Battle of the Bay of Biscay

The Battle of the Bay of Biscay was a naval action that took place 28 December 1943 during World War II as part of the Atlantic campaign. The battle took place in the Bay of Biscay between two Light Cruisers of the British Royal Navy, and a destroyer and torpedo boat flotillas of the German Kriegsmarine hoping to intercept and escort a blockade runner. The battle was fought as part of the allied Operation Stonewall which was to intercept German blockade runners off the west coast of France. In the confused action that followed the two British cruisers HMS Enterprise and HMS Glasgow respectively sunk  T-26, together with her sister ship T-25 and the destroyer Z27.

Background
In late December 1943 a German  Kriegsmarine destroyer flotilla, reinforced by six large Elbing-class torpedo boats were ordered to the Bay of Biscay to escort into a French port the blockade runners Osorno and Alsterufer which were carrying vital cargo from Japan. The Germans codenamed this Operation Bernau. The blockade runner Osorno reached the Gironde on the 26 December, but struck a wreck in the estuary after being consistently attacked by the RAF. She was beached and subsequently unloaded offshore. Meanwhile Alsterufer carrying tungsten (Wolfram) and rubber, was still much further behind.

Korvettenkapitan Franz Kohlauf sailed from Brest on the morning of 27 December with the torpedo boats T23, T24, T26 and T22. The 8th Destroyer Flotilla under Kapitän Hans Erdmenger put out from the Gironde with destroyers Z24, Z37, Z32 and Z27, accompanied by two torpedo boats T25 and T27.

The British Admiralty were also aware of the impending arrival of Alsterufer through the decryption of German Enigma messages at Bletchley Park and sent out dispatches to the nearest ships in the area for the interception. The closest ship, the light cruiser HMS Glasgow which had had sailed from the Azores on 24 December was soon joined by HMS Enterprise. In support but further away; HMS Mauritius had been ordered out from Gibraltar; HMS Penelope steamed past Lisbon; and HMNZS Gambia was in the Western Atlantic.

By 0400 hours the next day the 4th Flotilla was 300 miles due south of Cape Clear, the 8th Flotilla standing to the south and were ready to meet Alsterufer. She was however nowhere to be seen but the Germans were completely unaware that during the previous afternoon a B-24 Liberator bomber of No. 311 (Czech) Squadron RAF attacked and put Alsterufer on fire. Abandoned by its crew, the ship was finished off by Liberators of No. 86 Squadron. This released the Glasgow and Enterprise, who were some 300 nautical miles southwest of the German forces and were now steaming eastwards along the 45th Parallel.

Just after midday Erdmenger's 8th Destroyer Flotilla sighted Kohlauf's 4th Flotilla to the east, whereupon the torpedo boats turned east astern of the northernmost destroyers, taking station on their port side.

Battle
Allied aircraft had already reported the position of the German ships and at the same time a lone German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor sighted and attacked both cruisers only to be repelled by gunfire. The German aircrew reported the British cruisers position around 1pm to Erdmenger but only over half an hour later and immediately turned North East. Captain Charles Clark on HMS Glasgow, assuming that he had been reported then turned Northeast also, working around Erdmenger's position to intercept. The sea was becoming rougher and the wind had increased to 30 knots making sailing difficult for the destroyers and torpedo boats.

Sailing into rough seas and gale force winds, Glasgow sighted the destroyers at 1332 hours at a range of 16 miles. The two cruisers then intercepted at flank speed and altered course to cut the German ships off from their base.

Soon after Clarke gave the order for Glasgow to open fire with her 6 inch naval guns 'A' and 'B' turrets using her Type 273 radar for ranging. Enterprise opened fire too a few minutes later. The two leading destroyers however remained unscathed as shells splashed 100-150m from their targets. The Germans counterattacked; Z23 launched six torpedoes, three from each bank of tubes, when the range was down to 17,000m but were ineffective. Both destroyers also opened up with their 15cm guns and their first shots fell only 200m over on Glasgow's port quarter. At about 1405 hours, a hit was made on Glasgow which had exploded in 'A' boiler room, killing two members of the port pom-pom crew. Enterprise however was continually straddled by near misses.

By 1418 hours both of the German flotilla's were now all involved in the fight. 4th Torpedo Boat Flotilla attempted to attack with torpedoes a number of times but were frustrated by the heavy seas. Z32 and Z37 turned towards the cruisers, and closing to 12,800m, launched six and four torpedoes respectively as the cruisers continued to give heavy and accurate fire. The torpedo attack forced Glasgow to make an emergency turn to port as the track of one passed no less than thirty meters from her port quarter and two more near the port side. Enterprise had by this time separated from Glasgow and both acted independently. After the torpedo attack the destroyers laid smoke and then retired back towards the flotilla line. The was as follows; Z32, Z24, Z37, T23, T27, T26, T22, T25, Z27 and Z25 while Z32 and Z37 being off to port in the course of their torpedo attack.

The German force then split up, whereupon Glasgow reversed course at 1435 hours to chase the northerly group of destroyers; Enterprise had already altered course to the west to head them off. The Germans then launched another torpedo attack but shortly after Z27 had fired hers, she received a shell hit, from Enterprise, which struck the boiler room, passing through an oil bunker which caused a huge fire. Clouds of steam gushed from her forward funnel as her speed fell off. After being hit however she fired her second salvo of four torpedoes, but to no effect.

Glasgow meanwhile concentrated on T25 and soon after sustained hits in the region of the aft torpedo tubes, the Flakvierling and the 3.7cm flak platforms, which killed or wounded all their crews. Then a second struck her which completely destroyed the mast as well as the funnel. T25 was now a sitting duck and requested T22 to attempt to come alongside and take off her crew. Glasgow shifted to T26, which was quickly surrounded by near misses. T22 had both Cruisers on her port side, and, in an effort to drive them off while she closed her damaged consort, she then fired her full spread of torpedoes and opened fire with her guns. The torpedoes harmlessly passed and as T22 turned to starboard towards T25, she too was surrounded by near misses. T22 abandoned the rescue after suffering another hit then laid smoke, fired her guns and withdrew to the south-west. T26 was still under fire and was soon severely hit in the boiler room and as T22 laid smoke to screen her, the damaged ship signalled that she was sinking; T22 turned northwards and broke away.

The two cruisers reversed course, chasing and soon catching T26. Clarke ordered Enterprise to finish her off while he turned Glasgow north again to look for the other damaged German vessels, particularly T25. Glasgow soon came across not T25 but Z27, drifting and silent. Closing to point-blank range, Glasgow fired, hitting the destroyer's magazines and in a large explosion took with her Erdmenger, his staff and the captain. At the same time Enterprise finished off T26 with a single torpedo and then moved in for the kill on T25. Her bridge and upper deck were a twist of metal and her after superstructure wrecked but remained afloat. Enterprise closed to 3000 meters firing her guns and then fired a torpedo; within minutes she was an abandoned, burning and sinking wreck.

Aftermath
The two cruisers met up once more and seeing no further signs of the German fleet this was the end of the battle. Having accounted for three of the German squadron at no significant damage to themselves, the two cruisers withdrew towards Plymouth. They arrived there on the evening of 29 December with little fuel and ammunition. Glasgow had received only one hit that killed two crew members and wounded another three, while Enterprise had no real damage except for shell splinters.

The two German survivors T22 and Z23 reunited, headed towards Saint-Jean-de-Luz near the Spanish border. The rest headed back to the Gironde.

Only 283 survivors of the 672 men on the three sunken ships were rescued, 93 from Z27, 100 from T25 and 90 from T26. British and Irish ships, Spanish destroyers and German U-boats took part in the rescue. About 62 survivors were picked up by British minesweepers as prisoners. 168 were picked by a small Irish steamer, the MV Kerlogue, and four by Spanish destroyers, whereby they were all interned. Morale for the German Navy was lowered even further when news filtered through of the Scharnhorst being sunk in the North Cape marking a sour note to the end of the year for the Kriegsmarine.

As it turned out Osorno was the last of the blockade runner to get through. Three other German blockade runners were sunk between 3 and 5 January 1944 by allied patrols in the South Atlantic. The Germans thereafter ceased all surface blockade running and switched to movement by submarine; these became known as Yanagi missions.