The Channel Dash was a big boost to Nazi morale and a scandal back in Britain for Churchill.

Between the 11^th and the 13^th of February 1942, 250 Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighters, 30 Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighters, and assorted support aircraft participated in Operation Thunderbolt, the German Luftwaffe’s aerial coverage of the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen as they made the Channel Dash (Operation Cerberus) from Brest, France, to Wilhelmshaven, Germany via the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel and the Straits of Dover. Although the British attacked the German ships multiple times during the operation, they failed to stop the Germans from transiting the English Channel in large part due to the experienced and aggressive German pilots defending the ships.

The Channel Dash or Operation Cerberus was a German naval operation designed to move German capital ships from Brest in Brittany, France back to German ports. The ships had been under consistent attack by Royal Air Force Bomber Command and Coastal Command during their time in the French port which inflicted periodic damage to the ships, reducing their seaworthiness. Gneisenau was damaged on the evening of January 6^th 1943. Between December 10^th 1941 and January 20^th 1942, 37 percent of all Royal Air Force Bomber Command sorties were flown against the German ships at Brest. Although they were a tacit threat to Atlantic convoys, the German ships were essentially bottled up in port. The ships were not available for Operation Rhine Exercise, during which the German battleship Bismarck was sunk in the North Atlantic. The presence of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau might have meant an entirely different outcome for the Bismarck in that historic engagement. The Hipper-class cruiser Prinz Eugen survived the battle and arrived at Brest on June 1^st 1941.

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