The Kriegsmarine faced a highly problematic situation: two of its most important capital
ships docked in Brest, France, were under constant attack by the Royal Air Force,
which was determined to disrupt their repair cycles.
Meanwhile, the Scharnhorst-class battleships were desperately needed in Norway to dissuade
British commandos from operating in the Nazi-occupied coastal territory. But getting
from Northern France to Norway meant going around the British Isles or piercing the English Channel.
Both options were almost hopeless.
Going north and around the British Isles meant traversing dangerously
close to the British main battle fleet at Scapa Flow.
If the British intercepted the German capital ships, they would be decimated. On the other hand,
going through the English Channel meant exposing themselves to the full might of the Royal Air
Force, with minefields, torpedo boats, and fast warships exerting a naval blockade.
As the matter became more pressing, the Kriegsmarine decided to do the unthinkable
and attempt to do what no hostile fleet had managed to achieve in over 300 years:
a frantic naval dash across the English Channel…
Vital Vessels
Despite its military might, Germany was not known during World War 2 for
its overwhelming naval power. Their maritime assets were limited, and they had to be used
to counter the might of the British and American fleets. Most of their operations
would revolve around underhanded U-boat tactics instead of full-fledged fleet-to-fleet battles.
Nevertheless, Germany did possess a few powerful naval assets,
including the Scharnhorst-class battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
During the winter of 1940-41, the two mighty capital ships wreaked havoc in the Atlantic,
sinking 115,622 long tons of British resources at
a rate that no other Axis ship would match during the war.
After their exemplary patrol in the Atlantic, the ships made their way to Brest for repairs.
Now more than ever, the two capital ships were
crucial to Germany’s efforts to cut off Britain’s maritime supply lines.
The vessels were so vital that the repairs were carried out exclusively by German nationals,
as the country feared that French resistance members might sabotage
the ships or inform the British about their status and location.
Scharnhorst had suffered severe damage to her boilers, and she needed ten weeks of repairs.
In contrast, Gneisenau had only minor damage and would be ready to sail again in just a week.
RAF Bombings
The repairs wouldn’t go as planned for the German capital ships,
and they were spotted by a patrolling spitfire six days after they arrived in port.
The grounded ships immediately became a primary target for the Royal British Air Force,
and they immediately launched an aggressive campaign against Brest, seeking to destroy
the two capital ships or at least postpone their return to sea for as long as possible.
The air offensive lasted from January 10 to mid-April of 1941,
during which Britain deployed 1,161 sorties targeting the two German vessels.
On their side, the German forces reinforced their anti-air defenses and began to employ a smoke
screen system covering the port in a daily heavy blanket to reduce the RAF’s aiming capabilities.
The German ships were damaged on several occasions, but no strike
was powerful enough to fully disable them or completely undo the repair proceedings.
However, the vessels remained trapped inside the port.
As the air raids continued,
Adolf Hitler became concerned about an incoming British invasion of Norway.
British commandos had recently conducted numerous missions on the coasts of Norway, and German
intelligence suspected that these operations were the preliminary steps for a full-fledged invasion.
Hitler wanted the trapped ships to be redeployed
to Norway so they could be used against a possible British attack.
And even if German soil had somewhat benefited from Britain’s fixation on the two German
vessels in France, Hitler knew it was only a matter of time before they would be destroyed.
Opting for a Dash
Logic dictated that the ships would have to go around the British Isles to reach the Norwegian
sea. In contrast, going through the English Channel was considered self-destruction.
The RAF exercised air supremacy over the Channel, whose waters were heavily mined.
Also, the Royal Navy had a wide array of fast torpedo boats and ships at its
disposal to intercept any enemy vessel attempting to cross the narrow waterway.
Historically, Britain had always made it a military priority to control the Channel,
and no hostile naval force had survived when crossing the waterway in over 300 years.
Moreover, most German naval commanders, including Karl Dönitz, considered the idea absurd.
Circling around the British Isles also had its risks, as the ships would come
dangerously close to the full might of the British Navy at Scapa Flow;
if the German vessels were detected and engaged by the fleet, they would be utterly obliterated.
Still, Hitler was determined,
and the ships at Brest would dash through the English Channel in a surprise operation.
A Naval Orchestra
The operation was carefully planned, with each tiny detail accounted for. There were no drills
or trials as Hitler wanted the procedure to take the British by surprise. Nevertheless,
the risky endeavor had many moving pieces: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would be accompanied
by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and escorted by six destroyers, 14 torpedo boats, and 26 E-boats.
The fleet would closely hug the coast of France from where the
Luftwaffe would provide air support using 32 bombers and 252 fighters.
The two battleships and the heavy cruiser would be protected by a wall of torpedo
boats and E-boats, and the Luftwaffe would intervene if the RAF decided to strike.
German minesweepers did their best to clear some of the mined sections in
the Channel and mark some of the ones they couldn’t clear days before the operation.
However, they knew that thousands of mines would still be in their path.
Meanwhile, the German signal service was instructed to blast weak transmissions every
morning for several weeks; these signals significantly degraded the British coastal
radar capabilities and thus their ability to detect enemy ships in the English Channel.
The signals were so weak that British technicians were sure
they were caused by morning atmospheric interference, and they took no action.
Still, the British were not completely oblivious to a possible move in Brest, and had concocted
Operation Fuller to swiftly respond if the German ships tried to leave the French port.
Moving Fast
On February 11, 1942, the German vessels left Brest covered by darkness and terrible
weather conditions. A British spy on Brest took notice but
could not report because the Germans had jammed the radio communication.
The fleet moved fast, and the navigators fought to keep the ships out of the British mined zones.
As the vessels entered the Channel undetected,
the Luftwaffe deployed several bombers to confuse British warplanes and divert them from the area.
The weather also limited Britain’s air patrol capabilities, and the fleet moved halfway down
the Channel undetected. They were close to Le Havre when a British air patrol spotted German
aircraft circling an area by the coast, but since they didn’t spot any ships,
they reported that the Germans were possibly carrying out a search and rescue operation.
The RAF then sent two Spitfires to investigate, and they spotted the fleet’s escort but not the
capital ships. By the time the Spitfires reported the presence of a German flotilla,
a radar station at Beachy Head had detected two possible battleship-sized vessels.
It was time to unleash Operation Fuller.
The Battle
The engagement began just as the German fleet reached the
narrowest section of the English Channel between Dover and Calais.
The Royal Navy had deployed dozens of Swordfish and motor torpedo boats to intercept the Germans,
and the 9-inch coastal guns at Dover soon began firing at the German ships with no success.
Soon, the first British torpedo boats intercepted the enemy fleet,
but they were met with a daunting wall of German escorts and could not reach the capital ships.
The British were quickly engaged by the German E-boats and forced to fire
their torpedoes from a long range, which were easily evaded by the German vessels.
Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde led six Swordfish and ten Spitfires tasked
with intercepting the German fleet. Esmonde knew the odds of surviving the
fleet’s anti-aircraft attacks were few, but he decided to engage anyway, and the
fleet was met by German 109 and 190 fighters and relentless anti-air fire from the ships.
The Spitfires pursued the German fighter while the Swordfish attempted to reach the capital ships.
Still, more German fighters attacked the old bombers and quickly destroyed
Esmonde’s plane and the other five bombers.
The battle continued for several hours, with the British sending wave after wave
of torpedo boats and warplanes to intercept the fleet. However,
they continually failed to pierce the German defenses, and every torpedo missed its mark.
Nevertheless, the German capital ships hit several mines during the desperate dash, and the Gneisenau
was temporarily disabled and left behind. Astonishingly, the British failed to locate the
stranded ship, and they continued to concentrate their attacks on the moving fleet to no avail.
Forty-five minutes later, Gneisenau was repaired and rushed to catch up with the German fleet.
The British then threw everything they had at the Germans, diverting six old
World War 1 destroyers and over 200 warplanes to intercept the fleet.
Still, the weather was deteriorating quickly, and the aircraft couldn't hit any of their targets.
German Triumph
Despite light damage from striking mines,
the two leading ships arrived at the German port of Brunsbuttel the following morning,
evading the might of the British military. Soon after, Gneisenau made it to Wilhelmshaven.
The operation was an unbelievable success. The Germans managed to do
what no other hostile fleet was able to achieve in centuries, and they sustained minimal damage.
For Britain, the event was an endless source of humiliation,
as it failed to enforce its blockade in its own Channel.
The failure of the bomber command to land a single hit and the inability of the Navy to strike with
a single torpedo made several headlines, and the press deemed the event a fiasco.
For a moment, the Kriegsmarine felt empowered,
and the world was left wondering about Britain’s combined forces capabilities.
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