during her speed run, she reached , which made her the fastest pre-dreadnought battleship in the world. Pommern was assigned to II Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet alongside her sisters, replacing the battleship , though she was not fully ready for active duty until 11 November. Pommern participated in fleet maneuvers in February 1908 in the Baltic Sea and more fleet training off Helgoland in May–June. In July, Pommern and the rest of the fleet sailed into the Atlantic Ocean to conduct a major training cruise. Prince Heinrich had pressed for such a cruise the previous year, arguing that it would prepare the fleet for overseas operations and would break up the monotony of training in German waters, though tensions with Britain over the developing Anglo-German naval arms race were high. The fleet departed Kiel on 17 July, passed through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal to the North Sea, and continued on to the Atlantic. The fleet returned to Germany on 13 August, and the annual autumn maneuvers followed from 27 August to 12 September.Later that year, the fleet toured coastal German cities as part of an effort to increase public support for naval expenditures. The next year—1909—followed much the same pattern. Another cruise into the Atlantic was conducted from 7 July to 1 August, and while on the way back to Germany, the High Seas Fleet was received by the British Royal Navy in Spithead. Late in the year, VAdm Henning von Holtzendorff became the commander of the High Seas Fleet. His tenure as fleet commander was marked by strategic experimentation, owing to the increased threat the latest underwater weapons posed, and because the new s were too wide to pass through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. Accordingly, the fleet was transferred from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven on 1 April 1910. In May 1910, the fleet conducted training maneuvers in the Kattegat, between Norway and Denmark. These were in accordance with Holtzendorff's strategy, which envisioned drawing the Royal Navy into the narrow waters in the Kattegat. The annual summer cruise went to Norway, and was followed by fleet training, during which another fleet review was held in Danzig on 29 August. A training cruise into the Baltic followed at the end of the year. In March 1911, the fleet conducted exercises in the Skagerrak and Kattegat. Pommern and the rest of the fleet received British and American naval squadrons in