From September 1896 to July 1898 he was in command of the coastal defence ship SMS Hagen and was made a Senior Korvettenkapitän during this time.

At the beginning of the Boxer Rebellion, the commander of the East Asia Squadron, Vice Admiral Felix von Bendemann, ordered a landing corps to be formed from the crews of all German cruisers to help protect the European embassies in Beijing.

Due to his experience with the landing corps, Usedom was released from the leadership of Hertha in September 1900 and assigned to the staff of the commander-in-chief of the allied troops in China, which enforced the end of the uprising.

In August 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, Usedom was reactivated and sent to Constantinople as head of the Special Command Turkey.

Having extremely limited resources, Usedom expanded his coastal positions while having inadequate garrisons in the forts further inland.

The further course of the beginning Battle of Gallipoli was determined less by Usedom than by the leadership of the Turkish land forces in form of the German general Otto Liman von Sanders.

[1] Usedom as awarded the Oak Leaves to his Pour le Mérite in August 1915, and after the campaign had ended remained in Turkey and in Ottoman service.