Cunningham was a highly decorated officer during the First World War, receiving the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and two bars. In 1911 he was given command of the destroyer , which he commanded throughout the war. In 1914, "Scorpion" was involved in the shadowing of the German battlecruiser and cruiser "Goeben" and "Breslau". This operation was intended to find and destroy the "Goeben" and the "Breslau" but the German warships evaded the British fleet, and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople. Their arrival contributed to the Ottoman Empire joining the Central Powers in November 1914. Though a bloodless "battle", the failure of the British pursuit had enormous political and military ramifications—in the words of Winston Churchill, they brought "more slaughter, more misery and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship."