Channel Dash: The Drama of Twenty Four Hours of War

by Terence Robertson

The fantastic story of the German battle fleet’s escape through the English Channel in broad daylight at the height of World War Two.

An ideal book for fans of Ian W. Toll, Gordon W. Prange and James D. Hornfischer.

On the evening of 11 February 1942 the German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau left their Atlantic port. Twenty-four hours later they had made their way through the supposedly impenetrable English Channel to their German ports.

The Times decried this action as a “mortifying blow to our pride in seapower”, and the British people echoed their Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, when he questioned why this had been allowed to happen.

Terence Robertson’s engrossing account of this remarkable naval operations explores why the Royal Navy, RAF, coastal guns, mine defences and military intelligence had been ineffectual in halting the audacious journey of the German Navy. He uncovers why Nazis were forced into taking this strategy and what the repercussions of it was for both the Allies and Axis.

Yet rather than simply focusing on the grand narrative of the operation Robertson also shines a light on some of the individuals who shaped this incredible story, from the German commander Otto Ciliax to Lieutenant-Commander Esmonde, who led his squadron of obsolete biplanes in a gallant but hopeless attempt to halt the Nazi ships.

Channel Dash should be essential reading for all interested in learning about how this bold manoeuvre by the Germans humiliated the Royal Navy in its own waters.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

An officer in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, Terence Robertson worked as the news editor of the Sunday newspaper Reynolds News from 1949 until 1959, after which he moved to Canada to join the editorial staff of The Hamilton Spectator.

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting documentary novel about quite an embarrassing event in British WWII history.
A German convoy rushed trough the English Channel almost undisturbed by British forces making the ultimate naval power image of Britain obsolete.

The novel is good in its genre "Tedious descriptions of WWII events for later generations". Especially as this wasn't at all tedious or boring but quite an analytical recapitulation of the events. Supplemented by actual incidents where the sense of duty bypassed common sense and lead to unnecessary dead heroes.

The story is full of bad planning, bad luck and bad decisions which lead to a very uneven confrontations between the German fleet and limited and incoherent British forces.
Mistake after mistake was made letting the Germans to proceed almost without any real danger by the attacks. Almost unbelievable - then and afterwards.

As said, good and interesting in this WWII documentary genre.

Kanaalin läpimurto
Otava 1959

[Jen Ramsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my usual sort of read, and I definitely appreciated the easy reading style of the author to make this as easy a read as possible for a layman. It is a very frustrating read however, with the subject matter being what it is, but it does shed light on how a series of errors and mistakes can make such a drastic impact on situations

[Terence Blowfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew about the Channel Dash. But this book explained how The Royal Navy and The Royal Air Force allowed this to happen.

[Lew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book about a little known action at least from an American perspective. As stated in the book, the success of the German dash through the English Channel was a blow to the general public even though the German ship never left their home waters again. Mr. Robertson does a good job of following the action.