In February 1942, the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen sailed from Brest up the English Channel in broad daylight, and the British did not notice until they were nearly at the Strait of Dover. This episode unpacks Operation Cerberus: why the ships were pinned in France under relentless RAF bombing, the dawn torpedo run that earned Kenneth Campbell a posthumous Victoria Cross, and Hitler's decision to overrule Admiral Raeder and take the shortest, most dangerous route home to guard Norway.

We break down General Wolfgang Martini's masterstroke of gradually raising radar interference until British operators mistook jamming for winter static, Adolf Galland's rolling fighter umbrella, and the new-moon, bad-weather, spring-tide timing. Then comes the cascade of British failures: a Hudson's radar break ...