Evening star., 1942-02-17
Text of Churchill Statement
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Feb. 17.-The tert OF
Prime Minister ChurchilPs House
OF Commons statement today on
the air and ndpdl battle in the
English Channel OF last Thursday
follOtDs.
will deal first Of all with the
naval episode.
In March last two German cruis-
ers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau took
refuge In Brest Harbor where they
were joined in May by the Prinz
Eugen after destruction Of the Bis
mark.
The position of these ships became
q serious preoccupation for the Ad-
miralty.
They lay on the flank Of our con-
voy route to the East. They could
make a sortie at any time on to
Atlantic trade routes or into the
Mediterranean. Accordingly, the
Admiralty have pressed their con-
tinual attack from the air in the
hope of disabling them or prevent
ing them from being repaired.
This process continued fer more
than 10 months during which time
the ships were undoubtedly hit sew
eral times and repair work made
very difficult.
No less than 1000 tons Of bombs
were dropped and 3,299 bomber
sorties were made upon them with
the loss Of 247 air-force personnel
and 43 aircraft.
Purpose of Flight Unknown.
AS we were never in position
to know when some or all of these
ships might put to sea the situation
entailed almost continuous naval
precautions in the hope Of being
ready at all times to meet various
threats which these ships consti-
tuted.
A further serious feature was the
erievous subtraction from the bomb
ing efforts against Germany. Bomb
ing of these ships was, however, so
severe that the Germans evidently
came to the decision that they
could not maintain them any longer
at Brest, and that they must Seturn
to Germany. We do not know
whether this was for the purpose
of effecting final repairs or to en-
able them to work up to full eff
cheney in the sheltered waters OF
the Baltic.
However this may be. the Ger
mans resolved to try to bring the
ships back to Germany. This was
a very hazardous operation. 1t
could be done either by sailing
around the British islands and re-
turning via Norway or by a dash
up the Channel. The Germans re-
jected the plan Of returning by the
north route and preferred to run
the admittedly serious risk OF the
Channel passage.
In the Atlantic Ocean they would
have to run the great risk OF being
picked up by our extensive air
reconnaissances from the shore and
from aircraft carriers, or being
slowed down by torpedo attacks and
brought to action against an over
whelming force as was the Bis
marck.
The Channel route, on the other
hand, was a run of under "a hours.
Part of it could be made in dark
ness and they had the opportunity
of choosing the weather which
would be the most favorable the
whole way through the Channel and
along the Dutch coast. They had
the advantage Of a powerful air
umbrella. The dangers Of passing
through the Straits of Dover under
suitable weather conditions were
not great. Our slow conveys reS
peatedly have traversed the Straits
of Dover and are repeatedly bonn
barded by German guns on the
French shore. But this has not
stopped our convoy traffic.
No Heavy Ships Nearby.
One great danger was mines, but
this they might hope to avoid by
energetic sweeping. There re-
manned, therefore, the action of
our surface ships and aircraft.
Air reconnaissance would show the
Germans that there were no heavy
ships or even cruisers in these
waters and therefore attacks by
f1otillaS of destroyers and small to-
pedo boats were all that need be
expected apart from the air. Some
people seem to think that heavy
forces should have been stationed
so as to be able to intercept them
in the Channel or North Sea. Had
we done so our ships WOULD have
been open to the same scale of
air attack as we're the Germans
at Brest, and such dispositions
would have dangerously weakened
the protective measures which we
have to take to safeguard our con-
voys on the northern passages and
deal with the other heavy German
ships, Tirpitz, Luetzow and Scheer.
The Admiralty did not consider
that an attempt to run up the
Channel would be an impossible op-
Grafton under the conditions which
prevailed, and this was certainly
much less to b apprehended than