On January 1st, 1942, at just 29 years of age, Adolf Galland was given full command of the Luftwaffe's Fighter Arm. Almost immediately Hitler personally gave his young General the onerous task of providing air cover of of the most daring naval operations of World War II. Coded Operation Cerberus, the pride of the German Navy - the two battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and the cruiser Prinz Eugen - were ordered to leave the French Port of Brest and make a dash through the dangerous straits of the English Channel, to the relative safety of the Elbe estuary.
The battle fleet would pass within a few miles of the British coast, within easy striking distance of the R.A.F.; secrecy, careful planning, ample air cover and the element of surprise would be the key components of the exercise. "Everything depends on the air umbrella with which you have to cover the naval units", Hitler told Galland.
That a commander so young should be given such a responsibility directly and personally by the Fuhrer, speaks volumes for the esteem in which General Galland was held by the German High Command. So successful was the air protection afforded by Galland's pilots that the entire fleet made it through one of the narrowest, most difficult and heavily defended straits in the world. The CHANNEL DASH is remembered today as one of the most remarkable air-sea adventures of World War II.
