The Channel Dash

Operation Fuller - 

In March 1941, following many successful attacks on the Atlantic Convoys that were so vital to Britain’s survival, the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau entered the port of Brest for repairs.  They were shortly joined by Prinz Eugen.  With the ships under constant Allied air strikes and Hitler demanding increased protection for occupied Norway, the German Naval War Command decided to bring all three vessels home to Germany by way of a heavily protected daylight dash up the English Channel and through the Dover Straits – code named Operation Cerberus. 

Aware this run for home might take place, the Royal Navy set up Operation Fuller to deal with the threat and Coastal Command flew air patrols over Brest and the English Channel both day and night to monitor the situation.  Their plans were based on the assumption the German ships would leave Brest by day and complete the most dangerous part of their journey, the narrow waters of the Dover Straits, by night.   This was the first of an almost unbelievable catalogue of errors that would have disastrous consequences.

Brief history of the Channel Dash