Channel Dash

The February 1942 German naval operation in which Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen sailed from occupied France through the English Channel to Germany.

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Operation Cerberus: The German codename for the Channel Dash, carried out on 11–13 February 1942. This was the operation’s German name and the plan coordinating the ships’ passage.
Brest: A French port on the Atlantic coast occupied by Germany during the Second World War. The ships had been based there, within reach of British air raids.
Dover Strait: The narrowest part of the English Channel, between England and France. The German ships crossed this heavily watched stretch during daylight.
Operation Chariot: A 1942 British raid on the dry dock at Saint-Nazaire, France. The Channel Dash increased the urgency of denying German ships access to Atlantic ports.
Scharnhorst: A German battleship that served in the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War. It was one of the two battleships making the Channel passage.
Operation Berlin: A 1941 German naval sortie in which Scharnhorst and Gneisenau attacked Allied shipping in the Atlantic. After the sortie, the battleships remained at Brest and became targets for British bombing.
Operation Fuller: The British plan to attack German ships attempting to pass through the English Channel. It was Britain’s prepared response, activated too late to prevent the passage.
Saint-Nazaire Raid: The British commando raid on Saint-Nazaire carried out on 28 March 1942. It targeted the only Atlantic dry dock large enough to repair Tirpitz.
Gneisenau: A German battleship commissioned in 1938 and used in the Second World War. It accompanied Scharnhorst through the Channel to Germany.
Operation Rheinübung: A 1941 German naval operation that sent Bismarck and Prinz Eugen into the Atlantic. Prinz Eugen’s earlier Atlantic deployment forms part of the ships’ wartime context.