Battle of Pointe du Raz
28th February 1940
In a city that had yet to be touched
by war, the explosions heard this morning were a shock to the
citizens of Brest.
According to French officials, at 7:15 am this morning, a British
radio announcement called upon the French naval contingent in the
harbor to either surrender their ships to the Royal Navy, scuttle
them in the sea, or face destruction. Only a five minute window
was given for a decision. No one may ever know what the
outcome might have been if more time had been allotted, for at
exactly 7:20, 2 waves of British planes struck the French ships
in the midst of their hurried attempt to exit the harbor and
prepare for battle. The smaller destroyers had been
positioned nearer the harbor exit, and took the full force of the
British air assault. Nine ships took torpedo hits, and
eight sunk by various means. Only one had even managed to
clear it's moorings. Bravery was not in short supply on the
French side, as the seamen returned fire with their available
weaponry. Unfortunately for them, the planes had already
made their attack runs, and were headed back out to
sea before the bullets and flak began to strike home.
At least twenty planes went down, many of them crashing into the
sea in fountains of spray with no hope for the pilot
inside.
By now, the capital ships in the harbor had their steam up, and
were headed out to the ocean to face their attackers.
Leading the way came the Bretagne. A veteran of the First
World War, she was outclassed by her equally old, but upgraded UK
counterparts. Her run for the ocean was cut short as a
volley of rounds from the Royal Sovereign hit her front four-gun
turret. The battery was knocked out of action, and the
second turret's notoriously fragile gears were unable to move due
to debris. With her main forward armament out of
commission, the Bretagne tacked to port, and let loose with the
midship turret unique to her class. The Sovereign felt the
French sting as two rounds caught her in the forecastle.
Not to be outdone, the Sovereign's mate, the Ramillies, opened
fire on the Bretagne as well. Two on-target rounds
decimated the Bretagne's superstructure, and she began to burn as
her speed slowly bled away.
As the Bretagne limped towards the enemy, the battlecruiser
Dunkerque used the resulting smoke to cover her approach until
within range of the Sovereign. Then, she let loose a
broadside, and attempted to run for the flank of the British
ships. Her shots hit the already damaged Sovereign, and
caused some confusion in the British surface group. For a
few minutes, it appeared that her race for the open sea would
succeed. That's when the first torpedo hit. A screen
of British submarines, lying in wait since the day before, made
the most of their positioning, and put several torpedoes in the
Dunkerque's starboard side. As the still afloat
battlecruiser slid through the subs' area, the Bretagne tried in
vain to reverse course. Her old engines were not up to the
task, though, and she was easy meat for a pair of British
subs. Once the proud spearhead of the French Navy, the
Bretagne went to the bottom at 9:15am.
Seeing the demise of the Bretagne, as well as the Dunkerque's
plight, the remaining French cruisers and destroyers made a break
for it. Their UK counterparts turned their own guns on the
fleeing ships, and with the help of the outlying submarines, sent
the remaining destroyers to Davey Jones' locker. A French
light cruiser was heavily hit as well, but stayed afloat.
As they passed the British ships, the French cruisers put several
volleys into one of their Royal Navy counterparts, setting it
afire. In a region now marked by oily fires, the French
ships moved to flank speed to make their getaway. Cheers
and insults were thrown at their UK counterparts as the
attackers' previous course helped widened the gap. Those
cheers faded quickly when the buzz of airplane engines was heard
once again. Coming in at wavetop height, the Ark Royal's planes
had returned. The Dunkerque and an unscarred light cruiser
were out front, and took the brunt of the attack. The
previously wounded cruiser took a single torpedo as well.
The two light cruisers both slowly slid under water, but the
Dunkerque did not go quietly. All her AA guns were ablaze
when a tremendous explosion broke her back. A torpedo had
started a fire in the forward magazine, and the heavily armored
ship went under in two separate pieces. The British airmen
didn't escape unscathed, and the last of the flimsy Swordfish
blew up in midair as the remaining Skua's flew back to their
floating base.
At 11:30 am, the British ships turned for home, pausing only to
remove the crew from their single cruiser casualty and pick up a
few downed pilots. The Royal Sovereign easily put out her
fires, and the battle was deemed a huge success.
For the loss of a single ship, damage to one more, and the loss
of most of the Ark Royal's air contingent, the UK had sunk a
battleship, a battlecruiser, 2 light cruisers, and 12
destroyers. This portion of the French fleet would not be
threatening British naval superiority anytime soon.
As the sun rose to midday, an old figure slowly emerged from the
harbor. The old battleship Courbet, toothless after her
conversion to a training ship, plodded the ocean once more,
picking up survivors so that they might fight again on
another day.