One of the most disastrous days in the history of the Royal Navy will be marked in Thanet next week.

The Channel Dash on February 12, 1942 saw 13 brave naval airmen lose their lives as an armada of German ships made a quick run through the Dover Straits back to Germany.

The anniversary of Operation Fuller, the daring British raid to stop the two German battleships and a cruiser reaching their home base, will take place on the 77th anniversary in Dover and Ramsgate next Tuesday (February 12).

Just five of the 18 men in the Fleet Air Arm's 825 Squadron who took off survived.

Their six Swordfish planes left from RAF Manston to bomb a fleet of 66 German ships spotted slipping through the Dover Straits.

The prize targets for the British were the two battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the large battle cruiser Prinz Eugen, which had been causing extensive damage and disruption to the Atlantic convoys vitals for the Allies' war effort and were being repaired at the port of Brest in France.

The Germany Naval Command decided to bring the ships back to Germany after repeated attacks by the RAF on the port and Adolf Hitler demanded more protection in occupied Norway.

The British were aware this plan could take place and established Operation Fuller as a counter-measure with patrols running up and down the coast of southern England and over Brest to monitor movements.

Naval intelligence believed the Germans would not dare make a move through the Channel under daylight and expected them to try to pass Dover at night.

Several training missions for night raids took place but Britain decided to drop the guard thinking the moment had passed and the Germans seized their opportunity.

In the early hours of February 12, the German ships left Brest and made it all the way to Dover before being spotted at around 11am.

The Swordfish planes, which only had a top speed of around 90mph and were mainly made of wood and canvas, scrambled from Manston were horribly outdated and outgunned by the 200 fighter aircraft escorting the German ships with their big guns.

Led by Lt Cmdr Eugene Esmonde, the Swordfish had been promised five squadrons of Spitfires as fighter cover but only received one squadron.

All six Swordfish were shot down with only five men being picked up from the cold waters of the Channel.

As a final throw of the dice, the RAF sent in 242 bombers to sink the German ships but the attack failed causing only minor damage as they safely made it back to Germany with Britain losing 42 planes in the raids, including the six Swordfish, suffering more than 250 casualties, including 147 killed.

The Channel Dash Memorial Day will be held outside the Maritime Museum at the 825 Squadron Memorial in Ramsgate harbour from 11am and the Operation Fuller Memorial in Marine Parade, Dover from 2pm.