Britain's Channel Dash and the Baltic strikes (1942)
German warships ran the English Channel under British air and naval attack. The episode showed how striking enemy ships in protected home waters carried outsized political weight, far beyond the tonnage involved.
The ships survived the dash, embarrassing British commanders who failed to stop them.
It pushed both sides to treat home waters as contested, not safe rear areas.
Hitting the Boikiy at Kronstadt carries the same message: Russia's Baltic naval bastion is no longer a safe harbor.
