Channel Dash in the opposite direction

What if the German navy used the English Channel as a route to break into the North Atlantic? Capital ships used that route to get back to Germany during Operation Cerebus.

For a more concrete example, what if the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen took the English Channel instead of the Denmark Straight? What factors in May 1941 might be different than in February 1942?
 
Running the Channel from west to east, you're going home to the repair ports. It's not the end of the world if you take some damage.

Running east to west into the Atlantic, the damage is a major problem that you can't risk.
 
What if the German navy used the English Channel as a route to break into the North Atlantic? Capital ships used that route to get back to Germany during Operation Cerebus.

For a more concrete example, what if the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen took the English Channel instead of the Denmark Straight? What factors in May 1941 might be different than in February 1942?

The weather!

The historical Channel dash was carried out in foul mid-winter weather, with relatively few hours of daylight. AFAIK, a low cloud base made finding the Twins difficult and dive/level bombing even harder. Torpedo bombing was tried, but unescorted torpedo bombers are generally dead meat to defending fighters.

Better weather and longer hours of daylight in May will make it much easier to find and attack the ships.
 
Also
The weather!

The historical Channel dash was carried out in foul mid-winter weather, with relatively few hours of daylight. AFAIK, a low cloud base made finding the Twins difficult and dive/level bombing even harder. Torpedo bombing was tried, but unescorted torpedo bombers are generally dead meat to defending fighters.

Better weather and longer hours of daylight in May will make it much easier to find and attack the ships.

Also mine fields had to be worry.
 
The historical Channel Dash had a starting point relatively close to the Channel. They could get to the Channel over night. Plus when the ships prepared to sortie, & did leave port, the Brits thought of the obvious that they were headed into the Atlantic.

Ships leaving the German or Norwegian ports & headed south to the Channel are several days out & much more likely to be spotted. At that point the Brits are going to be thinking WTF are they up to??? As the enemy ships rush across the North Sea. Basically departing from the vicinity of Keil gives the Brits a extra 24+ hours to figure out something is up and get their act together.
 
The latest that they get spotted is going to be the Dover Straits - highly likely earlier than that - this gives the British far longer to organise a better response than OTL as they pass through the Channel and through the main strength of 11 Groups Fighter Squadrons and past Britain's main Naval Base - Portsmouth.

I cannot recall the exact number but there were dozens of MTBs based on the south coast of the UK - OTL the Germans got past most of them before the British knew the ships were there

In this scenario the German fleet will have to run the gauntlet
 
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In this scenario the German fleet will have to run the gauntlet

Or be interecepted sooner. IIRC the Brits knew the Germans intended to sortie, with the object of returning to Germany, they did not have the exact date. that was left to the local commander. Engima intercepts had traffic concerning the admin details of moving the war ships back to Germany. The French underground passed along some info as well. If a group sorties the other way there will be some radio traffic warning of a sortie. Extra air recon will be put aloft & a extra submarine or two sent out. the Brits may not divine a 'Channel Dash is intended, but they are likely to be alert.
 
I think the most obvious difference is that the Germans will have 3 capital ships and 2 heavy cruisers instead of 2 and 1. This means that S & G can sortie at the same time as B to split British attention and efforts
 
Can they dash into the Mediterranean? Anything German that's above the surface would have been more useful in the MedSea in support of the Afrika Corp and Italians.
 
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