The Constantinople flotilla was an Imperial German Navy formation set up to prosecute the U-boat campaign against Allied shipping in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in support of Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire. Despite its official name, the Mediterranean Division (U-boote der Mittelmeer in Konstantinopel), it saw little service there, operating mostly against Russian shipping in the Black Sea. In 1918, with the collapse of the Central Powers, the U-boats were scuttled, or fled to join the Pola boats in their evacuation to Germany.