Operation Board

'Board' was the British programme of naval operations along the northern coast of German-occupied France to intercept and destroy German shipping that could otherwise be used in 'Seelöwe' (September 1940).

On 8 September, for example, the destroyers Atherstone, Beagle, Berkeley, Bulldog and Fernie swept for German shipping along the French coast from Le Touquet to the south-west as far as the Cap d’Antifer, and the light cruiser Galatea with the destroyers Campbell, Garth and Vesper, and the light cruiser Aurora with the destroyers Hambledon, Holderness and Venetia undertook gunfire bombardments of German shipping and barge concentrations off Calais and Boulogne respectively. On 11 September other ships undertook a similar sweep, and on 30 September the monitor Erebus, supported by the destroyers Garth and Vesper, undertook a gunfire bombardment of German invasion craft in Calais.