Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Channel Dash / Operation Cerberus - How to win through refuge in audacity" video.

  1. Actually, it was confusion. The Beauforts were ordered to follow the Hudsons and the Hudsons had apparently been ordered to follow the Beauforts. The Beauforts tried radioing to the airbase they were circling to get it straightened out, but the Beaufort's radios were on the wrong frequency.
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  2.  Baron Von Grijffenbourg  Most likely, each thought it was the other that was wrong, and waited for the other to realize their mistake.
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  3. Looked up this video as I have been reading a book about Beaufort torpedo bomber operations during the war and read the chapter on this operation last night. The dribbling of British attacks through the day, which allowed the German air cover and flak gunners to concentrate on relatively few aircraft at a time, reminded me, more than anything else, of the US TBDs at Midway, another tragically uncoordinated attack that killed a lot of good men.
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  4. The Swordfish were supposed to have, iirc, 5 squadrons of Spits escorting, 3 on high cover and 2 more with them. Only 1 squadron showed up on time. The Swordfish don't carry a lot of fuel, so they couldn't wait any longer for the other Spits. They were intercepted by FW-190s. The Squadron of Spits were fully engaged and there were plenty of 190s left to attack the Swordfish. The Swordfish were so slow the 190s had trouble staying on their tail, and the Swordfish were far more maneuverable and could easily outturn the 190s. All the Swordfish were lost to flak.
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