Six Swordfish Against the Squadron — the Channel Dash

Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde receives the news mid-morning: Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen are racing up the Channel in broad daylight, having slipped out of Brest under cover of darkness. Operation Cerberus is a staggeringly bold German gamble, now fully in motion. The 3 warships advance beneath a rotating umbrella of fighters that never leaves a gap; an escort of destroyers and torpedo boats hugs their flanks. The RAF, caught off guard by the Germans' timing, struggles to mount a coherent counter-strike.

Esmonde has only 6 Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers, whose top speed barely exceeds 150 mph. The Spitfires promised as escort arrive late and in derisory numbers: just 10 aircraft from 2 different squadrons. No formal order compels him to attack.

He can attack at once, accepting near-certain loss of his crews and himself; he can insist on waiting for a complete escort and a strike coordinated with the bombers already airborne, risking letting the squadron slip beyond range; or concede that the Kent coastal batteries, destroyers and torpedo boats are the only weapons that can realistically strike, and spare his men. The squadron is making 27 knots: every minute brings it closer to German ports.