RAID RU N T H E G AU N T L E T The Channel Dash 1942 K E N F O R D RUN THE GAUNTLET The Channel Dash 1942 K E N F O R D CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 4 THE WARSHIPS AT BREST 7 INITIAL STRATEGY 12 PLANNING AND TRAINING 19 THE CHANNEL DASH 29 The Warships Depart 30 The German Ships are Out! 35 The Channel Coast Guns Open Fire 42 The MTB Attack 46 The Swordfish Attack 49 Bomber Command and Coastal Command Attacks 60 The Destroyer Attack 65 AFTERMATH 71 CONCLUSION 75 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING 78 INDEX 80 INTRODUCTION On 22 January 1941, two German battlecruisers, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, left Kiel harbour and set course for the northern waters around Iceland. Flying his flag on board Scharnhorst, Admiral Lütjens, then Flottenchef(Chief of Fleet) of the Kriegsmarine(German Navy), ordered his captains to wage war on merchant shipping in the north Atlantic, in a cruise that was without precedent. For the first time, Germany would use its capital ships to attack shipping lanes, whilst all the while seeking to avoid contact with heavy British warships. Once out into the open ocean, the two warships prowled the desolate wastes, seeking unprotected convoys and lone merchantmen. Whenever a British battleship was sighted protecting a convoy, Lütjens’ battlecruisers withdrew to find easier targets. They voyaged south into the shipping lanes off Africa and then northwards across Atlantic sea routes, sinking ships and spreading alarm amongst the British. They were refuelled by tankers and assisted by the presence in the Atlantic of other German warships, for the pocket battleship Admiral Scheerand the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipperwere also out at sea. In just two months the two sister ships were able to sink 22 vessels amounting to almost 116,000 tons of shipping. After weeks on the rampage, mechanical defects started to appear, the most serious of which was within the boilers of the Scharnhorst. On 22 March, the two warships entered the safe harbour of Brest in north-west France after what had been a long and very successful sortie. The French naval base at Brest was by this time very much a German port. Almost the whole of its personnel had been moved there from Wilhelmshaven, along with their heavy equipment. Brest had become an 22 MARCH established northern refuge for Nazi ships operating in the Atlantic. Its 1941 facilities were now directed towards making the two capital ships ready for an even greater raid into northern waters, for it was planned that they would Scharnhorst be joined by the most powerful vessel in the German fleet, the newly and Gneisenau commissioned battleship Bismarck. enter Brest At the start of World War II, a nation’s power was measured by the number of capital ships in its navy. These large vessels – battleships, 4 Introduction battlecruisers and aircraft carriers – were tremendously expensive to build and to keep operational, but the power they could wield through their massive guns meant that realistically they could only be countered by other equally formidable ships. Leading the world’s surface fleets was Britain’s Royal Navy, with its 15 battleships and battlecruisers in service in 1939. Most of these were dated, for only two of them had been built after the Great War. During the next five years of the conflict, five new King George Vtypes were constructed in an attempt to keep pace with the new capital ships being built by the German Kriegsmarine. Germany was a late starter in this particular area of the arms race, for after the Great War it was restricted by international agreement to building warships of less than 10,000 tons. It did produce what were termed ‘panzerschiffe’ (pocket battleships), such as the Graf Spee, but these were in reality little more than heavy cruisers. When the war began, Germany had in service just two modern capital ships: the Scharnhorstand the Gneisenau; two other The Gneisenauas it was new and even more powerful vessels, the Bismarck and the Tirpitz, were before the war in 1939. under construction. Later modifications The Scharnhorstand the Gneisenauwere built with the armoured plating provided the battlecruiser of a battleship, and able to withstand a great deal of punishment, but were with a ‘clipper’ bow that armed with 11in (28cm) guns rather than the more usual 15in (38cm) enhanced its already weapons found on battleships. The weight saved by adopting the lighter guns powerful appearance resulted in a much faster top speed, enabling the vessels to be more powerful to an even greater than any other warship with lesser armament, and yet they would be quick degree. (IWMHU1043) 5 Run the Gauntlet – The Channel Dash 1942 The Scharnhorst, the sister enough to escape from any enemy ship with larger guns. They were both ship of the Gneisenau. around 32,000 tons with a top speed of 32 knots (This type of capital ship Vizeadmiral Ciliax raised was termed a battlecruiser by the British, although the German insisted on his flag in the Scharnhorst seeing them as pure battleships (Schlachtschiffe). They were built primarily for Operation Cerberus, but as commerce raiders, for they would be at a great disadvantage if ever was forced to change ships compelled to fight a fleet action against the giants of the Royal Navy, as was during the voyage after the demonstrated by the demise of the Scharnhorstlater in the war. battlecruiser hit a mine off Just the presence of the two battlecruisers in Brest acted as a constant the coast of Holland. (IWM threat to Britain’s Atlantic sea lanes without the warships ever having to HU1042) leave harbour. The danger of their suddenly setting sail and disappearing into the Atlantic put every convoy at risk and inevitably tied up capital ships that could be put to better use. The chance that they might put in an unexpected appearance amongst the slow merchantmen of a convoy, protected by just destroyers and the occasional 6in-gunned cruiser, filled the Admiralty with great anxiety. It was one thing to guard convoys from U-boats with anti-submarine frigates and destroyers, but quite another to have to allocate a valuable battleship to watch over them. There were just not enough of these great leviathans to go around. It was clear that something had to be done to eliminate the enemy battlecruisers at their berths in Brest as quickly as possible. The Admiralty now looked to the Royal Air Force (RAF) to help it out. 6 THE WARSHIPS AT BREST Six days after the Scharnhorstand Gneisenauhad entered Brest, their presence there was discovered on 28 March by photo-reconnaissance aircraft of the RAF. The Scharnhorst was berthed at the torpedo station along the open quayside of the Rade Abri, with the Gneisenaua few hundred yards away in the west dry dock. Steps were immediately taken to carry out bombing raids on the ships before the anti-aircraft defences became too formidable. On the 30–31 March, Bomber Command dispatched 109 aircraft to Brest, 101 of which successfully made an attack. They dropped 132 tons of bombs on the port with little appreciable effect on the battlecruisers, although a number of the ships’ companies were killed in their billets in the town. Returning aircrews reported they had encountered heavy flak from about 40 light guns along the waterfront. There was also more flak from guns located on the promontories to the north, south and west of Brest, as well as large concentrations of searchlights. This firepower was, however, only the start of German preparations to defend the ships, for by 24 August the flak defences of Brest had increased to 333 weapons, made up of 100 heavy, 84 medium and 149 light anti-aircraft guns. The very first bombing attack made by the RAF demonstrated to the Germans that the ships had been discovered. Samples of shrapnel found after the raid showed that the bombs used were not just high-explosive, but contained a large number of armour-piercing types. It was clear that the bombers were not carrying out a straightforward raid on the docks, but were specifically after the warships. The next day aircraft from Bomber Command were back again. Four more raids followed over the ensuing five days. The two battlecruisers had been at sea for eight straight weeks and each was in need of an overhaul and refit. Inspection of the Scharnhorst showed that the prolonged voyage had resulted in quite severe defects within its boilers. The ship’s engineers estimated that it would take at least ten weeks to put matters straight. The Gneisenauhad fared a little better and required only minor repairs to make it ready for sea again. All the work was to be carried out by German dockyard workers, for the local 7 Run the Gauntlet – The Channel Dash 1942 French equivalents were banned from the vessels and their immediate surroundings. The Germans knew that the French Resistance had agents in the port and took great steps to keep all information useful to the British away from them. On 5 April, Gneisenauwas taken out of dry dock and moored to a buoy in the Rade Abri near La Mole. The next day, as chance would have it, aircraft from Coastal Command mounted a raid. Four Beaufort torpedo- bombers were sent from their base at St Eval to strike at the enemy ships. Three failed to make contact, but the fourth, flown by Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell, put in a determined attack. Campbell brought his aircraft in low over the water through a barrage of anti-aircraft fire to release his torpedo at close range. His projectile ran straight and true and exploded against the rear of the Gneisenau, wrecking the starboard propeller and its shaft. The sound of the explosion was drowned out by a simultaneous detonation as Campbell’s aircraft, hit by flak, burst into flames and crashed into the water. All three of its crew were killed instantly. The battlecruiser had been struck by what could have been a knock-out blow and immediately started to take on water. It soon began to list heavily. The heavy cruiser Prinz Fortunately for the crew, the vessel was in sheltered waters and a salvage Eugenin port in Germany. boat quickly came alongside and began pumping water out of the stricken The cruiser saw a good deal warship, whilst the men on board struggled to stabilize it. The next day it of action during World War returned to the dry dock for repairs. Close inspection showed that the II and ended its days as a Gneisenauwould be out of action for six months. Campbell’s heroic action target ship for the Americans had given the Admiralty breathing space. At least one of the ships would not in their atomic bomb tests be putting to sea in the near future. For his valour in pressing home the in the Pacific. (IWM MH 30195) attack, Campbell was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. 8 The Warships at Brest Night after night, the RAF continued to mount raids on the battlecruisers. On 10 April, the Gneisenau was hit again. Three bombs struck the ship, killing more than 50 seamen and setting fire to its superstructure and other parts of the vessel. One of its magazines had to be flooded to prevent the 28 MARCH spread of the flames. It was clear that these night attacks would continue 1941 while the ships were in port, but there was no chance of their putting to sea again until the repairs had been made. The Germans decided to make Brest RAF aircraft into a fortress, increasing the number of anti-aircraft defences, moving fighter identify aircraft onto nearby airfields and installing smoke generators to shield the Scharnhorst port whenever an incoming bombing raid was detected. and Gneisenau At that same time, away to the north in the sheltered anchorage of Bergen in Brest in Norway, the newly commissioned Bismarck was now readying itself for action. A plan had originally been made for a combined sortie into the North Atlantic with the two battlecruisers. This plan was now not possible. The damage to the Brest ships resulted in their being confined to the dockyard for between three and six months whilst repairs were completed. Even then their seaworthiness would depend on not suffering further damage by the RAF. The Kriegsmarine leadership was, however, still anxious that the Bismarckshould be used as soon as possible against Britain’s merchant fleet. The original plan would now have to be changed. It was decided that the Bismarck would still make its sortie into the Atlantic, but would be escorted by just the heavy cruiser, the Prinz Eugen. The two warships set sail on 20 May 1941. Their departure was quickly detected by the British, and the Admiralty despatched ships of the Home Fleet from Scapa Flow to intercept them near the Denmark Straits off Iceland. On 24 May the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood engaged the Bismarckand its escort in an action that demonstrated the great power of the German warship. HMS Hoodwas sunk and the Prince of Walesbadly damaged. The Bismarck then made to escape into the open waters of the Atlantic, but was continually tracked by British cruisers and destroyers. Try as they might, the two German warships could not shake off the shadowing force. British radar was so effective that each time they disappeared into the mist and rain, they remained visible on radar screens. With the German ships’ exact location in the Atlantic known, other Royal Navy capital ships were sent from Gibraltar to intercept. In the meantime, the carrier Victoriouswas diverted to attack the Bismarck. Swordfish aircraft from 825 Squadron, led by Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, made a night attack. They came at the battleship at low level, flying just above the wave tops, and were able to release their torpedoes at a range of less than 1,100yds. Bismarck was hit amidships. The explosion was not enough to 30–31 MARCH sink it, but it was severe enough to slow it down considerably. 1941 During the next three days the German battleship was attacked by torpedo-firing destroyers and aircraft from the newly arrived carrier Ark Start of RAF Royalwhich slowed the vessel down even more. Finally, the battleships King bombing raids George Vand the Rodneyreached the position of the Bismarckand engaged against Brest her. The fight was a protracted one-sided slogging match. Out-numbered, out-manoeuvred and out-gunned, the damaged German battleship eventually 9 An oblique view of the port succumbed to the battering it received from shells of all calibres. The great of Brest taken by the RAF. guns of the British capital ships and smaller, but nonetheless effective, The task of finding the weapons of the cruisers reduced her to a wreck. The final coup de grace enemy warships amongst was struck by torpedoes fired from the cruiser Dorsetshire. At 1039hrs on the jumble of dockyard 27 May, the Bismarck, the pride of the German Kriegsmarine, sank into the installations and berths, at grey Atlantic Ocean. night, in the face of blinding Before this final action, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugenhad slipped away searchlights and accurate from the net that was closing around the German ships and disappeared into flak, was a difficult one. All the wide Atlantic Ocean. The fate of the Bismarckhad by then been sealed, the RAF could do was to lay and the heavy cruiser’s presence could do little to avert the inevitable. on raid after raid, night after Nothing more was heard of Prinz Eugenfor several days, for it maintained night, trying to gain a lucky strike on the enemy heavy radio silence to avoid detection by the British. A search was made for the units. (National Archives cruiser by ships and reconnaissance aircraft, but it could not be found. Then, Crown Copyright) on 1 June, Prinz Eugenappeared out of an early morning mist at the harbour entrance to Brest – it had made its escape and had reached the safety of a German-held port. The Prinz Eugenwas quickly brought into the dockyard and secured alongside one of the quays that lined the Rade Abri, joining the battlecruisers. Germany now had a complete battlefleet holed up in Brest. 10