Sink the Scharnhorst

by Harding, Duncan

• ISBN13: 9780727854131
• ISBN10: 0727854135
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Severn House Pub Ltd

Summary

January, 1942. Hitler is paranoid about Norway. He thinks the new Anglo-American coalition will invade and urgently transfers forces north. Now he needs naval firepower to ward off enemy sea attacks -- but from where? Since April 1941, two great German battlecruisers, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau have been sheltering in the French harbour at Brest. Their commander, Admiral Cilliax, is afraid to take them to sea as he fears the British will destroy them in the tight waters off the French coast. Now, Hitler gives him an ultimatum: run the Channel or scuttle your ships! Cilliax is aghast. He can't, of course, scuttle his fine modern ships, the pride of the German Navy, but how will he get them back to the Reich? Via the Atlantic, or the narrow deadly waters of the Channel? Naturally, through espionage, Churchill is aware of the problem and alerts all units from Cornwall to Scotland. What follows is an electrifying running flight with the German units escaping by the skin of their teeth and winning a great propaganda victory for the Fuhrer. But Churchill has a secret up his sleeve...