Operation Catherine was a proposed

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

offensive by the

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Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

to be undertaken in early 1940. It aimed at interdicting German seaborne commerce with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, Sweden,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and Latvia. In particular, an objective was to stop the flow of Swedish iron ore to Germany. The driving force behind the project was the First Lord of the Admiralty

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

, and the head of planning was Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cork. Events overtook the proposed operation and resulted in its cancellation.

Plan

Churchill proposed a substantial naval squadron: three ''Revenge''-class battleships, an aircraft carrier, five cruisers, two destroyer

flotilla A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. Composition A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same clas ...

s, submarines and supporting auxiliaries. The battleships would need to be significantly modified to resist air and submarine attack to pass through the shallow waters. '' Royal Sovereign'' would have been fitted with very large bulges to her hull to make her 140 ft wide to increase her buoyancy and thus reduce her draught by even after the addition of of deck armour (some 2,000 tons of armour would be used in total). Only two of her main turrets would be retained, but elsewhere, the elevation for those guns would be 30 degrees. In the new state, her top speed would have been about 13-14 knots in action.Brown, DK ''Nelson to Vanguard'' p155 As well as cutting off German iron ore supplies, Churchill anticipated that the show of force would encourage the Scandinavian nations to join the war against

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

Objections

The

First Sea Lord The First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS) is the military head of the Royal Navy and Naval Service of the United Kingdom. The First Sea Lord is usually the highest ranking and most senior admiral to serve in the British Armed Fo ...

Admiral Sir

Dudley Pound Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound, (29 August 1877 – 21 October 1943) was a British senior officer of the Royal Navy. He served in the First World War as a battleship commander, taking part in the Battle of Jutland ...

opposed the plan for several reasons. The armour plating was in short supply and was needed elsewhere; the three battleships were badly needed, particularly if

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and Japan also declared war; the impact of air power was underestimated in the plan; and the loss of such a squadron would encourage Italy and Japan to declare war.

Cancellation

Despite those cogent arguments and widespread opposition, Churchill continued to push hard for Catherine. Pound avoided a head-on argument and apparently co-operated while he pointed out problems. Finally, on 20 January 1940, Churchill cancelled the operation.

References

External links

World War II magazine
Article describing Churchill's plan to convert ''Revenge''-class battleships into "armoured turtles" to invade the Baltic Sea in 1940. {{DEFAULTSORT:Catherine Cancelled military operations involving the United Kingdom Baltic Sea operations of World War II Military operations directly affecting Sweden during World War II Cancelled military operations of World War II

Plan

Objections

Cancellation

See also

References

External links