarnished.
Second, the strategic ones, since the war extended to the Middle East, then occupied by the Ottoman Empire which, being defeated at the end of the conflict, forced the map of the region to be redrawn with the appearance of new countries. It also created a new front that required the diversion of troops, causing the conflict to continue. Finally, the closure of the Dardanelles helped to strangle the Russian economy, which was one more factor for the revolutionary outbreak of 1917.
And what happened to the two Teutonic cruisers? Both entered into battle several times throughout the war, imposing their power in the Black Sea until in 1918 they went out again to the Mediterranean and easily got rid of the British fleet sent to intercept them. But then they entered a mined area in the Aegean, near the island of Imbros, and collided with several of the mines. The Breslau she sank dragging three hundred and thirty sailors.
The Goeben she managed to get out with significant damage and run aground, only to be refloated by the Turgut Reis (an old German battleship originally named SMS Weißenburg which had been sold to the Ottoman navy in 1910). Her repairs prevented her from sailing again until 1930, when she had the honor of transferring the mortal remains of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. She remained active for twenty-four more years, going into reserve in 1954. Her situation meant that no one moved to keep it and she ended up scrapped in 1973.