Battle of Sept Îles

Background

In late 1943, the British authorities were aware of the approach of the German blockade runner, Münsterland, which had departed Brest and was carrying an important cargo of latex and strategic metals. The British reacted by executing Operation Tunnel, a standard operation whereby available ships would attempt to intercept.

HMS Charybdis was assigned to the operation on 20 October and on 22 October the British force put to sea from Plymouth. With Charybdis were the fleet destroyers HMS Grenville and Rocket and four Hunt-class destroyers; Limbourne, Wensleydale, Talybont and Stevenstone.

Six German minesweepers of the 2nd flotilla and two radar equipped patrol boats escorted Münsterland in a well-rehearsed procedure. The blockade runner was then joined by five Elbing-class torpedo boats, comprising the 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, commanded by Franz Kohlauf.

Soon after midnight the British force conducted a radar sweep at 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph) while some 7 nmi (13 km; 8.1 mi) west of Brittany. Meanwhile, at the same time German radar operators picked them up and carefully tracked them and then promptly relayed the information to the German ships. These warnings were intercepted by the Hunt destroyers and by Plymouth Command but Charybdis for some reason did not pick them up.

Battle

Munsterland was turned back out of harm's way, while the German torpedo boats prepared to deal with the British force. Charybdis picked them up on her own radar at a range of 14,000 yd (13,000 m) at 01:30 and signalled the destroyers to increase speed but only the rear destroyer, Wensleydale, picked up the signal. Her overtaking the rest of the force caused confusion, compounded when the first German torpedoes arrived and friendly star shells illuminated the leading British ships instead of the Germans. By now the British formation had lost cohesion.

The British force was visible against the lighter horizon and the Germans were further aided by a rain squall approaching from the south-west. Visibility was poor with low clouds and there was a long heavy swell. Kohlauf saw the silhouette of the larger British cruiser and believing he had been surprised gave the immediate order to turn and flee but not before ordering every ship to launch their torpedoes.

Charybdis could have inflicted considerable damage but the Germans had only been confirmed on radar but no visual contact had been made. A total of 24 torpedoes were launched by the Germans. Lookouts suddenly saw the white straight foaming tracks of torpedoes and before anything could be done Charybdis was hit on the port side by T-23 (Friedrich-Karl Paul), flooding No 2 dynamo room and B boiler room. The port electrical ring main failed and she listed twenty degrees to port and stopped. Torpedoes narrowly missed Wensleydale and Grenville and then a second torpedo from T-27 struck Charybdis. This time the aft engine room was hit which flooded and cut all electrical power increased the list to fifty degrees.

Within minutes of the second torpedo hit on Charybdis, T22 scored a hit on Limbourne exploding the forward magazine. She listed heavily to starboard with her bows blown off; the crew subsequently abandoned ship Charybdis sank within half an hour with great loss of life. The other destroyers had near misses from collisions in the confusion and then withdrew, ending the battle.

Aftermath

The British force, now under command of Roger Hill of the Grenville, only came back when they learned of Limbourne's crippling and then conducted a rescue operation. 107 of the crew of Charybdis were rescued through the morning and day. The severely damaged Limbourne had lost 42 members of her crew. An attempt to tow Limbourne failed and the order was given for her to be scuttled. She was sunk by torpedoes from Talybont and surface gunfire from Rocket; 42 of her ship's company were killed while 100 survivors were picked up.

Franz Kohlauf was awarded the Knight's Cross for this action by Adolf Hitler soon after, while Friedrich-Karl Paul was awarded the German Cross. The action was the last clear German naval victory of the war as well as being the last defeat of the Royal Navy. Lessons were learned by the British and despite the setback Operation Tunnel succeeded with only four out of 15 blockade runners reaching France. Münsterland returned to port in Saint-Malo unscathed but the blockade running mission had been aborted. On the attempt to eventually move out, she was forced ashore and destroyed west of Cap Blanc Nez by fire from British coastal artillery at Dover, on 21 January 1944.

Legacy

The bodies of 21 Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel were washed up in Guernsey. The German occupation authorities buried them with full military honours. The funerals became an opportunity for some of the islanders to demonstrate their loyalty to Britain and their opposition to the Nazi occupiers. Around 5,000 islanders attended the funeral, laying some 900 wreaths, enough of a demonstration against the Nazi occupation for subsequent military funerals to be closed to civilians by the German occupiers.

Every year a commemoration service is held, which is attended by survivors of the action and their relatives, the Guernsey Association of Royal Navy and Royal Marines, Sea Cadets, St John's Ambulance Brigade, the Police and the Red Cross and representatives of the Royal Navy.