Crucial events in the War at Sea reconstructed in thirteen episodes
9: Clean Away
Escape of the battle-cruiser Scharnhorst: part 1
Narrated by MICHAEL FLANDERS with Eric Francis and John Baddeley , Wilfrid Carter Michael Deacon , John Gabriel Frederick Treves members of the BBC Drama Repertory Company
Naval Historical Adviser, Lt.-Cmdr. Peter Kemp O.B.E.. R.N.Ret.
Written and produced by JOHN BRIDGES
In 1942 the German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. lay at the French Biscay port of Brest, under constant air attack by Bomber Command. Admiral Raeder wanted to send them out into the Atlantic as raiders, but Hitler insisted they be brought home to German waters and then sent to the Norwegian coast. It was decided to bring them up the English Channel, a passage not attempted by enemy ships for more than 300 years ...