Unternehmen Cerberus
In June 1939, he was appointed the president of the board of enquiry into the loss of the new submarine HMS "Thetis", which sank during trials with the loss of 99 lives. Sir Alfred presided over further boards; for the sinking of the battlecruiser HMS "Repulse" and the battleship HMS "Prince of Wales" by Japanese aircraft off Malaya in December 1941, and for the "Channel Dash" in February 1942 when three large German warships had traversed the English Channel almost unscathed,