Operation Tunnel used cruisers, fleet destroyers, and Hunt-class escorts to search the French coast for blockade runners and convoys. After an early clash with Elbing-class torpedo boats, intelligence about the blockade runner Münsterland and its cargo of latex and strategic materials may have served as bait for another British sweep. By late October 1943 the force had run the same route about eight times, while officers warned that its tactics were predictable and its ships had not trained together sufficiently. The later 10th Destroyer Flotilla took the opposite approach, using intensive practice and varied manoeuvres that made its attacks harder to anticipate.
Notable Point · 29:17-33:10
Operation Tunnel and the danger of predictable patrols
Repeated coastal sweeps off western France gave German forces a pattern to exploit, despite warnings about predictable tactics.