The Channel Dash

16 June 09

"The Channel Dash," 12 Feb 1942 (Thursday) During the War Years, British military bureaucracy was excellent at cracking German codes, much to the repeated surprise and determent of Hitler's Wehrmacht. Unfortunately, the British were, in turn, a little too good at keeping their own secrets. Some secret plans, like "Operation Fuller," were kept under such tight wraps that the people who really needed to know the details didn't even know about the plan itself, until it was too late! Operation Fuller was a secret plan to intercept and destroy any German fleet trying to run the English Channel, from south to north. The eventuality was considered so unlikely, the Plan existed only in the minds of a handful of top admirals and generals. It was unknown to anyone else! Germans dubbed their version, "Operation Cerberus." Once again, Hitler overrode the best judgement of his own staff, as he had in the 1939 invasion of Poland, and, once again, he was proven right! Two German Battleships, Scharnhorst, and Gneisenau, were sitting, idle, in the French port of Brest, doing little more than attracting unwanted attention from British bombers. It was too risky for them to try to break out into the Atlantic, particularly after the sad fate of the German Battleship Bismark, which was sunk by the British Navy in May of 1941, just nine months earlier. Hitler wanted both ships back in Germany, before they were inevitably sunk in port. He calculated they could be put to good use in Norwegian waters preventing critical supplies from reaching the Russians. However, to get there, they would have to run the English Channel, right under the noses of the British. Hitler's closest advisors considered such a run impossible. But, Hitler knew the British would be so astonished at such an audacious move that they would dither too long before acting decisively. Again, history was to prove him to be spot-on is his under-estimation of British readiness, and "The Channel Dash," as it would be forever known, was to assume the dubious title of the biggest embarrassment to the British military and to the Churchill Administration since the Britain's own "Pearl Harbor" off Kuantan on 10 Dec 1941 (just two months earlier) and the subsequent surrender of Singapore to the Japanese. Early in the morning of 12 Feb 1942, the two German Battleships, along with a number of lesser vessels, eased out of Brest and headed north. The day was selected because heavy snow in England had grounded most British reconnaissance aircraft, and the flotilla's departure was paradoxically screened by thick smoke, courtesy of a British bombing raid earlier that same morning! The first hint the British had of what was happening was when radar revealed swarms of German fighter aircraft over the south Channel. Shortly thereafter, the Scharnhorst was positively identified by observers on shore. It had already been twelve hours since the German fleet had departed France, and they were now well within the Channel as the British were, at long last, waking up! There was still a chance for the British to put together a decisive attack and blunt the German fleet at the choke-point at the Straight of Dover, the narrowest part of the Channel, but excessive dithering, up and down the chain of command. assured that the opportunity would pass with no decisive action. The order, "Execute Operation Fuller" was finally given, but no one knew what that meant. Nearly everyone was hearing the term for the first time! German sailors couldn't believe their luck! There were sailing, in broad daylight, within sight of England, and no one had so much as fired a shot. It was only after it was obvious to everyone that the Germans had gotten away with it and could not be stopped, that a frustrated Sir Dudley Pound ordered a squadron of just six ageing, fabric-covered Swordfish torpedo-bombers to get in the air and attack the Germans. They had no chance of success! It was little more than a Kamikaze mission, and everyone knew it, most of all the heroic Squadron Leader, Lt/Cdr Eugene Esmonde. Spitfire fighters were supposed to escort the "low-and-slow" Swordfish bombers, but they never arrived, and Esmonde knew, with the German Fleet already at Dover, he couldn't wait. Without hesitation, Esmonde and his six planes took off after the German fleet. Scarcely out over the Channel, they were instantly set upon by German FW190 fighter aircraft and AAA from the German ships. All six Swordfish were shot down within minutes. Only one even got into position to launch a torpedo, and it hit nothing. Of eighteen aircrew, only five lived through it, and were subsequently rescued at sea. Of the five, four were wounded. Esmonde was among the dead, and his body never recovered. The Channel Dash had been an unmitigated, spectacular success! The German flotilla made it through and escaped with no losses. However, the event, though painfully embarrassing to the British, and to Churchill personally, had little effect on the Course of the War. And, as fate would have it, both German battleships were heavily damaged when they hit mines, just as the Channel Dash neared its end. The British response to the Channel Dash is best described as "slow-motion panic." Too slow, as it turns out, to be effective. The highly-vaunted RAF, so victorious in the Battle of Britain, never even got involved! Churchill, doing his best to make lemonade from a lemon, used Esmonde's heroic and pointless sacrifice to persuade American President Roosevelt to increase aid to Britain. Neither German ship survived the War. The Scharnhorst was sunk by the British in 1943, and only a few of her crew were rescued. The submerged wreck was discovered on the ocean floor in 2000. Lessons: In military operations, loyalty and trust have to go both ways! When treated like children, junior officers and NCOs seldom disappoint! Daring and audaciousness go a long way! Doing the unexpected invariably throws the opposition into a panic. Western civilization has been repeatedly blessed with selfless heroes, like Esmonde, who leap into battle, never looking back and never hesitating. The world would be a dreadful an boring place without them! /John